VideoPack5 is great!

[tendtend]

Thanks Leebo and Kon for giving good instruction for making SVCDs that looks like DVD using VideoPack5. I have a chance to try this, the following is my evaluations:
(1) Have almost no idea how to use it at the begining, but after spending some time (with the help of leebo's instruction. Thank you so much, leeo and kon and ...), it is not difficult (actually I think it is easier than using Ulead movie factory after the practice) to author a SVCD with fancy menu features.
(2) No problem at all for authoring a functional SVCD. Such as goto, ->|, |<-, fast forward, and etc. work well.
(3) The munu creator is good. Can use still image and motion vedio.
(4) The motion button is the greatest feature, I think. I open 9 widowns for preview at the menu page with about 5min background music (so I can review a 30min vedio in the 9 small windows in a few minutes). Also it's fun to have 9 different video to play in the same time.
(5) the menu page can be set to goto the next chapter after it finishs. So we do not have to press a play button during the menu page play, that's a nice feature for our lazy guys.

It is really good, so I can discard all other VCD softwares except TMPG (for encoding), Ulead Video Studio (for capturing DV avi), and VedioPack5 (for authoring).

[leebo]

I agree. Thats why this time I actually PAID for it!

If only they would fix the DVD bug though. Thats the main reason I got it.

BTW, VP5 will do the encoding for you. No need for TMPCEnc (though it will only cut clips, not join them.

[Sefy]

Hmmm... I don't know, although I like the fact you guys helping each other and all, that's a great thing, but, VideoPack5 was rather a disappointmen to me, first, the huge size, the money, and the fact it has less features then TSCV which is a free and much smaller sized program.

It's rather of a disappointment, I think if you spend the same amount of time on TSCV, you might ask for a refund on VideoPack

[zed]

Unless Im wrong but im sure TSCV cant do DVD can it??

Zed

[tendtend]

Sefy, I also agree with you regarding the price and size. Also I always think that free software is better than commercial software because the free software developers are smarter. However, the free software sometimes have a poor interface (I know smart guys do not need graphics interface).

So far, compared with those commercial softwares, VideoPack5 beat all others in fuctions.

[wcb4]

who manufacture's video pack 5? (a url would be nice)

[Baldrick]

http://www.roxio.com

[paul_tp]

I did not like the software at all, first of all it does not run under windows XP, for software just realsed did not think that was the best.

I found the user interface for VCD`s(Have not tried the others) almost bad as video pack 4, there were lots of times it moved the clips around to places that I did not want, just because I click in the wrong place, and I found it hard to get the fine control of actions, no line auto line up on the buttons and once you have put text on the screen under a button, is impossiable to get to the text with out moving the buttons.

Anyway it went straight back in the box, and sent it back to the shop.

I will stick to the control that video pack 4 gives me, even if it has a nasty UI

This software is not cheap, and it did not live up to any thing that I hoped for, but I am goign to try TSCV

Paul_tp

[Sefy]

zed, I don't think TSCV can do DVD's at the moment, but i'm sure if you guys pressure the author he might add it in

tendtend, well the good authors deal more with the bugs and features and sometimes tend to forget about Interface, but if I could handle TSCV, believe me, it's not that difficult

paul_tp, you should check TSCV, for VCD and SVCD, nothing is even near it when it comes to features, for basic understanding, you can check my Guide's Chapters and Menus sections

[Whoosh25]

Just took alook at the Using TSCV MenuGenerator guide ...looks kinda scary...got stuck at (2)...got to figure out the creating layout part.

Hey Sefy how about more "made for dummy" guide ...you know with more steps and red markings on the images, etc...

[leebo]

Does TSCV do motion menus and motion buttons?

BTW VP5 DOES work in XP. I have it on two different XP machines. It worked in XP even b4 the XP patch came out. The patch only fixed the CD emulator.

[tendtend]

I ever read a article about the chapter creation for (S)VCD (believe the author is here, but forgot the name, sorry). It said the (S)VCD menu and chapters can not be as the same as DVD. One example is:
A MPG file with four entry points A, B, C, D. If the video is played from A, before it reaches B, the ->| has no problem, since the next will be B, but if it passes B, when press ->|, it still goes to B (not C or D). The author said it is the limitation of the VCD, but DVD has no such problem (e.g. if it passes B, the next will be C instead of B if ->| is pressed). I did make a SVCD using VCDEasy, and the performance is just as what the author described.

However, when I tested my SVCD created by VideoPack5, the ->| is alway to the next entry point behind the currect play point. For example (still A B C D), when I play from A, after the video passes B, when I press ->|, the next will be C not B. So the SVCD is exactly like a DVD. I got confused, since from the author, it is not possible to make a (S)VCD like this, but videopack5 just does it.

[tendtend]

Found the URL for the article:
http://www.geocities.com/medinotes/vcd/chapters.html

in the article, it said:
--------------------------------
Now, if "next" is pressed BEFORE reaching the time point of "entry2" then all is well. However, what happens if "next" is pressed while the playback is between "entry2" and "entry3"? It will go to <next> and that links to (b)! That is, in terms of function, we pressed "next" and went to a point in the video we have already watched!

Indeed, pressing "next" any time while in (a) will go to (b) and thus beginning playback at "entry2".

Unfortunately, this particular aspect of VCD chaptering is its limitation. There is no real way to get around this. One just has to accept that the next and prev buttons on the remote are not quite context specific...

However, we can augment the underlying chaptering system by creating "scene select" menus to help cover to some degree this particular limitation.
-----------------------------------

[Sefy]

Whoosh25, I didn't know my TSCV Menu looks scary, but i'll see what I can do to improve on it, considering it was my own first attempt at doing so, as for the "made for dummy", well, I would like to think that even newbies aren't dummies
But i'll try making it more simple, although I did try doing it as step-by-step as possible, as for red markings, well, please do consider I got over 140 images now, but i'll see what I can do, I aim to please

leebo, yup, TSCV can do Motion-Menus and I believe Motion-Buttons as well, but you should has the Author for more details on those.

tendtend, I think the best way to go to the exact chapter you want, is to press the number of the chapter, this works, as I have tried it myself.

[The Ironduke]

video pack doesnt work in xp, even after the patch it gives a blue screen acpi.sys error when shutting down xp.

roxio great on paper sh*t in reality

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Ironduke on 2001-12-09 23:24:36 ]</font>

[Sefy]

ACPI error huh ? try also checking for a BIOS update for your mainboard, sometimes if you got an outdated ACPI it gives problems.