Ulead was kind enough to provide us with Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 Plus, their easy-to-use disc Authoring and Burning software. In this review we will be testing the features, performance and quality of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 Plus.

Introduction:

Ulead® DVD MovieFactory® 5 Plus is an easy-to-use disc authoring and burning software program that lets you do more with your digital media.  Create standard or high-definition video, audio or slideshow DVDs with studio-quality personalized menus.  Archive, manage, share and play your data, music, photos and video on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. 

Program Features:

• Create Breathtaking DVDs. Create DVD menus that pop. Choose from over 70 motion menu styles with freely modifiable text, objects or buttons, and add cool menu transitions and filters.
• Plug-and-go DVD recording. The simplest, “no-editing” way from tape to DVD. Connect your camcorder, VCR or TV tuner to your PC and burn directly to standard or high-definition playable discs.
• Blu-Ray Disc support. The first consumer authoring software to offer Blu-Ray Disc support. Back up your data to 25/50GB discs, or capture from HDV or DV camcorder and burn directly to Blu-ray in full high-definition.
• Music, backup, playback – and more! Compile hours of Hi-Fi music on DVD, or create music CDs and MP3 disks. Copy, span or shrink any kind of disc and make quick-drop backups of your data and pictures. Play back all your video files.
• Work Fast and Easy with the Launcher and Quick Drop Feature. Spend less time learning and more time creating. Find just the right-sized tools and automated features you need to make complex tasks easy. DVD MovieFactory 5 Plus is the smart, fast way to create video, data, or audio discs.
• Capture and Edit Video from any Device. Your kid’s birthday on camera, or your favorite sports, TV series or HDTV broadcasts – DVD MovieFactory 5 Plus captures it all. Remove commercials, trim out the boring bits and spice up your video with the built-in editing tools. Creating video everybody will want to watch is faster and easier than ever.
• Author Discs. Create DVD menus that pop. Select from 73 easy-to-use templates that offer all the latest effects. Customize menus to get exactly the personalized look you want.
• Capture and Author PureHD™ HD DVD and Blu-ray. Move up to ultimate quality with PureHD™. Make the most of your HD camcorder, widescreen TV and surround sound system. Easily produce HD discs with fantastic images and sound.

All the disc tools you need:

Whether it’s making discs with your favorite tunes, backing up your photo collection, or playing movies on your PC, DVD MovieFactory 5 Plus takes care of all your disc needs.

Data

• Burn data, pictures or documents to CD, or single and double-layer DVD or Blu-ray Disc.
• Span Disc – Burn files that are over 4.7GB to multiple DVDs.
• Bootable Disc – create bootable discs for ghosting system files and recovery discs.
• Copy Disc – full-featured disc-copy function for all formats: CD, DVD and Blu-ray Discs.

Music

• DVD-Audio – create audio DVD with hours of LPCM format music.
• Music DVD-Video - create audiophile-quality audio DVD with MPEG, LPCM or AC-3 format, with menu.
• Audio Effects – Make your audio sound better with various filters, before burning to CD or DVD.
  • Volume Normalize – equalize the level of all the numbers on a CD
  • Vocal Removal – remove the vocals from a song so you can karaoke along!
  • Click and Hiss Removal – clean up recordings from tape or vinyl.
• Rip Audio CDs – Convert audio CDs to MP3 files, or make your own CD compilations to burn to disc.
• MP3 discs provides many hours of uninterrupted MP3 music on a CD or DVD.
• Audio CDs are a snap to create. Just drag your music in MP3 or WMA format, and it will be turned into an audio CD.

Extras

• Disc-labeling module lets you print your playlist over your choice of graphics on to a CD label.
• LabelFlash – with appropriate burners and discs, you can burn a title or text directly on CDs or DVDs.
• Dual-core support - Get enhanced performance from Intel® Duo processors on desktop and laptop.
• DVD Copy 4 – simple, easy to use … Silver version now includes:
  • Get video from anywhere
  • Shrink dual-layer DVDs on to one single-layer disc
  • Burn any video format to disc.
• WinDVD 7 Player – Silver version now included, for smooth, crisp playback of all your standard-definition video files and discs.

