CucuSoft iPod Video Converter Suite is an awesome package that contains two simple and easy to use tools to transform every single one of your videos into the iPod format and bring all of your DVDs, music or home videos to the palm of your hand.
Both DVD to iPod Converter and iPod Video Converter are powered by the same fast encoding engine developed by CucuSoft. With the simplicity of a bicycle and the power of an airplane, these two software pieces are a must-have for every iPod-holic out there.
Feature Set (4.5/5)
The first thing that should be noticed about CucuSoft iPod Video Converter Suite (more specifically, the DVD to iPod Video Converter application) is its speed: simply awesome. The fact that DVD to iPod conversion is executed directly saves a lot, and I mean A LOT, of time when compared to other similar software packages that need to convert your DVDs into AVI files first, and only then convert them into iPod–compatible format.
CucuSoft iPod Converter Suite supports a whole bunch of different formats, almost every one on the market. You can have videos encoded in VOB, DivX, XviD, MOV, RM, RMVB, MPEG, WMV or AVI formats and easily pack them into your iPod in MP4 format using a simple drag-and-drop interface. And that is just the iPod Video Converter. You can also use the other application in the package (DVD to iPod Video Converter) to rip all of your favorite movies, music DVDs or even home videos recorded with a DVD video camera directly from your disc into MP4, provided that your DVD disc is a standard DVD-Video format compliant. The suite supports Dolby sound as well as DTS Surround, and lets you choose the audio track and the subtitle track (is available) to include in the converted video.
Several options are available for you to seize control over your output iPod video file too. You can choose the size and frame rate of the converted files among several options, including H.264 video (up to 768 Kbps, sized 320 x 240, at 30 frames per second), MPEG-4 video (up to 2.5Mbps, at 30 fps, with a 640 x 480 resolution), and it even supports the latest video iPod 30G and 80G MPEG-4 video, up to a cool 640 x 480 resolution. One cool feature is that you can watch your DVD movie as it is converted, although with no sound at all.
Audio output quality can be as high as 160 Kbps at 48 kHz. stereo sound for M4V, MP4 and MOV files. DVDs can also be converted to audio-only files in MP3 format.
The only I could find is that your output is limited to iPod formats. For instance, you cannot make a backup copy of your DVDs into RealMedia RM format, or even AVI or DivX.
Ease Of Use (5/5)
When it comes to ease of use, the CucuSoft iPod Video Converter Suite is by all means excellent. Automatic CPU detection is built into both applications, which makes possible for the suite to auto choose the most convenient converting options to get the most out of your hard. Indeed, this is really useful, especially when working under the minimum requirements (which are very low, by the way).
By eliminating the need of tweaking the conversion process by hand, it gets as easy as a click. It seems like CucuSoft has taken usability really seriously. We recommend that novice, or even first-time users get these tools to obtain a good output quality without having to learn a manual on how to configure your converter application.
Ease Of Installation And Setup (5/5)
Installation of CucuSoft iPod Video Converter Suite presents no surprises: double click on the installer icon, follow the instructions and that’s it. The suite is also very small-sized, which allows any user to be converting videos to iPod format within as little as a couple of minutes.
The installer package has all you need, so you will not deal with finding runtime files or OS updates. In fact, you will not even need to restart your computer!
Quality Of Copy (4.5/5)
The CucuSoft iPod video converter suite produces decent quality iPod videos under the minimum required hardware conditions, and that can be considerably improved when running on better hardware. Although the program runs ok on the background, it is not recommended to perform any other tasks while conversion is in progress, as with all other converters.
Software Stability (5/5)
The Suite was tested under different Windows versions and was found to run perfectly. We also tested it on system running antivirus utilities known to be “problematic”, and found no harmful interaction, not even a decrease in the conversion speed.
Summary (4.8/5)
- Easy to install and use – just drag, drop and click.
- Supports almost every video input format, including RealMedia RM and QuickTime MOV videos.
- Supports the latest iPod 30G and 80G 640×480 MPEG-4 video size.
- Supports watching the source video while converting.
- Cheaper than buying both CucuSoft DVD to iPod Video Converter and CucuSoft iPod Video converter on separate packages.
- Allows DVD or video to audio-only MP3 conversion.
- Incredibly fast conversion.
- Really low requirements (MMX-Pentium with 32 MB of memory minimum!)
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Hi, Just purchased this program….I’ve converted a couple of DVDs but they convert in real time, I can’t find anyway to change this….It is the latest version and it doesn’t have the option to change the encode speed (like pictured above)….Can anybody help….Cheers.