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I must echo Ross's comments on one thing last week - Canopus ProCoder is a total and utter dog of a program. Seriously, I'd be unimpressed by its level of unexplained bugginess in a shareware package, never mind something costing 300 - yes, 300 - pounds.
Let's see.
We bought it to automate our release process by running off Quicktime, Windows Media and Divx versions of our vids automatically. It can't do that - it doesn't play nice with Quicktime 7, and crashes with unexpected errors whenever you ask it to encode an H.264 video. It also sometimes mysteriously crashes when running out WMVs.
We also wanted it to convert our AVI files to Quicktime for Final Cut Pro. It can do that - most of the time. I reckon it crashes about 1 time in 4. However, it can't handle input files with different aspect ratios - it just automatically puts black letterboxes around the edge of some of the videos. It does this, by the way, automatically, and there's no way to turn it off, according to Canopus Tech Support.
(Virtualdub, which is FREE, handles the problem without incident. Oh, how I wish there was a version of VDub that would handle Quicktime.)
And, just now, it won't convert 2 files with inpoints and outpoints into Quicktime. No wierd aspect ratios, no odd codecs- we're using PNG, for heaven's sake - it just crashed out every time with a "QT Writer Error". Eventually I did it in Premiere instead. Because it was easier.
So, if you're reading this and looking for a decent video conversion package, for the love of whatever deity you choose, buy Cleaner XL. (We would, but we can't afford another three-figure purchase right now). Or code your own. Or use Compressor. Just don't buy ProCoder. It's possibly the worst, most buggy commercial package I've ever used.
Let's see.
We bought it to automate our release process by running off Quicktime, Windows Media and Divx versions of our vids automatically. It can't do that - it doesn't play nice with Quicktime 7, and crashes with unexpected errors whenever you ask it to encode an H.264 video. It also sometimes mysteriously crashes when running out WMVs.
We also wanted it to convert our AVI files to Quicktime for Final Cut Pro. It can do that - most of the time. I reckon it crashes about 1 time in 4. However, it can't handle input files with different aspect ratios - it just automatically puts black letterboxes around the edge of some of the videos. It does this, by the way, automatically, and there's no way to turn it off, according to Canopus Tech Support.
(Virtualdub, which is FREE, handles the problem without incident. Oh, how I wish there was a version of VDub that would handle Quicktime.)
And, just now, it won't convert 2 files with inpoints and outpoints into Quicktime. No wierd aspect ratios, no odd codecs- we're using PNG, for heaven's sake - it just crashed out every time with a "QT Writer Error". Eventually I did it in Premiere instead. Because it was easier.
So, if you're reading this and looking for a decent video conversion package, for the love of whatever deity you choose, buy Cleaner XL. (We would, but we can't afford another three-figure purchase right now). Or code your own. Or use Compressor. Just don't buy ProCoder. It's possibly the worst, most buggy commercial package I've ever used.
If you've not got the time/energy, I can help out. I'm working 9-5, but after that I'm quite happy to bend people to my will. I had that sort of day on Sunday. :)
We kinda lost the box, with the CD in it. However, we still have the dongle (the bit that makes it go) and we have receipts and all that sort of thing, so if you reckon it would be a goer on that basis...
We've had the program a bit over a month.
MPEG Streamclip
http://www.squared5.com/
Re: MPEG Streamclip
Super is simply that
Believe me, I don't mean to sound like a salesperson but its freeware and its been a great addition to my video software library.
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Re: Super is simply that
We need to go to the Animation codec, which Super doesn't support.
cleaner xl
you will be pleasnatly surprised ..
Re: cleaner xl
Plus, I'd infinitely prefer to use either reasonably-priced or open-source software.
I agree
Oh and as for the black bars yes they are annoying, but can be dealt with. You have to fool PC into thinking you dont need any aspect ratio change, so put the same aspect ratio setting in the source and target. (this normally takes 2 tries before the damn thing works how you want it)