MovieFactory 6 Plus + HD Power Pack >= MovieFactory 7 Pro?

[DudeBoyz]

I have MovieFactory 6 Plus and I am very pleased with it. I see there is a newer version out (version 7 Pro) and I'm wondering if MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Power Pack is perhaps better than, or at least pretty much equal to version 7 Pro.

I'd appreciate any helpful comments, impressions, information, etc.

Thanks

[Ken Berry]

It was officially known as MF 6.5+... so it was different from MF 7 Pro... It was certainly not better than MF 7, but I am afraid it has been so long that I no longer recall exactly what it covered. I am not sure, for instance, that it could handle AVCHD either at all or at least properly...though that may have been what the HD Pack was all about. But I am pretty sure it could handle HDV/mpeg-2. Not sure about Blu-Ray either, which was only coming out at that time. MF 7 can handle both...

[DudeBoyz]

Thank you very much for replying. I'm not sure of the MovieFactory 7 Pro release and if it is a transition product destined for sale only in Aus and NZ or what not. Even though it is listed as MovieFactory 7 Pro, it's actually "MovieFactory 6.5"? That is sort of odd.

I sure do wish that Corel had a much cleaner, clearer product package for all of the things they got from Ulead. I think Ulead did pretty great with DMF 5 and DMF 6 and I would wish Corel not to squander the opportunity to continue the product lines.

Just trying to figure out what the smart move would be.

Any additional info on the sale/release of that MF 7 product would be welcome.

DB

[Ken Berry]

Just to repeat, MF 7 was a completely different package from MF 6/6.5... (The "it" I was referring to above as 6.5 was MF 6 plus the Power Pack, not MF 7...) It was released some time around mid-2008 -- May IIRC -- at least that's when I got my copy of it (and the two years explains why I have forgotten about MF 6/6.5 which I also had before it...) Moreover, it was NOT a transitional product for anything else. It was a full package release.

The only problem was that around that time Corel obviously started thinking about what it was going to do with some of the products it acquired from Ulead. Some, like Movie Studio Pro, DVD Workshop, Cool 3D/Production Studio, and more recently PhotoImpact, they decided to discontinue. With MF, they took the curious decision to only release in a limited number of areas which did not include either North America or most of Europe. In that sense, this limited release was a transitional stage to the products eventual demise...

But I repeat, it was a full and separate package from MF 6.5 -- though it did the things the latter could do, plus a few more tweaks, bells and whistles.

However, the SE version released recently has been stripped down to only be a burning module for VS X3...

[DudeBoyz]

Thanks again. I'll order up that HD Power Pack and I'll have DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus all topped off with service packs and the HD so I'll have one well rounded, capable package that's designed to work together.

Have a good weekend,

DB

[Ken Berry]

But also just remember what I said about not recalling whether MF 6.5 could handle AVCHD...

[DudeBoyz]

Here's the info on the plugin and how it relates to MovieFactory 6 Plus:

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/plugin.htm

AVCHD Authoring - Author HD content (from AVCHD or HDV camcorder, or any other HD source) and burn to a standard DVD using a standard burner.

* AVCHD discs with menus play back pristine HD video on your PC, Blu-ray Player or Sony PS3, or disc-based AVCHD camcorders.
* Supports standard screen sizes from SD screen sizes to HD 1440x1080 to 1920x1080 as well as PAL and NTSC systems.
* Audio formats include LPCM and Dolby® 2.0 or 5.1.

M2TS (Transport Stream) Import

* Import video files directly from AVCHD hard drive or memory card camcorders.
* DVD MovieFactory® 6 Plus opens M2TS files copied to your hard drive using other utilities.

Blu-ray Disc (BDMV) Authoring - Author HD productions in MPEG 2 HD format, with High Definition motion menus, and burn them to Blu-ray Disc.

* BD supports standard screen sizes from 720x480 to 1920x1080 as well as PAL and NTSC systems.
* Compliant video, (such as HDV) is not re-rendered - ensuring excellent picture quality and faster encoding times.
* Support for Dolby® 2.0 and 5.1 audio formats.
* Both single- and double-layer discs are supported.

HD Advanced Authoring - Enhance your HD DVD productions with interactive “Type II” HD DVD Advanced Menus. Advanced Menus pop up over the video, so that a new chapter or title can be selected.

* HD DVDs play on set-top HD DVD players, Xbox 360 HD DVD players, or PC HD DVD drives with appropriate HD DVD playback software.

HD DVD on Standard DVD - Author HD DVD productions with motion menus, and burn to standard DVDs.

* There is now a dedicated workflow for producing HD DVDs on Standard DVD.
* Support for single layer (4.7GB) and double layer (8.5GB) DVDs
* Choose a disc size and the capacity indicator shows how much space is available on the disc.
* HD DVDs on Standard DVD play on set-top HD DVD players, Xbox 360 HD DVD players, or standard PC DVD drives with appropriate software.

Patch 2 included for bug fix – Bugs occurred in DVD MovieFactory® 6 Plus have been solved! For a detail list of enhancements, please click here.

NOTE: This plug-in is suitable for Ulead® DVD MovieFactory® 6 Plus only.