Ok, well maybe it doesn't suck but I finally tried the Cucusoft Zune Video Converter suite that everyone seems to rave about and I can't see anything that makes it worth recommending.
I freely admit that I'm a fan of
Pocket DVD Studio (PDS) and I recently tried
Spb Mobile DVD (SMD) and both of those programs seem far superior to the Cucusoft suite.
Negative #1
The DVD ripper is plain slow.
I'm talking around an hour (53 minutes) to rip a 1/2-hour TV episode.
PDS never takes longer than it takes to watch the DVD and frequently takes less.
SMD took 15 minutes to rip the same 1/2-hour episode.
Granted, SMD does not offer all of the adjustments in both sound and video that Cucusoft offers but it seems to produce a good-looking product.
I even adjusted down the quality level of the Cucusoft program to see if it would speed things up and it didn't.
The final output sizes:
118Mb for the Cucusoft video (at the adjusted down quality) and 95Mb for the Spb video (at the "best" quality).
And the Spb looked much better.
And if I didn't want to sacrifice the quality I could have used Pocket DVD Studio to make a
flawless 300Mb video and still saved 1/2 an hour.
Negative #2
You get no indication of how long the process is going to take -- you just have to wait it out.
You actually do get a time remaining counter but I found it completely worthless. I watched it jump from 20 minutes to over an hour and then back again repeatedly during that 1/2-hour TV episode.
The other 2 programs give clear and accurate countdown timers and even have options to shutdown the computer when they're done if that's something you want.
Negative #3
It only produces Zune compatible videos (WMV and MP4).
Yes, I now that's what its designed for but for the same price, the other two products output to Divx as well so you can get double the usage from them.
I use them to convert for my Axim as well as for my Zune.
Negative #4
The video converter has no cropping function.
I sometimes download widescreen movies and I can use both PDS or SMD to convert them for usage on my Axim or my Zune.
The video converter that comes with the Cucusoft suite outputs to 320x240 no matter what the aspect of the original video so it gets all stretched out of proportion.
Does that really make for an enjoyable viewing experience?
Show that to your friends and they'll laugh in your face.
The DVD ripper properly detects widescreen videos and offers to keep the aspect ratio intact so I'm not sure why they left it out of the converter but I sure couldn't find it.
You can select generic WMV as an output format and then it will match the aspect of the original file but then it will also match the resolution of the original file making it too big for the Zune.
Then you'll have to reconvert when you actually sync the file to the Zune so what's the point in that?
Both of the other programs let you set the width (320 for the Zune) and then they will automatically adjust the height to preserve the widescreen.
The Cucusoft Suite might be a reliable solution for minimal-click conversions but for the price, the other 2 programs seem the far better value.
