Anybody have/use Magix 'movies to cd/dvd'?

[crudux-cruo]

I bought this for $39. It makes editing, chaptering, encoding & burning really easy. It is marketed for use as a VHS/DV Camcorder/HI8 - to - CD/DVD, but it also imports DV-AVI, MPEG1 & 2, Windows Media, Quicktime movie and it SAYS DVD VOB that 'has already been decoded and saved on your hard drive', yet I haven't figured out what that is or how to do that. I've just been fooling around with it for a week so I haven't mastered it. It uses Ligos Gomotion for it's encoding. So far, the video quality is better than the Nero SVCD plug-in that I foolishly shelled out $16 for (I found the plug-in at a website for free a week ago ). But I am wondering if it's just the way I'm ripping, converting, etc. compared to when I was using Nero, which was a few months ago. One good thing about this compared to Nero is that it allows you to 'preview' what you intend to burn before you waste a CD-R. That's what I've been doing. Playing with settings, etc.

I use Smart-ripper to rip the DVD
then either DVD2AVI or Mpeg Mediator to create an AVI.
This creates a great video/audio sample.

However, when I import it into Magix, the end result isn't as good as I had hoped for when I bought it. (OR maybe I'm expecting too much.) I wish I could see a good example of an SVCD from DVD. I wish I could remember off hand the bit rates I use. I know I use 224 for audio which comes out awesome. Video is 2516 or something like that (VBR). I'm at work writing this, so all my info is written down at home.

Anyways, here are a couple questions that might help me.
1. Would encoding in CBR instead of VBR improve the video?
2. What's the difference between AVI & DV-AVI or am I making that with DVD2AVI? IS there a difference?
3. Being this program says it will import DVD VOB streaming that has already been decoded, how do I achieve this?

Thanks alot.
The paper manual isn't very detailed and if you don't know alot about ripping/encoding, etc....you'd be lost if you bought Magix Movies to CD/DVD. Thank God I found this site months ago and have learned SOME stuff prior to buying it!

[glenn_r]

crudux,
I recently bought the MAGIX Video 2.0 Delux Plus for $99. I am new to making (encoding) videos and new to this forum.
I did successfully burn some self-made videos to a CD. I haven't bought a DVD burner yet. I tried the MiniDVD and SVCD formats. The SVCD format which plays on my Pioneer DVD player seems to be good quality (like VHS but not quite as good as a DVD).
There are PDF manuals on I believe all the MAGIX products which you can download from their www.magix.com site. I had to download all my manuals to learn how to use the program.
My big question is how to burn a Quicktime copy of my short video onto the same CD which is in SVCD format!
I would love to have one CD that could play my SVCD video on the DVD player and ALSO play a copy of the same video clip in Quicktime format on any PC. Perhaps it can't be done because of the SVCD format restrictions, but I tried all burning modes with my Adaptec(now Roxio) Easy CD Creator 5 software! No success yet!
Good luck on your experimenting. I still have a lot to learn but do enjoy composing arrangements using the MAGIX TimeLine.