Am I stupid - or what? Linkage of Movie Factory and VS X3?

[MikeA]

I downloaded the free Movie Factory, having just purchased VS X3. I wanted to burn a DVD. So I load up a project in VS, go to Share, and go to make a disc. I get a choice now of DVD Factory and Movie Factory. With the former, the movie comes in directly from VS. I can handle that. It's certainly klutzy, as noted by others, but it works.

With the Movie Factory I get a screen with no indication whether it knows about my movie at all. My suspicion is that it doesn't - that I have to make a video file and bring that into MovieFactory. If so, two questions come to mind: 1) where on earth are the instructions that would have told me this; b) what format of file should I burn for different types of projects (DVD, HD on DVD, HD on Blu-ray)? Is this the only way? If so, DVD Factory seems simpler? I guess Movie Factory offers more control? Am I right? If not, why use it?

I thought I was reasonably intelligent, but I have to say that Corel seems very poor at documented help, including the manuals and ancillary information.

[Black Lab]

I downloaded the free Movie Factory, having just purchased VS X3. I wanted to burn a DVD. So I load up a project in VS, go to Share, and go to make a disc. I get a choice now of DVD Factory and Movie Factory. With the former, the movie comes in directly from VS. I can handle that. It's certainly klutzy, as noted by others, but it works.
That depends on your definition of "works".

With the Movie Factory I get a screen with no indication whether it knows about my movie at all. My suspicion is that it doesn't - that I have to make a video file and bring that into MovieFactory. That is correct.

If so, two questions come to mind: 1) where on earth are the instructions that would have told me this; b) what format of file should I burn for different types of projects (DVD, HD on DVD, HD on Blu-ray)? You can still use the templates in X3 to create your video file. For instance if you are burning to DVD then you want NTSC or PAL DVD (MPEG2).

Is this the only way? If so, DVD Factory seems simpler? Yes, in more ways than one.

I guess Movie Factory offers more control? Am I right? Yes.
If not, why use it?

I thought I was reasonably intelligent, but I have to say that Corel seems very poor at documented help, including the manuals and ancillary information. You are correct again. See, you're not stupid.

[MikeA]

Thank you. I feel a lot better!

(Why does it have to be like this?)

[Black Lab]

(Why does it have to be like this?)

Amen, brother.

[MikeA]

I checked last night and I see what you mean about templates. Looks simple enough.

But one question: can you point me to where I can get information on the file types. For instance, If I want a Blu-ray template file I have two options there - MGP and NT 264 (hope I got that right - from memory). Which one to choose. My native format is MTS, which I believe is NT 264 related. That implies I should go with the NT 264 type of output file. Going with MPG implies a conversion process, to me, with potential loss of quality.

Is there a place this is explained. I can look for myself if I know where to look.

Thanks!