System Requirements and Format Support:

Minimum Requirements:

• Intel® Pentium® III 800 MHz, AMD Athlon™ XP 1800+ 
• 512 MB RAM (1GB or above recommended)
• Microsoft® Windows® 2000 SP4, XP SP2 Home Edition/Professional, XP Media Center Edition, XP Professional x64 Edition
• 900 MB hard disk free space for program installation
• DirectX® 9.0, Windows Media Format 9, Macromedia Flash Player 7, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or above
• Windows® compatible sound card
• Windows® compatible display with 1024 x 768 resolution or above
• Windows® compatible AGP or PCI graphics card (overlay support is recommended)
• Windows® compatible mouse or pointing device

Optional Requirements:

• Intel® Pentium 4 HT, 2.8 GHz, AMD Athlon™ 64 3800+ or higher is required when capturing and burning directly from DV/TV Tuner to DVD discs. 
• 1GB RAM or above recommended for HD project. 
• USB1.0/2.0 or PCI capture devices compliant with WDM standards and PC cameras 
• IEEE-1394 (FireWire) I/O devices compliant with OHCI standards cards for use with DV/HDV/D8 camcorders 
• PCI, TV tuner, USB capture device for analog capture (WDM support) 
• Windows® compatible BD-RE, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R/RW drives 
• 10 GB of available hard drive space or higher for 2 hours of high-quality DVD video capturing 
• 10 GB of available hard drive space or higher for DVD disc burning 
• 30 GB of available hard drive space or higher for 3 hours of HD-quality video capturing.

File Format Support:

Import:

• Video: HDV, WMV-HD, DVB-T HD, MPEG-4, DVD-Video, DVD+VR, DVD-VR, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DV AVI, AVI, DAT, VOB, MPV, Windows Media Video (WMV none HD, ASF), QuickTime™ (MOV, QT), Ulead VideoStudio project (VSP)
• Audio: CDA, LPCM, MPEG Audio (MPA), WAV, Dolby® Digital, WMA, Ogg Vorbis Audio (OGG), MP3
• Image: BMP, GIF, JP2, JPC, JPG, PNG, TGA, TIF

Export:

• Video: HDV, WMV-HD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, Windows Media Video (WMV, ASF), QuickTime™ (MOV, QT)
• Audio: LPCM, MPEG Audio (MPA), Dolby® Digital Stereo, MP3
• Image: BMP, JPG
• Disc: DVD (DVD-Video, DVD+VR, DVD-VR), miniDVD, VCD, SVCD, Audio only DVD, Audio CD, MP3 CD/DVD/BD, Data CD/DVD/BD
• Media: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD+R (Single/Double Layer), DVD-RAM (CPRM), BD-R/RE

Test Machine:

For this review we will be using computers with the following configurations:

Test Machine #1:

• Processor: AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 146 @ 2.93GHz
• RAM: 2x 1GB G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GBZX
• Motherboard: eVGA / Jetway 939GT4-SLI
• Graphic Card: eVGA e-Geforce 7800GTX @ 513/1.35
• Sound: Onboard AC97
• Hard Disk: 2x 200GB SATA Maxtor, 1x 320GB SATA Seagate
• Optical Drives: Lite-On LH-18A1P-185, LG GSA-H22N, BenQ DW1800

Test Machine #2:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz @3.40 GHz
• Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe WI-FI/AP (BIOS 1503)
• RAM: 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 PC2-6400
• Graphic Card: ATI RADEON X850XT Platinum Edition
• Sound: Realtek ALC882 High Definition (onboard)
• Hard disks: 160GB Seagate SATA-II, 300GB Seagate SATA-II, 300GB Maxtor SATA.
• Optical Drives: LG GBW-H10N Blu-ray, Panasonic SW-5582 Blu-ray, Plextor PX-760SA, BenQ DW1655

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 is installed on both machines.

Let’s head to the next page where we will run through the main functions of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 Plus.

Conclusion

Program Run Through