Camparison of movie maker 5 and 6

[Scotty72]

I have just purchased Movie Factory 5 from my local shop. Got home and found out 6plus is available. I rang him and apparently he does not get in the new product until he has sold out of the old one. I was going to return it but thought I would ask some questions first

Is there a great difference in features/benefits in the products?

Are the upgrades worth while for me to take back 5 and order 6?

Also I have a Panasonic NV-GS300 is the software compatible?

I have Motion DV studio software which came with my camera does anyone know much about it and how does it compare to Movie Factory?

Your advice would be greatly apreciated

[sjj1805]

Why not simply download the 30 day free trial and see for yourself?
I was impressed by the DVD Menu on MF6+ I created a couple of days ago.

The text and navigation buttons slid in nice and smoothly from the right.
I also noticed that you now have the option of moving highlight images attached to navigation buttons etc.

[Scotty72]

Thanks for the reply, I have never used the software before. The question that is important for me is the benefits of MF6+ over MF5 as I have just purchased MF5 and have not opened it or loaded it as if I do I can not return it. I can use the free trial but I will not know whats the differencebetween the 2. I am a novice at this so I just want to start off on the right foot.

[Ron P.]

Did you purchase MF5 or MF5 Plus? There are major differences in just those. The Plus(+) versions that Intervideo * Ulead instituted beginning with MF5 and VS10 contain much more features, and are capable of handling the newer HD, and/or BD.

Do you have a HD or BD burner in your PC, or a stand-alone player? DVDMF6+ is capable of creating both. However as Steve mentioned just the added flexibility in creating menus is significantly better then that in version 5. Version 6+ has a new tool/feature called Edit Room, that gives you more editing flexibility then version 5+.

Generally Ulead has a comparison page that provides a couple of comparisons to competitors programs and to their earlier versions. However for some reason they have omitted that with the release of DMF6, or just do not have it completed yet. You can download their PDF called What's New in DVD MovieFactory 6+ and have a look at it.

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/dmf6_plus_new.pdf

[etech6355]

If you haven't opened the software I would take it back and get a refund.

My opinion MF6+ is better than MF5+, more features and on my machines runs good.

[GeorgeW]

If you haven't opened the software I would take it back and get a refund.

My opinion MF6+ is better than MF5+, more features and on my machines runs good.

I'd agree with that (as well as the comments by Steve and Ron) -- some of the new features that make it worth the price of admission (imho)
-Edit Room
-Better output for HD-DVD (burning to DVD5/9, or HD-DVD Burners)
-Ability to add a subtitle stream to finished DVD
-Menu moving objects, and ability to distort objects
-Additional disc utilities that are included with the package

Regards,
George

[sjj1805]

Here is an example of one of the new menus with moving parts, I created this one myself:

I thought it would be a challenge to create a Menu with these effects included.
It took a few hours to work out how the new effects worked.
I was able to create this 8 button Menu that includes these transition effects.
simply unzip the 2 files to the following location
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Content\Menu Template\4x3\Scene Button



The zip file is here:
Click 'Download' on the following screen

[Scotty72]

Thanks very much for all the replies and advice its made my decision easy. The version I purchased was MF5 not MF5+ and I will definetly be returning it and buying MF6+.

[JoReneA]

I am trying out the TBYB version of 6+ and am impressed so far. The quality of the video produced was excellent and seemed to get over the problems I'd had with jerky video in the various 5 versions I had tried. I own version 4 and think I will upgrade but was wondering how many menu choices there are in the full version. The trial version gives very few and one thing I liked about version 4 was how many choices I had, more than most programs such as Roxio's. Also, how many "themes" are available. There are only 2 in the trial version and I think that is a very neat feature.

Another think I noticed is that I could not find the feature in 6+ that added graphics to one's video. Has that been eliminated? Or is it a feature that just isn't in the TBYB? There was a tab in the edit room (effects) that had no choices. What are the "effects" available in the full version. Is that where I would find the graphics?

Thanks. For those contemplating version 5 or 6, I would definitely go with 6. I have a dual processor and the project was completed quite quickly.

[sjj1805]

15 Thumbnail menus
15 Smartscene
14 text menus

customize options
11 frames + 1 no frame
32 sets of navigation buttons
layouts:
3 x 2
4 x 3
1 x 4
1 x 5
1 x 6
1 x 8
Total = 11

7 Themes.

If you have earlier versions of MovieFactory and/or VideoStudio you can use those menus also simply by copy pasting (maintaining the directory structure) to
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Content\Menu Template
below this you have sub-directories for
4x3
16x9
HD Basic

So if you have an existing 4x3 sub-directory named sports (containing various sport menus) you would create a directory and copy them to:
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Content\Menu Template\4x3\Sports

Please also see
MF5/ VS9 /VS10: Share Menus, Transitions between products
and also
Shared DVD Menus Created by Forum Users

If you own PhotoImpact you can also create your own from scratch
Tutorial: PhotoImpact: Creating DVD Menu from scratch