Encoding?????

[coldheart]

Hello,I'm new here and I couldn't find this question anywhere.So,why does it take so long to encode video on a mac?I try to use iDvd and Toast for video.I hate waiting all day just to get the DVD back to find out that when I play it on the TV,there are artifacts on the DVD.Never made a DVD yet that I liked the result.I had my imac G4 for two years hopeing to transfer my vhs collection to DVD with no result.If I can get some advice from you guys would help alot.

[JMufla]

I never had any quality issues with iDVD v4... maybe it's your video aquisition process...

JMufla

[terryj]

The answers are numerous. But a lot of it has to do
with your source material, your mac's processor,
your capture device, the amount of ram you have in your
machine, what setting did you choose(constant or variable)
did you enable 1 pass or 2 pass, and if you are using
consumer level encoders like iDVD and TOAST or
are you using Pro compressors like Compressor or Bitvice.

al these things go into whether or not you get a decent dvd,
or a crappy dvd , and how long it takes to do so.

do a bit more reading.
search the forum for:

capture+vhs
canopus
captvy
el gato
terryj
frobozz
compressor
bitvice
high quality
toast

[Frobozz]

coldheart,
A problem is that no matter what you do the DVD will not look as good as the original tape, and if the tape is more than 90 minutes long the quality starts dropping noticeably.

I compare this to making CDs from vinyl records. Somehow the clicks and pops are easier to ignore when the record is playing than when you hear them on a CD. The same is true with video noise on your VHS tapes compared with seeing that on a DVD.

In any case, you want to know how to speed up this encoding.

One option is the "retired" ADS USB Instant DVD for Mac, an EyeTV or other device (see Plextor & Miglia for new products) that captures from analog directly to MPEG2.

Another option is LaCie's FastCoder.

A third option is a standalone DVD recorder.

Otherwise you are stuck with the slow speed of software encoding. High quality (multi-pass) software encoding takes much longer than what you've experienced with Toast and iDVD.

[havema-1]

Make sure the workflow uses the highest possible quality in all steps and that the settings are right.

I've heard people complaining poor quality for the following reasons:

- They exported from iMovie in some poor quality codec (not .dv) and encoded that in iDVD.

- iDVD used different video standard (PAL/NTSC) than iMovie.

BTW, iMovie HD has some bugs you should also be aware of. The titles and transitions bug is the worst because it distorts underlying video and there are no good workarounds:

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_bugs.html