MPEG-1.0 plug-in purchase

bmicales wrote on 6/6/2003, 8:14 AM

I just installed VF 2.0a and then applied the upgrade to 2.0c. When I went to import a MPG file (captured using MovieStar and a DVC-100 USB capture device), I was informed by the program that I would have to purchase a $30.00 MPEG plug-in.

Have others had this problem? What does this mean?

I am also using ULEAD's VideoStudio 6.0 (not running at the time) iand it has no problems importing these exact same MPG files.

Very strange........

Bruce Micales

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 6/6/2003, 9:58 AM

You’re confusing MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. The plugin you’re requested to buy for $30 is an MPEG-2 plugin. The MPEG-1 plugin is included with VideoFactory for free. Why? Because there are royalties that must be paid in order to use MPEG-2 and there are no royalties for MPEG-1. VideoFactory allows you to create Video CD’s (VCD) and so only MPEG-1 is required. I guess Sonic Foundry was trying to keep the cost down and figured why make customers pay MPEG-2 royalties if they don’t have to. (especially since when VF2 came out, home DVD burners weren’t available)

Ulead VideoStudio 6 is $99 and includes MPEG-2 support. VideoFactory is $69 + $30 MPEG-2 plugin = $99 so there is no difference from a price point of view.

Remember, most people use VideoFactory to capture DV. Since you need an external package to author a DVD and most DVD packages include an MPEG-2 encoder you really don’t need one in VideoFactory. Why pay twice? I like the idea that SoFo made the MPEG-2 encoder an option. It personally saved me money.

MPEG-2 is NOT a good format for capture if you plan to edit because it’s a lossy format and editing requires recompression which means even more loss. MPEG-2 is primarily an output format. It’s great for capture if you only want to print to a DVD because its saves you an encoding step but if you plan to do editing; you’re not going to be happy with the results you get from editing and recompressing MPEG-2 source.

~jr