MacHouse - A World of Video Tutorials

VCD and MPEG Tools is a Mac shareware title created by a Canadian software developer. As the name suggests, it’s used to compress video files. It’s quite an interesting Mac software program with a relatively affordable price tag. It can handle video files in different formats including AVI, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, VOB and WMV. But its use is quite confusing.

VCD and MPEG Tools has two folds. When you first launch it, two windows will immediately open. One is labeled Quicktime Movie Export. The other window is labeled Tasks. After closing them, you will have access to them under Window. (See Screenshot 01)

Let me first say that it took us a while to figure out the difference between these two windows. We tried to figure it out by reading the Read Me file, which confused us even further. Under the Tasks window, if you switch tabs to Movies, it looks like you can import a video file. If you open Quicktime Movie Export, it also looks like you can import a video file. So what’s the difference? If you look at Page 9 of the Read Me file, you will read “Using the Task window” at several lines from the top. Turning over pages, you will find another “Using…” eventually at Page 21. It actually says “Using the iMovie Export window.” (See Screenshot 01) iMovie? Actually, it’s a typo. And it was a confusing factor.

Anyway, let’s see what we can do under the Tasks window. This window will let you handle MPEG files. The first tab says CDs. Under this tab, use a CD containing VCD or SVCD to export video in MPEG and QuickTime. For example, as shown in Screenshot 02, if you insert a CD containing VCD, you can export it to MPEG or QuickTime. And you can also save it in a disk image.

The next tab is very confusing. I imported an MKV (Matroska) video file. There’s a drop-down menu labeled WMV Framerate. WMV? Apparently, it’s mislabeled. And you have an option of 29.97 or 25 fps. Why should one be restricted to 29.97 or 25 fps? And you have a checkbox labeled Export Quicktime movie. If you don’t enable this checkbox, you won’t be able to export a video file. So this is a QuickTime export function, right? Actually, no. Open a video file with + (or drag and drop a file) and then click on Start, and you can export it to MPEG. Ughh… That’s very confusing.

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For example, Screenshot 04 shows what happened when I imported an MKV file and pressed Start. VCD and MPEG Tools will immediately create a video file icon. If you open the video file in process with VideoLAN’s VLC, you can find out that it’s an MPEG file. If you read a WMV file and press Start, the resulting video format will be, again, MPEG.

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So what are these two different columns? One says Other Movies. The other column says Quicktime Movies. If you drag and drop a QuickTime-formatted or MP4-formatted movie, it will appear under Quicktime Movies. Otherwise, a dropped movie will be put under Other Movies.

Okay. Let’s move on to the other window. Basically, all you have to do is open a video file by pressing Open and choose a compression preset under the pull-down menu at the bottom. Unlike Tasks, you cannot drag and drop a video file to the media window. Moreover, Quicktime Movie Export doesn’t seem to read MKV-formatted video files. I tried to read the same MKV file that I could open under Tasks. I could open it with VLC, but Quicktime Movie Export didn’t read it. (See Screenshot 08) On the other hand, you can read such video formats as AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG, VOB and WMV under Quicktime Movie Export.

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Anyway, I tested one of the export presets. You can find 3 presets for YouTube under the pull-down menu at the bottom. The video file that I got for this assignment is just a QuickTime file. The resolution is 593 x 377 pixels. So the aspect ratio is about 1.573. (See Screenshot 09) YouTube’s video export function is tricky in a sense. Unless the vertical number of lines is larger than the horizontal (See Screenshot 12 and 13), YouTube’s video export function puts a video in a letterbox to maintain a common resolution. For example, the same video is posted at YouTube. The resolution is about 449.5 x 287 (ratio: 1.566). (See Screenshot 10) How about VCD and MPEG Tools? Using YouTube HQ, what I got is an MP4 video with a resolution of 320 x 240 (ratio: 1.333). (See Screenshot 11) In other words, VCD and MPEG Tools didn’t put the video in a letter box. You can tell the resulting video is vertically stretched a little.

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In summary, we regret to say that VCD and MPEG Tools is terribly designed. No. 1, some functions are mislabeled, which should confuse a lot of users including us. We don’t even know know what version of software we are using. Is it 1.3? If I open Info on the application icon, I read 1.3, not 1.5. (See Screenshot 14) Actually, if I open About, it says the version is 1.5.0. (See Screenshot 15) Nonetheless, software developer’s website doesn’t even show that they have versions 1.3 or 1.5.

Furthermore, we checked software developer’s website thoroughly but didn’t find a corporate address. But if you decide to buy a license, they want your address, phone number and e-mail address. And we don’t even know what this software developer’s real name is. Is it burningthumb.com or Burning Thumb Software?

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MacHouse recommendation: It’s an interesting software title but ‘No go.’






VCD and MPEG Tools is a product of BurningThumb.

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