Cucusoft Convert AVI to VCD, AVI to DVD is a simple and easy-to-use converter that supports batch processing and merging of output movies to files of specified size.

The full name of this application «Cucusoft Mpeg/Mov/Rm/AVI to DVD/VCD/SVCD/MPEG converter», that I will further refer to as Cucusoft converter, says for itself what this program is designed to do.

The first thing that you see after starting the program is a window displaying status of codecs available on your PC. Here you may check if your codecs will correctly work. If not, there is a link to Cucusoft website for downloading proper codecs. The way this program informs about codecs is quite good, although, as I will describe below, it does not work always correct and status OK does not guarantee that everything will be ok with a codec.

The inteface of the program is simple and well organized. Buttons of the main window are quite common for such type of programs. There are buttons to switch a mode (To VCD, To DVD, To SVCD, To MPEG1 and To MPEG2) at the top of the window. Below these buttons list of files to be processed is displayed. You can add/remove any of them and change their order in the list. Also here you can specify whether these files should be merged to one output file (Merge option) or processed seperately (Batch option). Batch processing may really help you not to sit and do repeatedly the same operations when you need to process many files, but shift this work off to Cucusoft converter.

Below the list of files preview area is located. Both input and output movies are displayed. Although it presents only general sense of what you will get (movies are displayed in a small areas, that is why you can not compare the quality of input and output movies), it is much better than in some other converters, where only one preview of either input or output movie is available. What is not good in the Cucusoft converter that there are no controls to scroll the movie, and if you want to see the last part of the movie, you have to watch the whole file.

Below the preview area the following additional settings may be turned on: Flip Vertical, Split target Movie Every [size] Mbytes, Auto add subtitle.

When all settings have been specified, you may run the conversion by clicking a big Convert button. A new window displaying progress and estimated time of conversion process appears. At any time conversion may be halted or paused by clicking correspondingly Stop or Pause buttons.

To check the program, I tried to convert AVI movie and DVD (vob) movie to MPEG1. AVI file was succesfully opened and converted. As to DVD, when I tried to add it to list of files to be processed, the message informing that the file can not be opened due to some problems with codecs appeared. It also suggested to visit Cucusoft website and download new codecs. Well, I downloaded the All-in-one package, but it did not help! I also tried to open some other VOB files, and the result was the same. Thus, I have to conclude that Cucusoft converter can not deal properly with its own codecs! It is not good in any way, and it gives Cucusoft converter at least minus 30 points.

As to some other positive things in the program, the developer also announces that this converter is optimized for 64-bit CPUs. I think this is a good thing, because conversion rate depends largely on CPU capabilities, and with 64-bit CPUs being more and more popular, this feature is right up-to-date and may allow you to convert movies twice as fast.

As to requirements for running this program, you need to have DirectX 8.0 or later installed. And of course, the faster processor you have, the less time it will take to convert files (at least Intel Pentium MMX is recommended).

Now let's talk about limitations of the Lite free version of Cucusoft converter. First, in contrast with the Pro version, there are no means to customize format of output movies in Lite version. If you think you need this feature, then I advize you to try the Pro version, otherwise there is no need to pay higher price for features you are even not going to use. Then, if you use free trial version, all output movies will contain a so called watermark (that is «http://www.cucusoft.com» string across the screen), therefore you will not be able to use the program for real work until purchasing the full version.

Summing up, Cucusoft converter is quite simple and convenient converter with nice interface, but its problems with codecs make me look for some more reliable converter.

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