Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus review

DVD MovieFactory is a friendly DVD-authoring program aimed at home users, but it has never been shy of embracing new technologies.

This latest version adds support for Windows Vista and is the first authoring software we've seen to support both Blu-ray and HD DVD. The Plus version we look at here also includes InterVideo WinDVD 8 Silver for DVD playback, InterVideo DVDCopy 5 for recoding non-encrypted discs and converting them to DivX, plus various data and audio disc-burning utilities. As such, DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus wouldn't be out of place in our media suites Lab test, although it lacks image-editing, backup and media-management tools.

Import and export options are comprehensive. It will capture from DV, HDV and AVCHD (a new high-definition MPEG4-based format) cameras, digital TV tuners and analogue video-capture devices. There's a huge list of supported file types, although we were disappointed to discover that native HDV footage in .m2t format could be imported into some modules but not others. Output from the main authoring application is to DVD-Video, Video CD, Super VCD and HD DVD. We had no problems writing an HD DVD disc image to our hard disk, but the bundled copy of InterVideo WinDVD 8 Silver couldn't play it.

Version 6 adds some basic video-editing tools, which might come in handy if you just want to string a few video clips together and add transitions. You can also add intro and end sequences with themes such as Wedding or Athletic, but they're a little cheesy. Slideshow support remains strong, with the ability to create collages and add text. It's now possible to customise the path for Pan & Zoom effects, but doing so is awkward and the same pan and zoom is applied to every photo, which somewhat defeats the purpose.

Ulead has expanded the range of menu templates to a total of 42 - a vast improvement on the 16 in version 5 - arranged into three groups according to the style of buttons: text, thumbnails and animated. Animated buttons are normally tricky to create in DVD menus, but DVD MovieFactory manages it through various technical tricks while keeping the user controls as simple as with the other menu styles. The only downside is that navigating menus in the resulting discs is slower than with text- or thumbnail-based menus.

The menu templates look stylish, and any graphical object can be moved, resized, made semi-transparent and skewed to give a 3D effect. Templates start with a short animated intro sequence where the various buttons, video thumbnails and text slide or spin into video, and end with a transition into the selected video. These effects look smart but there isn't much scope for customisation and they can get a bit tedious. It's possible to turn them off but you'll need to do so in three different places if you just want menus that react immediately to button selection. A small collection of annoying background music is supplied, but it's not hard to add your own, truncate its length and fade it in and out. We would have liked to be able to decide how many buttons there are per page as the only way to do this is to select a template with the desired number. Disc-navigation options comprise a single global option to return to the menu at the end of a video, or proceed to the next one.

DVD MovieFactory 6 is a competent program that's capable of attractive DVD menus. It's mostly easy to use, although with the lack of an Undo function and the fact that the Help button is often inaccessible, it could be better in this respect. Its HD disc support still seems a little shaky but it's well ahead of the competition. Ultimately, though, the almost complete lack of disc-navigation options is the software's biggest drawback. Roxio MyDVD and Sony DVD Architect Studio are much better in this respect.

Author: Ben Pitt