VideoPack 5 - to be or not to be?

[Monkee]

Okay,
I have £400 to spend and I really am not sure if I should spend it on VideoPack 5, MyDVD or Pinnacle Impression.
Can the Companies not provide Evals for any of these products. I had everything working sweet using WinonCD using the VCD creation methods but now just want to goto DVD and I don't want to find using 1 product which simply is not suitable for my needs.
I'm not intrested in MultiAngles, Subtitles or even Dolby Digital - jjust something that will take my mpegs from TMPEng and build a loads of menus on my DVD.
I've been reading good and bad things about VideoPack but still am unsure about it - surelu there must be an eval version somewhere before I purchase the proper thing.
mailtoareshj001@hotmail.com

Thanks for the help guys - vcdhelp and it's members rock!

[Jestorius]

If you need a software to author VCD/SVCD and DVD with motion menu than you can go for Videopack5. MyDVD is for DVD only. You can author and burn CD-R with mpeg1 video but it's still a DVD with software player.

[Monkee]

ANyone know where I can buy this off the shelf or from Uk site to order it from.

If you bought VP5 recently how much did you pay for it and how long would delieveries take from the roxio website

[Jestorius]

Pinnacle Impression is the same as MyDVD. Only DVD or cDVD.
Impression DVD-Pro is for authoring with all the futures you can find in DVD. I have only Impression DVD SE. It works well and it's comming with Pinnacle DV500+ or Pro. Pinnacle Express can make VCD/SVCD and DVD.

[itspman]

I parted with £350 pounds for Videopack 5 and I find this product exceptionaly poor. It is difficult to use, very limited in some areas buggy in others and I wish I had sent it straight back without opening the box (in fact the box is the only nice thing about the product).

I am now having the same quandry as you I.E which software to choose and at present I am swayed down the Impressions route as it seems although a little buggy to be fairly stable and produce exceptional results especially in the menu area as these are created through Photoshop.

I still wish spruceup had made it to release 2.0 as this program had the potential to be exceptional still I guess thats why Apple killed it.

[Monkee]

Right I've done it.

I ordered VideoPack5 from jungle.com for 279.99.

After your last post and a report in this months PC Pro magazine about the high price and the lack of features, I've decided to cancel (gotta ring jungle to do that..yet.)

I've opted for Pinnacle Impressions Pro
Hope it does the job

[itspman]

Please let me know if you are happy with Impressions Pro as I have the SE version and am thinking about upgrading to the full version but am loathed to spend the money after just spending the £350 on Videopack, would be interested to hear your comments after you have used it.

Cheers

[Monkee]

Will do..I get the product in a few days so give me a week or so after I've had a good play about with it. It certainly seems like the choice to make. I've been told from many independent dealers that they've had the videopack product in but decided not to offer it to consumers becuase of it's two major deficiencies (price features). Roxio had a good thing going with WinONCD and had they kept it (VP5) around the winoncd prices (<£150) then the package would have been worth it.

Pinnacles product seem to be up there with the professional products and I suppose is an investment. check out there feature listing..

http://videoguys.com/impressionsDVD.html

A lot of that I woun;t actually use but it's also seems value for money.

give you all a shout after I've played with it.

[itspman]

Monkee

May I ask were you are purcahsing it from (I can't seem to find a dealer in UK selling it for a reasonable price).

Cheers

[Monkee]

I spoke to guy called Simon - very helpful. If you ring up and ask for him and then tell him that he had dealt with Josh then he will talk to you about a special promo deal that they are doing at the moment - Pinnacle Impressions for £468 (inc vat) - normal price is £599 -

Here is their website
http://www.sirentechnology.co.uk/system/index.html

I've order my product and am expecting it today.
btw what will you do with your old vp5 software?

[itspman]

Thanks

Will try and sort this out today, thats the best price I have seen so far in UK.

The vp5 software will probably go in the bin, seriously though I will be looking to sell it not sure where to advertise it though.

[Monkee]

Sell it here...I'm sure people looking for a package like this but can't spend that kind of money can get some basic use for it and at least you won't have lost out too much for it..

VCDHelp should have a forum for selling bits and pieces like this. Baldrick if you're listening. How about setting up a section that has software/hardware and misc??

[itspman]

Wow what service!!

I have just ordered from Siren and the guy was so helpfull, the offer finished yesterday but he has let me have one at that price for delivery tommorow.

Thanks again for the info

Cheers

[Monkee]

Good stuff!, hope the package is upto what it says will do..add any hints and tips you learn about on vcdhelp if you can.

you do know that this package does not come with an mpeg 2 encoder. I will be using TMPeng as it seems to be the best encoder out there.

[itspman]

Yes, Tempeng is excellent

I will be producing mpeg2 from both my Dazzle DVC2 card for S-video captures and via my Pinnacle DV500+ for miniDV and premier edits - both of these have given me exceptional results. My wedding video that I produced looks absoultley stuuning on DVD and plays back on every DVD player I have tried.

