If you used to be one of the loyal customers of Womble Multimedia – especially the much-loved MPEG Video Wizard – you will be disappointed to find their official site womble.com is not responding. Is womble.com shutting down? Are the developers from Womble out of the business? Read on to find what happened to Womble.com.
The History of Womble.com
Womble Multimedia, Inc. was located in Cupertino, California. The official website of Womble.com was registered on 1995, and had been providing multi-media solutions ever since. They are active during the first decade of the 21 century. There are flagship software MPEG Video Wizard serving users worldwide, and other niche products handling video editing related tasks, including subtitle editing and DVD authoring.
The past ten years saw a stagnation of Womble Multimedia, Inc. with their software ceased to upgrade one by one, nor did they release new products. The latest update of the software was in 2015, and womble.com lingers on for four years. At the end of 2019, the website is shutting down without notification.
The Products and Services of Womble.com
Womble Multimedia, Inc. was originally focused on MPEG video editing and processing. With their flagship product MPEG-VCR and MPEG Video Wizard won the heart of many camcorder users and DVD enthusiasts. They then released EasySub and EasyDVD to better handle subtitles and DVD authoring.
Note: Since the website is down, users no longer have access to download the software from the official page. Still, the installers are available on trust-worthy download sites such as CNET.
1. MPEG Video Wizard from Womble
Released in November 2003, MPEG Video Wizard (MVW) is probably the most important software created by Womble. It is a multi-functional MPEG editor, with frame-by-frame precision when cutting and splitting the video. Besides editing, it also supports DVD authoring, and media conversion. As a handy video processing tool, it is built-in with MPEG multiplexer, de-multiplexer, GOP fixer, MBS Scanner, AVI Exporter, and MP4 Exporter.
MPEG Video Wizard is developed as a successor of Womble MPEG-VCR, and this newer tool shares all the key features of MPEG-VCR. MVW supports scrubbing the video clip faster than other tools on the market, and it improves the editing speed by avoiding re-encoding when it is applicable.
The latest version of MPEG Video Wizard was released in October 2015, build 5.0.1.112, the developer then ceased to release new versions. The website kept hosting this version till the end of 2019.
Highlighted Features:
Video Editing:
- Multi-track timeline based video editing with easy UI.
- Built-in text editor to create text and graphics directly for the video.
- Video transition templates to add in 1-click.
- Customizable window layout and configuration.
DVD Authoring and Burning:
- Create a professional-looking DVD menu with clickable animation effects.
- Option to burn the DVD menu and make it ready for playback.
- Convert video to DVD-compliant format without encoding.
- Create DVD discs with multiple video titling: NTSC and PAL supported.
- Support adding music, video and image to the DVD menu for customization.
Video Conversion:
- Convert video to MP4 H264/Xvid and AVI.
- Convert digital camcorder video into MPEG-2 and DVD.
- Rip DVD to MP4 format that are compatible with iPod, PSP, etc.
Supported Formats:
- Video: AVI, ASF, DAT, MPG, MPV, M2T, MTS, M2TS, RM, RMVB, TS, TP, WMV.
- Audio: AC3, MP2, MP3, MPA, WAV, WMA.
- Image: BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, WMF.
Supported Language: English, German, Chinese
System: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7
Price and Availability: MPEG Video Wizard offered two license types, Single User Personal License $99; Single User Commercial License $199
2. MPEG-VCR from Womble
MPEG-VCR is the predecessor of MPEG Video Wizard. As its name suggests, it is designed to edit MPEG videos, especially the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 at that time, including HDTV content encoded with MPEG-2. Frame-by-frame editing is supported in MPEG-VCR, and the tool makes it easy for you to find the wanted scene.
For content that are captured from the USB/DVD capture boxes and encoded with DVD-compliant MPEG-2, MPEG-VCR can edit and save the video without re-encoding. Thanks to the technique, users don't need to wait for hours for the DVD burning to finish. The edited video will be copied to the disk quickly.
The latest version of MPEG-VCR is v3.14.7.5, released in October 2010.
Highlighted Features:
- Fastest scrubbing of MPEG-2 video with frame-level accuracy.
