The Flash web page creation was great for the most part. It produced nice looking video embedded in a simple, but pleasant web page. However, while controls built into the Flash player worked, the buttons on the playback shell created by VideoWrap didn’t seem to do anything. Anyone with the slightest amount of html programming experience should be able to remove these buttons, but it’s a shame they don’t work since they’re pretty nice looking.
Even though the video encoded for a cell phone is tiny, VideoWrap's compression settings ensure it is still clear enough to be watchable..
I also tried up-rezzing a few different videos for HD playback on a PS3. The quality was great on 30p or 60i video, but for some reason it kept adding what looked like pull down interlacing to my 24p videos. I am assuming this is a limitation of the HD format, and it probably looks fine during playback on a PS3, but watching it in QuickTime was distracting because the interlacing was very obvious.
Finally, I tried converting the video for playback on a cell phone, a playback device which in my opinion, along with iPods, is just too small to comfortably watch video on. As expected, the lowest quality setting was so blocky that it was pretty much unwatchable. I think if you filmed and edited something specifically for playback on these devices (i.e., not a lot of motion, not a lot of wide shots, and no small text), then this setting might produce vaguely watchable results. However, the higher quality cell phone setting produced video that, while being about the size of a postage stamp, was at least clear enough where I would feel comfortable giving it to someone without being embarrassed about the quality.
One thing I did notice that was common to all of the encoded videos was that they seemed to be in a different colorspace than the original AVIs. The blacks were lifted, and the whites were a little blown out. I’m not sure why this shift occurred, but it wasn’t drastic enough to bother me, and might actually make the video look better on a wider range of screen types.
Converted trailer using Adobe Media Encoder.
Converted trailer using VideoWrap!
Value
$59 is an incredible price for this software. You’d probably have to buy three or four other software packages to come close to the output options offered here. You’d also have to hunt around for codec compatibility and compression settings, and go through a lot of trial and error to figure out which settings produced the best output. FXHome has done all of this work for you, though, so this software is easily worth the money just by virtue of being such a time-saver.
Final Comments
It’s good to see that FXHome isn’t resting on their laurels after their initial success with AlamDV or their most recent VisionLab softwares, and are branching out into creating different and useful software packages. At $59, VideoWrap is an extremely easy-to-use and elegant method of converting your video into a wide variety of formats. Digital distribution is definitely the wave of the future, and with VideoWrap, you will have no excuse not to put your movie out there, in as many places as possible for maximum exposure.
Ease
of Use
10.0
Depth
of Options
10.0
Performance
8.0
Value
10.0
Overall
Score
9.5
Ryan Graham is the director of Livelihood, a critically acclaimed ultra-low budget zombie comedy. He also runs 37.5 Productions, a post production company specializing in giving a Hollywood sheen to independent films. In his spare time he is the lead guitarist for The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad.
