Whats the normal time to encode from avi to mpeg?

[tavuslokus]

My P4 1.4Ghz 128RAM is taking the same tyime the .avi files lasts to encode it to mpeg. Is that the expectedon TMPGEnc B12j?? Here's an example:
Lets say I've got a .avi that is 352 x 288, 24 bits, 62328 imágenes, 20,000 imágenes/seg, 55 KB/s., KS-MPEG4 V3, it's size is 168MB and lasts about 50 minutes.
This is the same is takes to convert the file to Video-CD NTSCFilm (MPEG-1 352x240 23.976fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 224k. The resulting file is 518MB. Am I selecting the right encoding settings??
Another thing I'm thinking is that I'd have to make 2 CDs for each movie or is there a way to compress it onto a single 74 or 80 min CD-R?

[Vejita-sama]

A couple of points.

1) You source is 352x288 which is a PAL resolution, but you're using the NTSC_film template? Also are you sure your source AVI is 23.976fps and not 29.97fps (NTSC TV) or 25fps (PAL)?

2) The resultant size of the encoded MPEG is in NO WAY AFFECTED by the size of the source video. The size depends on the bitrate you use. For the standard VCD template it's video=1150kbit/s and audio=224kbit/s. That works out to 1min=10MB. This allows you to store 74min of video on a 74min CDR or 80min of video on an 80min CDR.

Depending on the quaility of your source and the amount of motion/action scences this bitrate might be to low for good quaility. Or maybe people want to lower the bitrate to get more movie on each disc. Either way if you change either setting (or the resolution, encoding method, etc) you'll make an xVCD (or xSVCD if need be).

Not all standalone DVD players can play x(S)VCDs but most of the newer ones can. Check you player on the DVD list to the left.

3) Ok, I'm not 100% sure I understand what you're asking. But it sounds like you're worried that it takes a long time to convert w/ TMPGenc. I have a Tbird 1.2Ghz and using TMPGencs MPEG2 encode (haven done MPEG1 in a long time) it takes me ~2.5x the source runtime to encode. I normally use CCE which takes 1~1.35x the source runtime to encode.

[tavuslokus]

Ok. so according the the 1st point I should use the PAL template? what would be the real difference?
I've already done encoding the film in NTSC and it looks fine even audio is sync.
Thanx for the explanation on the size thing, now I get it that it depends on the lenght of the file I'm enconding and also it looks like the speed it's doing the encoding it's not bad at all.

[Vejita-sama]

NTSC is used in the US, Canada and Japan. Most of Europe is PAL. A NTSC TV will not play a PAL source, and a PAL TV will not play a NTSC source.

However, you can make an NTSC xVCD at what ever resolution you want. eg. 352x240, 352x288, 352x480, 480x480, 720x160, etc. it doesn't really matter as long as it's still NTSC.

352x240 is the standard resolution for NTSC VCD
480x480 is the standard resolution for NTSC SVCD
352x288 is the standard resolution for PAL VCD
480x576 is the standard resolution for PAV SVCD

NTSC film is 23.976fps, NTSC TV is 29.97fps
PAL Film is 25fpm (IIRC) and PAL TV is also 25fps

But again, that's just the standard. You can use any resolution you want (in theory). But if you change the fps you'll have problems