Nero or Ulead Movie Factory

Praesto wrote on 6/20/2003, 2:15 AM

hi,

I'm planning to burn svcd files created eith vv4 onto normal cds and would like to know which of these 2 programs are better? Nero or Ulead movie Factory.

Will there be problems regarding the playback on normal vcd/dvd players.

Thanks

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/20/2003, 8:07 AM

I personly live by Nero. It does menu creation for VCD/SVCD, which is nice. It can burn almost any kind of CD there is. The only thing you should do is put a few seconds of blank at the start/end of your mpeg for (S)VCD.

johnmeyer wrote on 6/20/2003, 8:15 AM

The comparison is a little bit apples and oranges: Nero just burns CDs and DVDs; MovieFactory is mostly an authoring program that also happens to burn DVDs.

I have both. I seldom use MovieFactory anymore now that I own DVD Architect. Nero I use all the time. I highly recommend Nero. There have been numerous postings in forums like Doom and Afterdawn about Nero creating bad DVDs. Apparently there was, for a short time, a version of Nero that produced DVDs that wouldn't play on the Xbox. If you get the latest version, I think it will play on anything.

stepfour wrote on 6/20/2003, 8:28 AM

Next month Ahead is releasing a major update to Nero. Nero 6 will have authoring capabilities and a whole lot more. Details here: http://www.nero.com/en/index.html#c1055951946540

mikkie wrote on 6/20/2003, 12:33 PM

Currently Nero is good for burning a SVCD image created by VCDEasy etc., or it'll burn an mpg2 to CD using the correct SVCD settings... Menu creation is really sparce, but that's not what it was designed for.

Movie Mactory, Roxio DVD software, Magix DVD/VCD software, most all have some pretty strict requirements for the footage you feed it. They'll do some decent menus, but you might wind up wasteing a lot of time as they decode, then re-encode your mpg2s. If you wanted to go that route, try the various trials, see what you like, render your proj. to avi in Vegas, then do the whole SVCD thing there perhaps.

Note: please make sure what your player will handle before you go to too much trouble creating all sorts of fancy menus and such.

mjroddy wrote on 6/20/2003, 2:31 PM

I don't quite understand. I am and EXTREME newbie when it comes to CD or DVD authoring, but I purchased DVDA (with V4.) for future use. What does Nero do that DVDA won't? Does DVDA have uncomfortable shortcomings? or will it do what most simple users want?
Thanks

riredale wrote on 6/20/2003, 4:38 PM

DVD Architect is an authoring program, meaning that it takes your video files and allows you to access them via menus you can create. It also happens to be able to burn the final product onto a DVD blank.

Nero is not an authoring program, but rather a very broad "burning" program that is able to do lots of different things with CDs and DVDs. You can use it to burn your DVD image from the VIDEO_TS folder that DVD Architect creates, in addition to a ton of other stuff.

Nero has also been around a long time, and is very stable. DVD Architect is in its first release, and will undoubtedly get more sophisticated over time.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/20/2003, 10:10 PM

You can download a demo of nero that expires at the end of the month, so i recomend waiting until July to download. If you purchase Nero you can download for free Nero Express which is an authoring program. Nero can burn Data CD's, Audio CD's, Mixed mode (data then audio), enhanced (audio then data), bootable, mac compatible, Video CD's (will encode for you too), Super Video CD's (won't encode, requires addon or a prerendered mpeg 2). Both Video CD's can have menu's. It will also burn DVD Data and DVD Video, but the video requires the VOB files: it doesn't encode for you.

Nero express, however, is kinda like DVDA, but MUCH simpler. It is quite nice though for doing simple stuff. It even supports chapters in SVCD and DVD. Can't download a demo of that i think.

mikkie wrote on 6/21/2003, 7:28 AM

If you download the latest update/demo install for Nero, believe it includes a copy of Nero Express as a trial - until you buy serial from Ahead.

FWIW, Nero itself is/was often favored for SVCD as it knows how to create the special discs used - the format removes some of the error checking redundency built into a std data cd, allowing ~800 meg of video. Other stuff can handle it, but in the past Nero was maybe the easiest to use.

Another reason Nero is popular for SVCDs IMO, is because not all DVD players will handle SVCD menus and such in the US - many won't even play SVCDs for that matter. If you're not doing the menus and stuff, it's simpler to just drag your mpg2 from one window to another and burn, rather then going through any authoring prog.

As always, see dvdrhelp.com Doom9.org & digital-digest for guides and info