Product Reviews

DVD authoring is being led from the entry-level. Ulead, Pinnacle and MGI are all taking DVD very seriously and, while their products are ultimately very basic, they're certain to have a big impact on prosumer products in the coming months.

Ulead's DVD MovieFactory is a simple tool for creating video discs in VideoCD, SVCD and DVD formats. VideoCD has proven immensely popular in the Far East and uses MPEG-1 video, which - depending on the quality of source footage and the encoder used - can look just as good as VHS. A single CD can accommodate up to 63 minutes of video in VCD format, meaning that feature films are spanned across two discs. SVCD (or Super VCD) uses higher-quality MPEG-2 compression. It's not quite up to the standard of DVD, however, having a lower horizontal resolution of 480 pixels as opposed to 720.

Ulead's DVD MovieFactory takes the user through several easy steps from video capture to disc publication. Installation allows users to select their country, video format or instruct MovieFactory to provide templates for PAL and NTSC format video. It also provides a custom version of Ulead PhotoExpress 4, providing basic tools for cover and label design.

Video disc creation is presented in three basic steps - video capture, menu authoring and disc burning. MovieFactory's video-capture tools provide device control over DV camcorders and decks connected via FireWire, and can also be used with analog capture devices (but without direct device control). On-screen video overlay is good, and you're given the option of splitting captured video according to breaks in date/time stamps. Alternatively, video can be imported from elsewhere on the system in DV or MPEG format. Captured and imported video files can then be trimmed and converted into the required file format for the type of disc you wish to make, courtesy of

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preset encoding templates for VCD, SVCD and DVD-compliant video. Oddly for a DVD authoring program, MovieFactory also provides the means to encode to WMF, embed the video in a Web page or send it via email. It also provides the means to create video greetings cards as EXE files - great for scaring virus-conscious email recipients.

Disc authoring is a breeze. Having selected the type of disc to be made - DVD, SVCD or VCD - required MPEG files are loaded into a playlist. Chapter stops are added during real-time playback with audio - something that many more expensive DVD authoring programs can't do. Each chapter stop is represented by its own thumbnail icon, which will eventually be displayed in the disc's menu. This can easily be changed to represent any frame within the video. An introductory video - such as a copyright notice or corporate ID tag - can also be added as a first-play item.

Menus are automatically created, providing one root menu for individual clips, with submenus giving access to each clip's chapter stops. A selection of 28 basic menu styles are available in categories such as Business, Cute and Cool, all selected from a drop-down list. The background image can be selected from virtually any image file on the system, and background music can be added too. While the colour of text within menus can be chosen from a basic palette, there's no control over the font or size of text, or any decent control over the layout of buttons within menu screens.

Previewing is provided with a video monitor and a control panel resembling a remote control, with joystick control for DVD titles and numeric keys for VCD or SVCD. There's no scene-skip control provided here, so testing options are limited at this stage. Final projects are burned to disc from DVD MovieStudio, or a disc image can be created to the system's hard disk for burning at a later date.

Not all set-top DVD players recognise DVD-R discs, or VCD and SVCD formats, but on compatible hardware such as Yelo's 800 DVD player, the discs played well. Ulead's choice of MPEG encoder does a reasonable job, but it's far from the best I've seen. Dedicated users would do well to prepare media in advance using Tsunami MPEG Encoder or Canopus' SoftMPEG. I'm disappointed to see a lack of support for slide shows within MovieFactory's toolkit. All that said, the program performs extremely well and is worth considering as an authoring tool for the DV novice.