- Support frame stepping of the video stream to quickly spot the desired scene.
- Support deinterlace images when dealing with content copied from DVDs.
- Detect video with bad GOP headers while displaying the correct length.
Supported Language: English
System: Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.
Price and Availability: Single User Personal License $19
3. EasySub from Womble
Womble EasySub is a DVD subtitle editor released on June 4, 2010. It supports creating, editing and managing DVD titles with customizable options. Besides typing the text manually, you can also load existing SRT subtitle files and make adjustments accordingly. For instance, since the SRT is already time-stamped, you can easily switch the language or shift time.
EasySub also has a built-in player, allowing you to view the edited subtitle in real time. To facilitate segment finding, you can use the waveform as a visual cue to quickly locate the needed point.
Subtitles created with EasySub can be saved as soft-coded ones, and overlaid when playing the DVD with a DVD player device or software.
Just as other products from Womble, EasySub is discontinued. The latest version 2.0.0.110 was released in October 2015.
Highlighted Features:
- Easy to make adjustments: preview edited subtitles in real time
- View sound waveform to quickly locate a dialogue segment
- Support unicode to demonstrate all languages and fonts
- Option to modify, delete, and manage subtitles from DVD discs
Supported Language: English, German, Chinese
System: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7
Price and Availability: Single User Personal License: $149.00; Single User Commercial License: $299.00
4. EasyDVD from Womble
EasyDVD was first released in November 2009 by Womble. This DVD authoring tool is designed to provide a simple, quick and intuitive solution for DVD users.
To make the process easy to understand, EasyDVD has a UI that features a six-step workflow: start, source, menu, preview, output and burn. The workflow is self-explanatory, so that even beginners can start to author DVD without referring to the Help document.
It also supports burning two or more DVD content into one DVD, so that users don't need to manually flip the disc again. The interactive menu from MPEG Video Wizard and MPEG-VCR is also supported in EasyDVD, with dozens of templates to use easily. For larger video content, EasyDVD offers the shrink feature to compress video to fit single or dual-layer DVDs.
EasyDVD has been discontinued since 2015, the latest version is 1.0.1.29.
Highlighted Features:
- Create a DVD with multiple Titles or merge 2 DVD into 1.
- Edit DVD content, remove commercials, while preserving the video quality.
- Support stereo, 5.1 surround audio, and AC-3 audio encoder.
- Support DVD burning and ISO image creation.
Supported Language: English, German
System: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Win 7
Price and Availability: Single User Personal License: $49.00; Single User Commercial License: $79.00
The Reception of Womble Multimedia Software
MPEG Video Wizard won some loyal users over the years, and many claimed it to be a nice software with bad marketing. MPEG Video Wizard is noted for its handy feature that won't re-encode MPEG videos, as praised by Michael R., a user from Bitsdujour, "One main advantage is, it does not re-encode mpg-snippets, if not necessary. If no filter is applied to them or the output format is different. It provides lossless results and is blazingly fast." he added that MPEG Video Wizard will demonstrate clearly which part will be re-encoded before exporting.
Below are reviews of EasyDVD from tech sites.
"Womble EasyDVD is a great DVD authoring tool which makes video editing easy for both advanced and rookie users. High efficiency and great quality output are two of the many advantages of this beautiful software." — From Famouswhy.
"With EasyDVD from Womble, you're given easy-to-use DVD authoring software capable of creating DVDs worth showing off to your friends and family." — From Toptenreviews.
EasySub received fewer reviews, probably due to its less competitive price, both compared to its brother products and those on the market.
What Then Happened to Womble.com
There is no official announcement from Womble Multimedia regarding the shutting down of the website. So far, we only know that products from Womble.com came to a halt in 2015, and the website itself is inactive from 2019.
According to the California Secretary of State's site, the Womble team was dissolved on Sep. 16, 2019.
Although you can still download Womble products from software hosting sites such as CNET, or continue using the legacy program already installed on your machine, there are reported bugs and glitches in forums. For instance, some user from VideoHelp forum found MPEG Video Wizard not working on a Windows 10 PC after a system update (the good news is they found a solution and shared it in the same post here).
