cucusoft conversion program

[dave_c]

if anybody has used this program, what are its pros and cons?

[mickey sabbath]

I happen to think very highly of this program. Admittedlty I'm relative newbie to the world of conversion but I've found it the best conversion program available. Just to indicate my faith in the program, with the exception of the Norton Anti-virus and Firewall program, it's the only software I've ever purchased. I think it's well worth the $20, especially because the price includes free updates indefinitely.

I found the great virtue of the program is its simplicity. It's virtually idiot-proof, performing the multi-plexing and audio compression and bit rate calculation for you. But best of all, it also compresses the file during conversion. Accordingly, a 700MB .avi file converted to VCD or SVCD could conceivably end up as a 750MB or 800MB SVCD file and therefore amenable to burning on a single CD. (although often I find it best to split the .avi file into two sub-files using Virtual Dub beforehand.)

The only drawback about which I can quibble is its relatively slow speed. A 700MB .avi will take between 8 to 10 hrs to convert and in the meantime, the software usurps about 97% of your CPU.

That being said, I still think for a newbie, or for someone who doesn't want to spend the time and work DVD2SVCD entail, it's the best conversion program out there.

[mickey sabbath]

Ah, one thing further I neglected to mention. The reason why the compression capablitity is so critical is that it circumvents NERO's greatest shortcoming. As you may already have discovered, when you use Nero for conversion AND burning, the program will frequently preclude you from overburning. For example, I recently converted Laurel Canyon, a 700MB .avi file, using Cucusoft into a 770MB SVCD file and successfully burned it onto a single 800MB CD.

When I tried to use Nero, in contrast, for both the conversion AND the burning, not only was I unable to burn the SVCD onto a single CD, I was even unable to create two SVCD's. That is when I used VirtualDub first to divide the .avi file into 2 350MB sub files, NERO still read EACH, once converted into an SVCD file format, as too large for burning on a single 800MB CD.

I still have no explanation whatsoever for the anomaly.