DVD Workshop: first impressions

[Dr Mordrid]

First: So far I've only done a couple of quickie projects that went very smoothly using both DV and uncompressed YUV sources in the same project.

1. Is it just me or are Uleads products starting to look a *LOT* like Final Cut Pro 3? VS6 and now DVD Workshop both look very similar to it's preview/source window, at the very least. A harbinger of MSP 7's look perhaps?

For those who don't know what FCP3 looks like here's a pic of its interface;

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20020131/apple.jpg

Hmmmm......

2. It *DEFINITELY* uses the MPEG.now engine. The MPEG-2 quality looks very good at 6000 kbps. I see very little block noise, even with DV sources. You can go to 9800 kbps if you wish.

3. You can customize the existing presets or make your own. Existing DVD presets;

720x480 @4000, 6000 & 8000 kbps. 120, 90 & 60 min/disk respectively.
HalfD1 (352x480) @2400 kbps. 4 hrs/disk. (hey, it works for cable TV....)
CIF (352x240) @1500 kbps. 6 hrs/disk.

CBR/VBR are an option in all MPEG-2 formats.

4. The motion menu is in two parts: motion video for the thumbnail and motion video as the menu background. The background or thumbnail formats can be MPEG, *.avi or Quicktime.

5. Plenty of options, but generally an easy interface.

6. lots of canned backgrounds etc., but you can also customize using your own.

Impressive so far......

Editorial opinion:

Ulead should issue an MPEG.now patch for both MSPro 6.5 and DVD MF. Ligos is now dead meat as far as I'm concerned and it's high time at least MSPro got the quality VideoStudio & DVD WS can now provide.

Dr. Mordrid

[AndrewDV]

Thanks for the info!

In your opinion, what practical functionality does DVD Workshop give over using TMPGEnc and DVD Factory?

Thanks again

[Jerry Jones]

Terry, have you tried the "live" capture from Firewire yet?

Quality?

Jerry

[Dr Mordrid]

1. higher quality MPEG's because of the MPEG.now engine.

2. more complex menuing capabilities.

3. the ability to use halfD1, which increases the duration of a program to 4 hours. Often used with cable TV. It resuces the horizontal resolution a bit, but for most programs like family or instructional videos you wouldn't notice.

Dr. Mordrid

[Dr Mordrid]

Jerry,

Not as yet. My 3 (soon to be 4) year old just got up from his nap, thus ending my session for this afternoon

Dr. Mordrid

[AndrewDV]

Hi,

Higher quality than TMPGEnc? That factor interests me. I know this is early, but is there any comparison stats between the two for VCD, SVCD, and DVD?

One item that I like is the ability to put a repeating video in the menu background. Static pics look.. well, static

You wouldn't happen to know if there is an upcoming release of MSP7 that is bundled with DVD Workshop? I am trying to avoid what I went through with buying MSP6, DVD Plug-in, MSP6.5, and DVD Movie Factory. If I would have known, I would have just waited awhile.

Thanks again for the input

[Dr Mordrid]

It's way too early to say about the *overall* quality vs. TMPGEnc, but to my eye it looks better than Ligos.

That said here's a magnification from a pair of MPEG frames rendered in VS6/MPEG.now and MSPro/Ligos using an overlay title (*.tga file w/alpha channel). I think they speak for themselves;

MSPro6.5/Ligos on the left...........................................VS6/MPEG.now on the right



IMO if there is a DVD WS bundle it'll be a VE edition. More likely DVD MF would be the replacement for the DVD Plugin since it appears as a plugin and DVD WS does not.

Dr. Mordrid

[Sciascia]

I just don't see it. Maybe there is a small difference...

Sorry just in one of my sarcastic moods. Looks very impressive. I did some testing with VS6 with my G400 TV and it works well, but I really do not like the layout. It also has the delay when opening the codec, but other than that it would probably be great with DV. Guess I am behind the times here.

[Dr Mordrid]

The codec on the Matrox cards always takes a couple of seconds +/- to load. Nothing new there.

I'm planning on using some footage of the USAF test frames to test the encoders later this week. After that I have some beach footage that should be revealing. All the motion and reflections drive a lot of MPEG encoders nutsy.

Dr. Mordrid

[Vidgal]

I feel like a real moron, but I've been playing with the download for a couple of day and just can't figure out how to create one of the slideshows Ulead talks about. I can drag over images, set duration for each, add background music to the first image and even right click on the images and click "play next title". However, these creates multiple thumbnails on the menu and the background music only plays under image one. Maybe I am blind, but I see no description of how to do this in the help file or the downloaded "manual" (I was hoping for a more detailed document).

Everything else seems to work well, but this feature could be useful for me -- if I can get it to work.

The program is better than "Factory", but is it $200 better? Still not sure.

[Jerry Jones]

Doc,

The ULEAD codec seems to handle aliasing much, much better than the Ligos encoder... to my aging eyes anyway.

Jerry Jones

[Dr Mordrid]

It's not your eyes Jerry. I have 20/10 vision and it looks good here too

Dr. Mordrid