Product Reviews

Most video-editing software now incorporates DVD authoring. This suggests the future is shaky for dedicated authoring programs such as Ulead's DVD MovieFactory. However, the program is still a good companion for Windows Movie Maker, which has no authoring facilities, or Adobe Premiere Elements, which has only basic authoring tools. DVD MovieFactory also works well with set-top DVD recorders. It supports all the common DVD format variations, including DVD-VR and DVD+VR, so discs created in set-top recorders can be edited on a PC.

An obvious new feature in version 4 is the Launcher, which provides links to the software's various functions. It's beautifully designed and seems to offer lots of options, but it is a little misleading. You really have the choice between authoring a DVD from scratch, burning straight from DV tape to DVD (which worked well in tests) or editing an existing DVD disc. Sadly, there's no explanation of the various DVD formats and which format is best for a particular task. The Copy Disc option merely shifts data about; it can't decrypt protected discs or recode dual-layer discs to fit on single-layer media.

The 16:9 widescreen video and menus are now supported, but 4:3 footage

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is simply given black bars on either side. You'll need a DV camera with widescreen support to take full advantage of this feature. Dolby Digital encoding also makes an appearance, but it won't make your soundtrack become surround sound. It simply compresses the stereo audio so there's more room for video.

The best new feature of the program is that menu buttons and text can be arranged freely. This is great news for anyone who is put off by samey menu templates. This program's templates are attractive, though they have a home-oriented feel. Support for video backgrounds and animated thumbnail buttons plus a variety of navigation and border styles all add up to a fine level of control over menu appearance. However, text entry and formatting is cumbersome. It's a shame you can't switch off the thumbnails and just use text links for navigation. Thumbnails suit scene selection menus well, but on main menus they can look amateurish.

These weren't the only frustrations we encountered. The auto scene detect function was slow, taking 10 minutes to analyse a 30-minute clip. It found lots of non-existent cuts and missed plenty it should have found. A new shuttle control claims to make truncating and adding chapter points easier. However, the preview window updated only when we let go of the shuttle wheel, rather than scanning through the footage as we would expect. These problems make adding chapter points fiddly. It doesn't help that there's no Undo function.

Despite these irritations, DVD MovieFactory is still the best choice for anyone who wants DVD authoring on the cheap. Its menu design is comprehensive and easy to use, and its set-top recorder compatibility, direct tape-to-disc burning and editing of pre-recorded discs are all welcome for this very reasonable price.