DVD moviefactory 4 not fit for release - refunds?

[tonyl33]

Generally Ulead produced some very good softwares & cheap pricing but it seems that recently too many new products came out at too fast a rate. Ulead should not push out completely new things every year. They should update older programs with new templates & fixes for bugs. For those who did not use previous versions of a new software will feel lost everytime there's a problem. That's why we have this forum to look into all these problems & source for solutions. Let's not pull our hair too much or you will be bald like me.

[keithm]

I must agree with you. I didn't want to upgarde to MF4 at all as MF3 workes great. The only reason I purchased the upgrade was the support for AC3 so I could try editing dvd's burned on a stand alone player. I was actually a bit annoyed as I haven't had MF3 for long and I do think they should have been able to update the program with a patch to support AC3.

I don't like the interface of MF4 at all - I think MF3 was far nicer to use.

But, at the moment I can only use MF3 as the other don't work!

[Tud]

Quite clearly MF4 is not fit for sale and I would advise anyone thinking of upgrading to wait until the many problems reported stop being posted. Ulead support is non existent. But if you have many hours of time to waste trying to get it to start on a system within their recommended spec then go ahead. I just stick with MF3 which works for amateurs. Yes I would like my money back but how?

[keithm]

To be fair Ulead have now contacted me several times - asking questions to try to solve the problem. I do think these problems should have been sorted before it was put out though. But; what happens if they can't fix it?

[Tud]

I too needed AC3 support and was amazed not to have it in MF3. I have a way of producing MPEG2 files with the audio (Data video recorder from Holdan) and MF3 sucks these in and produces really good results. When I need AC3 off DVD's I produce on the standard Sony & Panasonic recorders, I use Roxio DVD builder which accepts AC3 off the disk but gives you a warning that you must not trim it. Works for me. Friends tell me that despite early Bugs they use the Adobe DVD prog but this is for professional work and costs more to begin with.

[maddrummer3301]

keithm,

Within the threads of the MF forum are instructions that others have
used from ulead tech support to completely clean their systems.

After following the tech support instructions that fixed their problems.
The instructions are quite long and require deleting items from the
registry.

Maybe that will at least stop the program from crashing.

Depending on the system MF4 is installed on you can't click and select
to fast. I think the program is trying to cache things in memory such
as thumbnails etc. If you click & select to fast an error will be
generated.
It may help to set the Undo level to 2 or so because that is a cached
function (F6-Preferences). The default is 99.

MF4 is running better on my machine. I removed that program that
loads 3 TSR's along with packet writing software.

Hope this helps,

MD

[torgo3k]

Keithm -

Is there any way you could test out the trial version of DMF4? Preferably on a different system? At least that would help you determine if your problem is due to the upgrade from DMF3.

I'm switching over to Ulead because of all the problems I've had (similar to yours) with Adobe. Premiere Elements simply locks up on me every time I try to render a file. So far the trial version of DMF4 has worked like a charm, and the features have been amazing.

[bubblesvan]

I don't usually put my 2 cents worth in these type of threads but I feel I have to on this one. I agree that MF4 is certainly not ready for prime time! It has so many bugs and problems that I'm surprised that Ulead has the gall to call this a "release" version. Perhaps a beta or, from my experience, maybe an alpha release??

As for support...well, I tried calling them and spoke with a nice gentleman who informed me that the bug I was trying to report wasn't a bug, it was supposed to work that way.

The bug I tried to report was that if I put a completely new, unformated DVD+RW in the drive, MF4 would give an error that there was a problem with the drive. However, if I formatted the disk by first writing out a file using Nero, then tried burning the DVD+RW, it worked.

Ulead support said that MF4 wasn't supposed to format blank DVD+RW. When I read to him the help file about the "Restart DVD+RW format" option under burning options, his reply was "that's the help file, it has no bearing on what the program actually does!".

