Do size matter?

[Sakuya]

I was wondering how you guys encode your movies to VCD? Since an average movie is so long, it will take a long time to encode! So do you guys use the Source Range method to encode a half of the movie at a time?

Also, I was wondering if you encoded a large AVI to a large MPEG (maybe 700x400), would it increase or decrease the encoding time? Just wondering! I'm testing out methods with my AVI.

[txpharoah]

My VCD encodes take about 3/4ths realtime. Yes, my encoding goes faster than the full VCD MPEG1 movie. My system specs are above, the software I use for VCD encoding is Canopus ProCoder.

Do you have a slow system with freebie software? That may be why.

[Sakuya]

Well...out of all my computers, the computer I use for encoding is the fastest but it might be considered slow to other people...how many hours does it take you for a 60 minute movie?

[j1d10t]

I'm running a pretty fast computer (P4 3GHz, 1GB RAM, 200 GB HD), and using TMPGEnc with no filters on a 60 minute video (with 2-psss encoding) with SVCD resolution takes about 3-4 hours, depending on if I have the motion search set to High, or Highest. I can encode a VCD (352x240, CBR) and it takes about 45 minutes for a 60 minute video.

[andkiich]

I get comparable results to j1d10t.

If it's taking "hours" to encode a VCD I'd look into some system tweaks, possibly.

[Sakuya]

It's taking me 10 hours just to do a half of a 52 minute movie!!! Or maybe the problem is that I am encoding to a large size or maybe I'm encoding it to 30fps? It was accident I swear! I did a test with 30fps as the result and nothing unusal to the video happened so no biggie right.../

[j1d10t]

When I encode a video at 704x480, 2-pass encoding, with the noise reduction filter, it takes about 8 hours to do a 60 minute video. So resolution does make a difference in encoding time. And using any filters TMPGEnc will greatly increase the encoding time.

[pablo180]

Ten hours to do a 60 minute VCD seems quite a lot. Are you sure you have the right settings in TMPGEnc? I use CCE and AviSynth and it usually takes an hour per pass for a 90 minute film.

I used to use TMPGEnc on my Pentium III 550 MHz and that only took 12-16 hours. With your spec it should be alot less than that.

[Vejita-sama]

10hrs isn't that bad depending on the CPU and settings. When I first started working with VCDs I wanted to convert a 90min DivX file to 1 CDR. I used Sefy's SeVCD template in TMPGenc. It took 18hrs!

That was on a k6-2 33Mhz (CQ_VBR encode). Now I have a AMD 2200XP and using CCE it takes be ~0.7x source runtime per pass.

[Sakuya]

I'm making an XVCD (I think). And I use Source Range to encode half the movie and I used the custom size to avoid any of the video to be cut off on the screen. And I used 30fps...

[j1d10t]

Maybe one of the reasons it's taking so long is that TMPGEnc has to convert the frame rate - NTSC standard is 29.97 fps, not 30...
When I use TMPGEnc to convert a PAL VCD to NTSC VCD it takes about 2-3 times longer than it does if I'm making an NTSC VCD from an NTSC source file.

[lordsmurf]

When I add noise reduction, it makes the encode take 3x or 4x as long. So a 60-minute VCD MPEG1 CBR 1150k movie might to 65 minutes with no filters using TMPGenc Plus. With noise reduction, about 200 minutes (about 3-4 hours). Other filters don't really add much time, except maybe color correction. Got a P4 1.8 with RDRAM, purrs like a kitten on video.

[Sefy]

I Suggest you try encoding using a default Template and see how long it takes for a 10 min movie encoding, and you can more or less find out how long it will take.

Also, make sure TMPGEnc is in focus, and you do NOT have anything else running, and if possible, close every other application, cause encoding is very CPU and RAM intensive, and anything running will slow it down.

[Doggiedaddy]

A little of topic as this relates to DVD but I always use Motion estimate search [fast] VBR 2 PASS when doing DVD Compliant projects. The settings I use are very similar to the DVD NTSC template in the wizard with a few minor tweaks. I have found this to be very fast in [TMPGEncPlus terms] and also very good quality. I read posts of people using High or Highest quality settings. To me this is like dragging a rock up hill the benefits vs quality are just not there for this setting IMHO. This would only apply to quality input files with out the need for filters [other rocks] being used.
I was just wondering if anyone else uses Motion estimate search [fast] and agrees or disagrees with what I have found. I started with High quality settings and changed some time ago. Net time savings 9+hr vs 4hr full length movie, DVD Compliant and very good quality.

[j1d10t]

I agree with you, Doggiedaddy. I've just started using Motion Search Estimate when I use 2-pass, because if I'm doing 2-pass it seems stupid to use high quality search, because it's already examine every frame of file to determine the bit rate. And I've found it helps for SVCD as well as DVD. It cuts the time by about half. But I do like the noise reduction filter in TMPGEnc - I wish VirDub had one as good

[Cobra]

What's the difference between motion estimate search and a motion search? I understand roughly what a motion search is, as I know how MPEG will compress a moving image.

Just wondering what the "estimate" bit means.

Thanks

CobraDMX