14 DAY TRIAL // Video players can be found all over the place on the Internet. And really good ones, too. But what would you say if I delivered to you a video player that is also capable of splitting and joining video files?
Introducing to you VCDCut Pro- the video player that can do much more than play your video files. The software is produced by Jiao System. The installation file is a little over 13MB large and it will also install Jiao Video- a software for creating webcam effects. But this is another story so I won't go there at all.
Although the software is complicated and includes lots of interesting and useful features for a video player, the interface is quite lovely and easy to use. I was expecting something else. The professional look will practically invite you to using the software and ?abuse? its features.
The name is VCD, but this does not mean that it will strictly open VCD file formats. It can also open .avi files, .mov, .avi, .qt, .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .m1v, .dat and .vob file formats. And it does not limit to these and will also open the following audio formats: .wav, .mpa, .mp2, .mp3, .au, .aif, .aiff, .snd and the .jpg, .bmp, .gif, .tga image formats.
Among all of the above mentioned capabilities of the software the user will be surprised to find out that VCDCut Pro is able to apply all sorts of effects to the video files while it is playing them (flowers, bubbles, rain drops, frames, jitter, posterize, x-ray, blur, emboss, etc.).
I have not mentioned that the application can convert a supported video file to .avi format. Just go to the Movie to AVI tab (above the video playing section), input the video file name, select the video and audio compressors, video frame rate (manually or automatically) and that's it. I know it sounds complicated but the direct contact with the software will make it seem like a piece of cake.
If you have two video files and want to split them, look no more as this software is also capable of clipping video files together. Drag them into the Play List (right lower corner of the application window) and press Ctrl+J (join video files shortcut).
VCDCut Pro also supports capturing or recording window screen. You can save the results either as BMP or as AVI. For this you have to click on the Capture icon in the toolsbar. The Screen Capture window will appear and also will another smaller frame that is used to take the pictures or record the movie. Your screen picture might be black, but this is not due to the software's functionality, but because of the hardware acceleration (for DirectX video frames).
All the recorded video and image will automatically be sent to the default saving folder that you can define in the options menu. Here you can also set the DV decoding resolution (full size, half size, quarter size or one-eighth size). The user can set the aspect ratio for movie playing (aspect movie ratio, preview window ratio, 4:3 and 16:9).
For the slide-show feature you can set the slide-show delay (in seconds), the transition time and the transition to image effects (barn, blinds, checker board, compositor, fade, gradient wipe, inset, iris, spiral, stretch, strips, etc.). The sequence can be random, forward or backward and the Stretch in order to fit can be set to Crop, Aspect, Stretch, and AspectX. The user can choose between Cycle all transitions and Loop current transition methods.
The Good
The software is filled with amazing features that are useful and allow you to create a lot of funny stuff from a movie: splitting and joining video files, as well as (de)multiplexing MPEG system streams. It is also capable of demultiplexing DVD (VOB) system streams, and converting AVI files to MPEG format, grab picture while play video file, slide show playback, apply video effects, etc.
The interface is user friendly and does not confuse you with all sorts of terms that the user would understand only after reading the Help file.
The Bad
The shareware version I used has lots of limitations and I could not test the software properly. To give you one example, I could not use the Full option in the toolsbar.
Unfortunately, the software crashed every time I dragged a movie file to the playlist.
The Truth
I was expecting much more from the software. The fact that the shareware version has lots of limitations has deeply disappointed me.
Try the software but do not expect it to do everything it brags with.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
