What do you guys think of this product?

[hunts]

Looks like this new version of this product includes MPEG2 encoding:

http://www.vob.de/us/products/consumer/InstantCD/index.htm

[ian follow]

It looks promising. Hoever, I'd expected the price to be much higher. I wonder if someone tried it cause it looks too good.

[Mirror_Image]

It does seem way too cheap for what it states that it will do. However, I haven't tried it, so I can't judge the quality one way or the other.

[akhenat0n]

It doesn't give you any options, it encodes to standards only.

[gll99]

I downloaded and regged it because the demo was too restrictive to run proper tests. (Please don't request my reg cause the answer is no, even privately)

Before I explain my tests, a bit of background.

This program is made up of a bunch of modules for video, audio or data processing or backup. I only tried the "InstantVideo" module.

This module will convert various source ie DVD or AVI to vcd,svcd or DVD.
The options are limited and the encoder quality is based on the number of disks you want as output. There is also a quality option which is low, med, high or automatic. These could be filters???

There is slow response on some actions so you almost think it's locked.
There is a video capture option but I only got audio with no video and no view window. The app locked on this option. I have a P4 1.6, 512 L2 cache and 512 DDR 333 mem so its not my system. Rebooted and tried again but same problem.

There is a wizard but some options are not available in the wizard and if you run it you have to know what your default settings are or it will go with that. For example # of output CD 1,2 or 3. You can change this in the menus but when the app starts if you use the wizard it will use the last settings. There is an option to change the disk 74min 80, 90 99 and the output mpeg file but even if you go higher than 650mb it goes back to 650 (weird). Lots of little stuff like that. Needs more testing.

You only need enough space for the work and target directories since it doesn't copy the vob to your HD.

Test1 was a DVD rip to VCD:

I encoded a 90 min movie and it took 10 hours. I selected 80 min, 1 disk only option, expecting it to fit on 1 cd. The ouput file was 923mb (good thing I chose the write to file option.

There was a skip or jump 1 minute into the movie (blip) and a 20 second lag of the audio. The credits and faces have high pixilation in full screen mode. I did not burn it to CD because of the lag.

Test2 was DVD rip to svcd

I cancelled after 10% of movie time to see if I would get an output and it was saved. I chose the 2 cd option and ended up with a 6 minute clip at 106mb. If I had allowed it to continue, based on the file size and if it split in the right place it would prbably have fit on 2 CD.
The skip or jump (blip) was gone but unfortunately this file too had a really bad lag were the audio trailed the video by 10 to 20 seconds. The video was a better but still pixilation around the credits and facial features although not quite as bad.

Test 3 AVI to SVCD

This was a downloaded AVI of time bandit so had a few artifacts to begin with but I wanted to try conversion. The results were about the same as test 2 and still the same terrible audio lag.

General observations:

Except for the audio lag which they need to fix this app does make vcd or svcd and does convert avi. DVD ouput I can't comment on. Any quality claims (like DVD quality) on there part would be an extreme exageration.

I did not use there burner option so can't comment on that. (that is one extra feature that is more like Dup-DVD.


My opinion:

I make no moral judgments as to where they got the inner code but the interface looks newly designed.

I only ran 3 tests but that is enough to convince me that it's not worth it.

Obviously I can't be too harsh on these few tests but if I compare it to something similar I must say that DVDx as a standalone app or with the frameserving to tmpgenc will give much better results and is just as easy to use. You have greater control over the input and output file ie... resolution, codecs, framerate etc.... even in standalone mode and its free.

I do not recommend buying this app. Unless you are easily pleased. You will be very disappointed.

[ian follow]

That's it: good thing is either a freeware or it costs $$$$$$.

[hunts]

gll99: wow! I'm impressed with what you just went through! I was just wondering if someone already tried it before, but you went a step further and actually tried it out! I'm very impressed by your review. Do you do this for a living or work for a magazine? Your thoughts are very well organized and laid out.. professional.

I spotted this software in the recent issue of Videomaker (I think). Just found it odd there's hardly any info on this, but now we know this product still needs a lot of work! Thanks gll99 and all for the feedbacks!

[gll99]

hunts:

Thank you for the favorable comments. I wrote my review very quickly so there are many grammatical errors but I am glad that the information was helpful.

I am not affiliated with any commercial software distributor or publishing company. You brought the software to my attention in your query. I am always eager to find new tools, so curiousity led me to investigate, conduct my own limited trials and report the preliminary results to your thread to share it with the member community of VCDhelp.

Many of us are cautious with claims made by advertisers about high quality conversion of DVD media. Most of them are ebooks with pointers to downloads or copies of freeware applications imbedded in their setup.

This is not the case with this application. They have designed a standalone modular product with their own dynamic link libraries (dll). The app may serve some novice individuals. I cannot sincerely say that you would be getting ripped off if you purchased this software but neither am I endorsing it.

In the spirit of fairness, it would be a very beneficial if some other users had an opportunity to try all the features available in the different modules included with this program.

I have been experimenting with video capture and editing for many years so have a "feel" as to the source of the core code built into an app even if the GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been redesigned.

It is obvious to me that this application was created using multiple task driven engines taken from various sources. As an example the capture application imbedded in the InstantVideo module has the same slugish glitch and "locking up" that occurs when I use an application called "Showshifter". It's not just because it is designed to use directshow filters because I have many other apps that work that way but do not lock up. To me it points to a common design or a program that uses the similar dll's and has the same conflicts. Other portions of the code have the general features of dup-dvd and MovieJack which have limited encoder/conversion options available to the user.

I do not believe that the basic source code was taken from DVDx which is available under gnu licence because they would have had to disable too many advanced and useful features.

My conclusion stand until I see observations from other users that would allow me to modify my test parameters to dramatically improve the results. I believe that the program's environment is too confining for regular users of this forum who are interested in achieving the highest quality results and maximum compression simultaneously.

[harrymj3]

I also downloaded and installed this product. I am kind of new at this but this is the first progrom that I haven't been able to figure out at all. I'd say poor instructions, poor performance. and no uninstall included. I finally got it out of my computer, I think, but toolame hasn't worked since. Don't know how it got to be "one of the best" on the tools page. Proceed w/caution. .... harrymj3

[gll99]

harrymj3 wrote

Don't know how it got to be "one of the best" on the tools page. Proceed w/caution. .... harrymj3

Actually I found the startup GUI to be very professional and easy to follow but once I got past the introductory panels and into the InstantVideo module I found it to be lacking in logical structure.

I am wondering how it got on the tools page too with the that caption.

To any moderators:

Has this product been reviewed here before? I'll do a site search and see what comes up.