What is with all the Video Factory copycats?

drguitar wrote on 2/11/2003, 11:40 AM
Has anyone else noticed that there are several Video Factory Copycats out there(exact copys of the program)? I like Video Factory, But the copycats are adding DVD burning and authoring with their packages at the same price(For example Nova Video Explosion). Also, DVD encoding (MPEG 2) stinks with Video Factory even though you pay extra for it($30 wasted)! If you use Video Factory, save your movies to AVI files then use TMPGEnc Plus to encode to MPEG 1 or MPEG 2. Much higher quality with less artifacts!! This post is not meant as a flame, I am just disappointed that Sonic Foundry is not updating and upgrading Video Factory to keep up with everyone else. Please Sonic Foundry, if you are going to sell DVD encoding, make sure it is worth the money. Also, DVD/VCD authoring should be added to the current package and included in future upgrades.

Comments

ralphied wrote on 2/11/2003, 9:23 PM
While I agree with you 100% that it would be great if VF could pull everything needed for home video editing and DVD production into one neat (& cheap) package, I can't help but thank VF for rescuing me from months of torture I went through with other low-end video editing packages, especially VideoWave. I've produced several slideshow videos and high school football highlight videos with VF in conjunction with ULEAD DVD Movie Factory and everyone who has seen them has been amazed with what can be done with a $60 editing program and $35 DVD authoring program.

I have faith that Sonic Foundry will eventually update VF similar to what it's currently doing with Vegas. Obviously, you can't blame SF for trying to get people to buy the more expensive package first, before rolling out the low end version.

I really wish I could afford Vegas with DVD Architect, but given the fact that this is a part time hobby where I mainly just want to consolidate highlights from hours upon hours of old VHS and 8mm footage, I simply can't justify $500.

By the way, you have to be careful with those bundled packages using VF as the editor. I'm pretty sure the Nova Video Explosion package uses Sonic MyDVD for the authoring program, which is a piece of junk (Sonic MyDVD was bundled with my HP DVD 100i burner.) Like a lot of things -- you get what you pay for.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/12/2003, 6:41 PM
I think the vendors who are adding DVD authoring to Video Factory are simply adding a DVD authoring package and bundling them together. There is no real integration between the two. Probably the same DVD authoring program you already got for free with your DVD burner. You could add DVD MovieFactory 2 to VideoFactory for $44.95 and have complete solution too.

~jr