DVD2SVCD Any Good for Encoding Movies?

[SlyOne]

Okay, I have Dvd2svcd and I am in the process of re-encoding LOTR: The Two Towers but as of right now it says that it's going to take about 43 hours doing 5 passes!!! Is that correct?! That seems like a LOT of time. I am looking to obtain the best quality overall while keeping the menu and extras. I am not using CCE but rather TMPGEnc 2.5 for the re-encoding and the 5 passes. Is there a different way to do this that would make it go any faster? Also, what would be the correct way to re-encode this dvd while keeping the menu and extras? As of right now it looks as though it's only re-encoding the main movie and not the menu or extras. Any help? Thanks.

[redwudz]

You're wasting your time doing 5 passes. Just use the default setting and it works fine. SVCD quality is only so good. Go to DVD if you want the best quality. DVD2SVCD isn't much good for menus. It is really set up for just the main movie. I have used it for a couple of years, mostly with CCE and then with only 4 passes. That takes about 4-5 hours with my machine. It's a very good GUI if you only have a CD burner. If you want better quality, go the the Doom 9 website for the best information.

[SlyOne]

Well, I am using the Dvd2svcd program and I have DVD selected for the output size. How did you get your re-encoding down to only 4-5 hours?

[soundforbjt]

SlyOne, what are the specs of your computer? processor speed/ amount of ram/ operating system...

[Faustus]

If your using CCE then its great. But use 2 passes, 3 at most.

Your computer sounds slow tho if 5 passes is taking that long.

[SlyOne]

My specs: AMD Barton 2500+ @ 1.83Ghz
1028 Meg Ram Dual
Running Windows Xp Pro

I don't know why it would be taking that long. Maybe I'm not doing something right? I noticed the guide on doom9.org w/ CCE and the big 3 and I was going to give that a shot tonight when I get home from work since that process sounds as though it encodes DVD-9s to 1 layer DVD-Rs. What's the maximum passes I should do before there wont' be a difference in quality? I notice that some people say they do up to 6 passes for quality purposes but if that's not going to do anything more than say 2 or 3 passes I don't want to spend the time. I really appreciate your guys help in this matter. I am going to print out that guide right now and read it over.

And before I forget, if anyone has used the above method that I am giong to attempt tonight how long does it usually take for the entire encoding process with 2,3,4 passes etc. Thanks again.

[redwudz]

Sorry, I assumed you were making a SVCD, not a DVD. My times are for SVCD conversion. I use the default settings, only changing the CD size to 800 and max number of disks to 2. I use CCE most of the time. Never had much luck with the DVD to DVD conversion because it only seems to want to work with Scenrist and I don't have it. I got away from SVCD's and went to AutoShrinkISO + DVDShrink3 + DVD Decrypter for burning to DVD's instead. Works great for me. There is a diminishing return for how may passes you make. With a SVCD, I used 4 passes with CCE and I view my SVCD's on a 5ft X 8ft projection screen. Quality is much better than VHS and not quite as good as DVD. My CCE encode speed is usually about 2.4 - 2.6.