| Page 1 of 1 |
Ulead's DVD Workshop is a $299 DVD creation application that is wrapped in a Five Step Process built around tabs to get each aspect of your DVD project done. The application ships with a host of templates, text effects, and pre-built wizards to help you get started in creating professional looking DVDs.
The 1.3 update includes:
The Interface
When you first launch DVD Workshop, a simple screen loads with several options to choose from; Create a New Project, Open Project, and if you have created projects before with DVD Workshop, the most recent projects also appear on the Start Page. When you click New Project, a window appears with three fields where you type in the Project name, Subject and Description if necessary. Within this window you also select the location you wish to save your project as well as the Media type (DVD, VCD, SVCD) that you wish to create.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
The second tab is the Capture Tab. If you have an IEEE 1394 card, a USB camera, or an analog capture card that supports Video for Windows or WDM, you can capture video directly into DVD Workshop. The Capture Tab sports icons for Capture Video and Capture Image as well as the Capture Settings of your video. Here you can also select the Mode and add the video to a Title List. The number of captured frames as well as the number of dropped frames are also detailed in the Capture Tab.
 |
| The Capture Tab |
The third tab is the Edit Tab. This is where you prep your video for insertion into your DVD project. The editing functions within this tab enable you to insert, trim, and modify your clips. The chapters you want on the DVD are set in the Edit Tab.
The fourth tab is the Menu Tab. This is where you create menus for your DVD. Here you select the type of menus you wish to create. You can create a menu with the included templates, or you can start with a blank sheet and build all the elements yourself. You can also create a motion menu by inserting your motion background into a Blank Menu box under the Menu tab.
 |
| The Menu Tab |
After you insert the motion menu, you can add text, images, buttons, and other elements on it and link them to video or other submenus in your project. You can also add background music to your menu, using MPEG audio (MPA), WAV, or MP3 files. If you want to create a frame around a video picon on the menu, it is as easy as selecting a frame from the frame presets tab and double clicking--the frame will appear around the video picon on the menu. There are 50 frames to choose from.
Ulead's preferences window enables you to adjust DVD Workshop's preferences before you begin the authoring process. The Preferences windows parameters include the capability to enable undo, Smart Link, make your project VCD compliant, apply anti-flickering filter, show relink message, enable button number for DVD, Check Ulead's website for updates, change the default color background when you are using blank menu pages. you can also customize the title safe area margin using percentages, select resample quality, select TV system, and select default image clip duration.
The Capture tab let's you select image capture deinterlace, Stop tape when capturing stops, capture still image save format (JPEG or Bitmap), and the capability to select image quality.
Burning
After I transferred some video via FireWire, ran through the various wizards building the menus and adding text, I was ready to burn a DVD. However, when I clicked Burn disc, the software would hang. I wasn't really sure what the issue was, so I looked at the data files again to make sure I hadn't exceeded the physical limit of the DVD-RW media I was using. I was well under the 4.7GB limit so there were no issues there. The software ran the preview just fine, it just didn't want to burn. So I called Ulead for some tech support. The first question tech support asked me was if the machine had a removable media drive like a Zip drive or a USB drive.
 |
| The Make Disc window |
The computer that I tested the software on had a built in Memory Stick media slot, and I relayed that information to tech support. Tech support explained that when you ask the software to burn a disc, the software checks for an available device, and when it reaches a removable media device, it causes the software to stop functioning. Tech support then emailed a 1.3 patch that, among other things, addresses the removable media issue and after installing it, I was able to burn a DVD.
First impressions:
DVD Workshop is a capable DVD creation tool that offers just enough features to get you going with building DVDs. It is flexible enough in that you can use the supplied templates and menus, or you can build your own. You can also create motion menus for added flash. Despite some initial glitches that were easily fixed with an update (Always check manufacturer websites for updates) from Ulead, the software performed better than I had expected. There are plenty of templates and menus to get you started, the text tools enable you to apply a variety of styles, and the overall visual, build as you go, layout is pretty impressive in this first release software. DVD Workshop takes out a lot of the complexity of DVD authoring and wraps it into a spartan, yet visually appealing interface.
Technical Information:
File support
Export
Disc Support:
I/O support
Ulead's DVD Workshop minimum system requirements are Windows 98 or later, 450MHz Pentium III processor or higher (700MHz recommended), 64MB RAM, 150MB hard disk space, 4GB or more hard disk space for capturing and converting, 800 x 600 display, Windows compatible mouse and sound card.
For more information, visit www.ulead.com or click here for best price
Source: DMN
Related sites: • Corporate Media News • Digital Producer • DVD Creation
Related forums:
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
