Are you looking for a low-cost program that can easily cut and join clips and even create slideshows out of your favorite images? Give VCD Cutter Pro a try.
More than Cutting VCD Clips
VCD Cutter Pro does not only cut VCD clips but provides a host of exciting video tools.
Firstly, it can play your movie and audio files in a cool-looking window. Among the file formats supported are AVI, QuickTime, MPG, WMV, WAV, MP2, MP3 and even image files like JPG, BMP, GIF and TGA.
If you wish to play a VCD you would just have to insert it in your optical drive and choose Open VCD from the File menu.
This program for Windows, however, does not support the full screen mode in the trial version. You would have to fork out $10 to get that mode activated.
Friendly Interface
VCD Cutter Pro has an interface that’s easy to navigate. Below the menu items there are shortcut icons for you to easily execute important functions of the software.
Below that panel is a tabbed window where you could perform six important tasks – DVD Copy, Movie to AVI, Screen Shot, MPG1 Divide, Movie Preview and Slide Show.
Three Useful Windows
Towards the right of the main interface are three windows which make it a breeze to work with your media files.
The first window concentrates on your main directories and folders. When you click on any of the folders, all the files in them are displayed on the second window.
From the second window, you can drag and drop any files you wish to work with into the third window.
The third window itself comes with a tabbed interface – Play List, Clip List, Favorite List and Video Effects.
Play List holds all the clips you drag into the window. Clip List contains the clips you have cut to create a new movie.
Cutting Clips
To cut a supported clip you double click on the clip and it will play in the monitor window. Under the window you’ll find the buttons to cut your clips and join them. Just move your mouse over the third button and you’ll see Step 1: Clip Mark In (F5), The next button is Step 2: Clip Mark Out (F6). The fifth button is Add to Clip List (F7) and finally Step 4 is Make Video Clips (F8).
You can only output your video to either MPG stream or AVI stream. Under MPG Stream, you can choose two other options – M1V and MP3.
Slide Show
Got some cool images to show your friends and family members? Switch to the slide show mode in VCD Cutter. Line up your images and set slide show delay between clips and choose a cool transition before beginning your show.
There’s a limitation though. Clips are listed alphabetically and there’s no facility to change their order. So, if you would want to display your images in a particular order, you would have no choice but rename them.
Other Features
Two other features worth mentioning are Screen Capture and Screen Shot functions. Under Screen capture you can capture a portion of your computer screen and save it as a BMP file. You can also save your capture as AVI. The latter is useful if you wish to create video tutorials.
Under the Screen Shot mode, you can grab image frames while a movie is playing and send it to your webcam using the hot key F4.
Although VCD Cutter Pro does not perform to the level of a dedicated video editor, it comes handy if you are looking to quickly cut and join clips. In the end you can’t have many complaints about a video utility program that’s offered for only $10.