Hoping that Impressions will allow me to enhance it even more with motion menus and an AC3 soundtrack.

[Monkee]

Fantastic - at least you have had the ability to build a DVD and get it working on players - I've yet to experience that.

My pioneer writer came with Sonic MyDVD 2.3 which prompts "Unknown errors" when I add an mpeg to a simple menu. Very Annoying when there is no documentation on the errors.

[itspman]

I have had all sorts of problems with my mpeg encoded files, the ones from the dazzle need demuxing I use a tool I found on the dazzle forum - once demuxed they go into Spruceup with no problems so I guess they would work in Sonic 2.3.

Ones from my DV500+ have a spike of user data at the end of the file which means they will not plug into spruceup etc, I run these through the bitrate viewer and tell it to remove the spike.

These files then plug efforlessly into Spruce.

This whole business is a minefield but the end results are worth persevering with, the joy of seeing footage taken by yourself, edited by yourself and then authored by yourself on widescreen tv playing from a DVD makes it all worthwhile

[Monkee]

Spikes, Demuxing - boy - all these things are things I hoped I would not need to worry about.

As my DV capture unit is a pinnacle DV200 I am hoping that I won't get these problems. After editing my files from Adobe Premiere and exporting the AVI's and then encoding - I seriously hope the Impressions DVD authoring pakage will accept them no problem.

I've got Friday off to do some serious playing about. Check out my web site which contains images of what my VCD's looked like - http://www.djspacebar.com
And if you're interested in a DJ for a wedding for someone you know then you know who to suggest. Every gig we do will get one of my cool DVD's.

BTW does anyone on this forum know where I can get Cheap DVD-R media from?

[itspman]

for media, I use:

first4media.com

they offer cheap branded DVDR/RW media as well as all other types of media, service is quick and reliable.

lynxdv.com seems faily reasonable in price as well.

[Monkee]

Thanks itspman

Unbranded DVD-R media for £4 each - seems like the cheapest I've seen. Bearing in mind that Unbranded media must mean (untested /should work type media) so a pack of 25 would cost £3.6 each (just in case you create lots of duff coasters)
http://www.lynxdvd.co.uk/store/

[Monkee]

AND to everyone looking to find a dvd writer. I'd like to say that this is the cheapest anywhere that you will find a Pioneer A03 recorder - I bought my 2nd Hand for £400 but this company is doing this for £420 Brand New.

[BMzx]

The best software I have found for making VCDs is Ulead Video Studio 5 with DVD PlugIn.

It is very easy to use. You can make menus with chapter points. You can add text and specail effects. And it will automatically convert to the proper format.

The only thing I don't like about it is that while the VCD is playing on a DVD player when you press the chapter advance putton it bring you back to the menu then you have to push a number button to jump to a different chapter point. Anyone know if there is a way to fix this?

[Monkee]

This is the only way you're going to get navigation working with VCD's. This is part of the VCD spec. You can use the remote control arrow buttons etc when you move upto DVD.

[BMzx]

Monkee...was your last replay to me?

If I make a VCD with Easy CD Creator I can advance to the next chapter directly without going back to hte main menu.
but...I don't like using Easy CD Creator because you have to chop a long video to make chapter points at the start of each seperate video and I can not figure out how to make a menu with it?

[Monkee]

BMzx - Yes the last and this response is to you.
Personally I've tried using Easy CD Creator and - it's crap at doing menus. I've only experience with WInONCD and that product has all the connectors working fine which allow you to add menu items to your mpeg file so that when a user presses the numbered buttons on the remote it will navigate to the correct mpg file.
I can't really comment on Easy CD creator as I have not invested much time in it. I realised you can only have 1 menu option and that bugged me. Try and locate a copy of WinOnCD PE and this will do what you want.

[BMzx]

Monkee, With WinOnCD can you make menus and chapter points within one large MPG or can it only be done with several smaller mpgs made into one VCD...do you know what I mean ?

Thanks

[Monkee]

No, you will have to create smaller mpegs and use the connector nodes to link them all.
I think the VP5 product (next update) does allow you to set up chapter points in one big mpg file.

[Jestorius]

Monkee,

My DVDit is just perfect to do DVD jobs. I can burn the DVD on DVD-RW directly from the software. The clue is to test the mpegs with http://www.tecoltd.com -s bitrate software.

VP5 allows you to set up chapter points in one big mpeg. Just make the chapter point and link to the buttom.

[BMzx]

I can not figure out how to make menus and chapter points with VP5. I've searched their help files and can't find it. Cany anyone point me in the right direction?
Thier overview says it is very easy to use...but I don't think so. DVDit can only do DVDs...right...not VCDs?

[kon]

Jestorius:

How do you link buttons to chapter points?
To get a button in VP5 you need to have a sub element linked to the menu element. Elemnts are video tracks. When I bring in the same video again and agin - vp5 adds it up so the project size becomes huge. ant ideas?