Looking for the Holy Grail...

[Durtdawber]

OK, I have reviewed the forum for this info but did not find it stated directly. I am just a casual, home user of video equipment. I utilize my camcorder for taking pictures of my family. I would like to offload these pictures to a CD-R or CD-RW for storage and sharing with family. Here is my question:

What is the best, all-in-one, program for capturing the video from the camcorder and creating a VCD? Easy to use, but still provides a high quality video.

Thanks in advance!

[BJ_M]

i would have to say for ease of use , quality, feature, price and stability - you can not beat PowerDirector 2.0 Pro (full of feature but super simple to use - very intuitive)

http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=45

[alkieman]

Also worth checking out are Ulead Videostudio 6 and the forthcoming Pinnacle Studio 8.

Ulead VideoStudio 6 has a new MPEG encoder which is vastly superior to the one used with V5. It also has DVD authoring built in as well as video capture, editing, transitions and titles etc. etc.

Pinnacle's forthcoming Studio 8 looks to be even better. Studio 7 currently beats everything else in the budget range for quick, simple and powerful editing but it has very, very poor MPEG output and no built in DVD authoring. Pinnacle's new Studio 8 has a vastly improved MPEG encoder and if it lives up to the promises, some incredible DVD authoring features. Studio 8 will be the only budget DVD authoring application to support moving video in your DVD buttons just like the professional studios produce. It's released later this week in the States and later this month in Europe. Me, i'm first in the queue in the UK.

Also worth checking out is MGI VideoWave 5 although the MPEG encoder is very poor. It is however, simply to use and supprts VCD and DVD.

[Mirror_Image]

Ulead VideoStudio 6 has a new MPEG encoder which is vastly superior to the one used with V5.

You can say that again; the difference in quality between mpeg encodes done in UVS5 and UVS6 (properly patched with the 2 Ulead patches, of course) is quite large. I get no significant macroblocking when encoding from a quality source file to VCD with UVS6.

The movies (classics, from TCM network, made from cable TV 352x480 MPEG-2 4.8mbps VBR captures) that I encoded to 1150/224 VCD with UVS5 are being replaced (when possible) with the same movies, but encoded to VCD with UVS6 this time (and the old ones being tossed after I make the new one).

Give the 30-day trial a shot, and see what you think:

http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm