Broken record

[Jjay]

I'm very sorry if this sounds like a broken record, but if anyone has any insight as to whether or not Corel is going to improve Movie Factory in the next version and when that might be I'd appreciate it.

I'll admit I must have some kind of mental block, but when I downloaded this program to try I felt stonewalled by pre-designed screens in the program that led me by the hand down paths I did not want to go. Things I hoped to do were either unavailable or, I was too dumb to figure out how to do them.

I'm so frustrated. For years I've been doing ( as some may know) video conversions for a company from VHS to DVD, in addition to other conversion work for folks. In the interest of being able to increase productivity, I built a new PC that brought me from a Pentium 4 to a Core i7, and from 4 gigs of memory to 16 gigs. Only to find ( as I feared) DVDWorkshop would not run.

It made me go back to Windows XP on the new i7 PC, and made me revert back to 4 gigs of memory.

There is no other word to describe my frustration other than it pisses me off knowing this company is well aware of how wonderful Workshop was and yet no attempt is made to incorporate its ability or workflow into this Movie Factory program.

Such a few simple things I need to accomplish with this redundant process I use year after year and yet it seems DVD Movie Factory can't do them. I'd like to list these things and perhaps someone can look them over and either confirm Movie Factory can't do them, or confirm that I'm not seeing how to do them without jumping through additional hoops to find work arounds.

1. After I convert the VHS I simply trim the beginning and the ends in Adobe Premiere Elements. I add a closing title ( text overlay with phone number and company name that fades in on the final few seconds of the video. I then encode this to mpeg.

Once I bring this into DVDWorkshop I take the first frame of the encoded video clip and use it as my MENU BACKGROUND. This is the first thing I do, and it seems the first thing that DVD Movie Factory won't allow. It MAKES me use one of their menu templates. Very frustrating.

2. Next I go to the Button menu and find the scene clipboard graphic. I bring it in on top of the menu background and I increase it's transparency to 30% so you can see through it. Then I resize it as needed. The second thing I do, and the second thing Movie Factory won't do.

3. I type text over this scene graphic such as "Presenting" and then whatever this clip is about adding date and location information regarding the event that was taped. I resize the text, I choose fonts, I align the text both vertically and horizontally, and locate all these graphics where I want them on the menu background. The third thing I do and the third thing that has nowhere near the flexibility that workshop has.

4. I scrub the video for a few chapter choices, then select a few object graphics to use as buttons. I place them on the menu background, resize them to fit the menu, then drag each chapter over each button to associate them. Then I simply type a few words next to those buttons that describe the chapter choices. The fouth thing I need to do and the forth thing it seems can't be done easily.

5. Then I burn it. I'm assuming Movie Factory would do that , although I've never gotten that far.

To me, these are not big things to ask for in a DVD Authoring program, but I'm forced into these limited screen choices and it's killing me to know these programmers KNOW FULL WELL how great some of the features of Workshop are, and yet REFUSE to allow that flexibility in Movie Factory.

Is there any .... ANY ... hope in sight? Again, sorry for the sort of rant, but I really am getting more and more frustrated by these program limitations. Other programs I've tried require another entire learning curve which I don't have either the time or the desire to spend learning. Not to mention they may not be able to do what I want. Example being DVD Architect Studio. Makes me nuts to the point of turning off the PC. I just don't have the mindset to relearn all this while I have a ton of VHS tapes that need converting.

Thanks for any insight.

[DVDDoug]

We don't know... As you probably know, Corel doesn't pre-announce updates. And, beta-testers have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. I don't know if there is any beta-testing going-on right now. (The only way I would know is if I were a beta tester, and then I couldn't tell you...)

Movie Factory is discounted right now, and they usually lower the price before an update so that people who buy the day before the upgrade is released don't feel too-badly rippped-off. But, that's not the only time they discount the price.

I have the impression that all of the marketing is going into Video Studio (obviously it's the biggest seller), and I wouldn't be that surprised if Movie Factory goes the way of DVD Workshop.

[Ken Berry]

At one time in the not too distant past, MF was indeed on the most endangered list. MF7 when it first appeared was not even made available in North America and some other major markets. It appeared that Corel had decided to phase it out as it has many of the other old Ulead products it acquired with Video Studio. It was only saved when Corel made the disastrous decision to issue Video Studio X3 with the incredibly awful new burning module drawn directly from the equally disastrous Digital Studio 2010 suite! They had to issue an SE version of MF 7 to correct their error. This in turn breathed new life into the 'Pro' version of MF7.

That being said, though, I personally have not heard a whisper about any MF 8 being in the pipeline, and there is definitely (?) no beta testing going on for one at the moment that we Admin people are aware of. That is not to say that Corel may not be thinking over the matter, however. After all quite a few years went by after they appeared to have shelved Cool 3D/Production Studio, but recently released an updated 'new' product called Motion Studio 3D (which is indeed a great product). So anything is possible. But at the moment, as DVDDoug has already said, we just don't know...

[Jjay]

Thanks for the replies. Very interesting, but it doesn't surprise me that DVDMF will fade away.

For any folks at Corel who may be reading...... It's no wonder, but if you believe there is a need for a better food blender and you make one out of CRAP, then market it.... When no one buys it, don't automatically assume there is little call for food blenders. It might just be possible there is little call for the ones made out of CRAP. Bring back DVDWS.