The second bug was that regardless of what speed you choose to write at, MF4 always seems to burn at the maximum of the disc inserted. For example, if I put an 8X disc in the drive, then specify to burn at 2.4X under burning options, it still burns at 8X. The response from support? Oh, he's never heard of that one but will be sure to pass it on.

When he asked if I had any UDF software installed, I told him that I had installed the Ulead Data-Add included with MF4. He informed me that he wished I hadn't done that because Data-Add doesn't "work" with version 4. If that's the case, why is it included on the disc they sent me?

To make matters even worse, I wrote an email to Ulead support on March 13, 2005 and have yet to receive a reponse from them.

I got the name and phone number of the tech guy's manager and am going to be pushing for a complete refund of my money.

[ruggy1]

I feel sorry for you who have had trouble, but I use Ulead Data Add all the time for backups and it never seems to interfere with a whole load of MF4 capture, authoring and rendering that I do (definitely delete Nero InCD though!). So all I can say, is that if you want what I have - I can sell you the configs!!!

[G-Omaha]

This product is a POS. And, I don't mean "point of sale". It is Slow and prone to abend at the lightest "touch". Live and learn - and then, from my posture - Don't buy this product again.

I guess it's obvious that I am a customer that is "totally frustrated" with this POS!!!!!!

[charley50]

I just purchased MF4 DiskCreater to upgrade my MF2 SE version. Since downloading this software I can not get anything to work properly. Capturing sucks movie is very erratic and skips. Does not recognize my DVD burner, but does see my CD burner. Screens freeze up and I get messages, the program is not responding. The DVD MF 2 SE worked fine before purchasing the DVD MF4 Disk Creater upgrade, now neither work. I have not recieved any answers as of yet on these problems. I am not new to creating DVD's from home movies both VHS tape transfers and Camcorder transfers. I have other software such as NERO 6 Ultra which works fine. My system has more than enough resources to handle any DVD creation, Windows 2000 Pro, AMD 64 3000 plus processor, 1GB ram, 120GB hard drive, ASUS K8V-X motherboard, Nvidia GForce 5200 card, USB 2 ports, Firewire Ports, etc.etc. Any insight on this would help.

[jcc]

It might be worth trying to use some of the 'complete' installation techniques referred to in other threads, such as

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=2961

Good luck.

[Heri]

I have now used 2 days to get MF4 Disc Creator upgrade from MF 3 to work.

How can they release software with so many bugs. I dont have the time to playing around to get software to work. There is no pleasure in using MF 4.

I have contacted technical support two times and no reactions. Is this professional way to handle customers?

This is my second technical support email to Ulead:

I have sent you and email before and got no response. I ordered MovieFactory as and upgrade from MF 3. I should have visit your support forum before upgrading to MF 4. I would never have ordered MF 4 after reading all the problems with MF 4. I also thought Ulead was a professional company, but this is not the fact.

MF 4 is very slow operating software. It's not a pleasure to work with MF 4. I hope to hear from you fast.

At the moment MF 4 Disc Creator is a waste of money.

I would like to have my money back.

Sorry for the sad words.

Regards.
Heri

[keithm]

Well Ulead have finally issued a fix (onthe forum) for the you dead error and it does seem to work; but why has it taken months to come up with a fix? I bought the software a few weeks ago and then find on this forum that it had several bugs that have been complained about for maybe three months.

It is great to see a Ulead technician involved on the forum and who has helped to fix this problem, lets hope they have learned to check here more often and to try to make sure software works before it's released.

I like Ulead but if they keep releasing software like MF4 they could easily ruin their good name.

[jandi]

I'm having big problems too, I can't boot my PC after the upgrade, I get the blue screen and that's it.
I then have to get into safe mode and un-install from there, not very good!
I've noticed that version 3 is not un-installed when upgrading to 4, I can't un-install it since the upgrade version looks for a previous version (both purchased on the net and downloaded), a mess in my opinion.
So much for honest software, no wonder people are buying pirate software, at least it's free if it doesn't work!


Jan