Movie Factory 2 Basic Questions

jthor wrote on 1/21/2003, 11:55 AM
I have 4 vv mpeg2 rendered files I am now for the first time ever adding chapters to. Have no experience on this, but managed to add 12 chapters in MF2 to the single 49 minute Mpeg2. Does anyone know if and how to change the chapter text, which defaults to time code. I found no help or option to add a brief text description. Also, when I burn my DVD, will I expect MF2 to actualy render again (6 hours)and perhaps lower the quality?

Comments

seeker wrote on 1/21/2003, 6:39 PM
Jthor,

When you say MF2 and Movie Factory are you referring to Ulead's Movie Factory 2? Have you also left this question in the Ulead forum? There is room for a bit of confusion because Sonic Foundry markets VideoFactory 2.0 and Ulead markets Movie Factory 2.0 and the names are rather similar. But your question sounds like a Movie Factory question, in which case the ball would be in Ulead's court.

-- Seeker --
jthor wrote on 1/21/2003, 8:58 PM
Yes, I am asking about Ulead Movie Factory 2, only cause I have seen quite a number of comments and answers on this site where folks use it to burn their dvd's. I did post it over at Ulead and will watch that site and will also hit VCDHelp. Guys here on Vegas, which I am enjoying very much, are much friendlier and responsive. I do not intend to use this as a prime site for Unlead questions. Just anxious to get on with my project and hate to have to re-do something if there is an easy fix now.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/22/2003, 7:24 AM
John, After you add the chapters and move on to the menu screen, at the top of the window is a drop down box that says Main Menu. Open it and you’ll see another menu selection with the name of your video clip. When you select your clip, you’ll see the chapter menu and you can add text, change the background image or music, etc. Hope this helps,

~jr
barbnewbie wrote on 1/22/2003, 2:45 PM
Hi,

In Movie Factory if you add menus and chapters, can you use your remote when you play them on TV via a DVD player? I had read somewhere that you can't. Does that make menus only valuable if you play them on a computer?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/22/2003, 5:32 PM
Of course you can navigate through the menus with the remote on your DVD. That’s what DVD’s are all about. Men with remotes. ;-) (please, no hate mail from the ladies. I was speaking metaphorically… ok, ok, so I was being sexist.)

I had also read on vcdhelp.com that Movie Factory chapters were not “real” chapters (whatever that means). I don’t know where the person that wrote that got that impression. It’s unfortunate because a lot of people take vdchelp.com as an authoritative source because there is so much good stuff there. Movie Factory makes normal chapters that you can navigate between both from the menus and while the movie is playing, just a commercial DVD.

~jr
barbnewbie wrote on 1/22/2003, 7:21 PM
Hi JohhnyRoy/aka Man with Remote,

Thanks . . . I will give it a try. That vcdhelp.com quote on chapters not "real" was exactly what I read. That was a little confusing . . . we newbies tend to take quotes that say "not real" seriously. Thanks.
jthor wrote on 1/22/2003, 9:02 PM
Thanks for your comments and other things to try. I have forged ahead and "made do" with the Thumbnail Chapters I created. I got really worried when I tried to burn to DVD directly using my Mpeg2 (vv3) file and XP shut down the Ulead MF2 all 4 of my different tries. I forgot about perfection in Chapters when the program failed every time it finished creating the VOP (Whatever?) and started to write to DVD. Anyway, I created an image file instead and that has worked perfectly for me. I today will have burned 3 of the 4 DVD's I am using for my first big project. YAY! And yes, I tested all of them first on +RW to be sure the Chapters worked and they did. Then burned to +R. They were right on. Now I can keep trying things to "do some fancier stuff" in later projects. Thanks for the clues on where to look in the program for certain items. On to my next Project!
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/23/2003, 12:02 AM
Barb, yea us men do like our remotes... I went back to re-read the review on vcdhelp.com and the problem was the person was making an SVCD not a DVD. The reason they couldn’t skip back and forth between chapters is because the VCD and SVCD format doesn’t support this. So this is not a limitation in DVD MF but a limitation in the VCD/SVCD format. Had they made a DVD they would have gotten the chapter navigation they were looking for. Since the topic it is listed under is “DVD Authoring” and they didn’t burn a DVD (but rather an SVCD) I’d say they were negligent in their duties. (in other words, take their remote away!)

John, Glad I could be of help. They really changed DVD MovieFactory 2 around quite a lot from version 1 and it took some getting use to. I really like the new features but after seeing the beta for DVD Architect I can’t wait for it to be released. Then you can have a lot more control over the structure of the menus. But DVD MF2 can’t be beat for the price.

~jr