DVD authoring and encoding on TMPG and Ulead

[bellyting]

I used to burn a lot of VCDs and have recently switched to DVDs.

In my VCD days, I use TMPG (2.524 version) for .avi to .mpg conversions, but I've realized that it 'deteriorates' the quality of the video. That was fine for VCD burning, but now that I've switched to DVD, I'm hoping to be able to convert the files without the deterioration. Is there some sort of settings I have to change, or should I be looking at some other programs?

I'm having trouble finding something easy to use like TMPG for conversion, any suggestions? It would be great if this program could convert AC3 files as well, since I've recently have a batch of those files I'm unable to burn out because I lose the sound when I convert it through TMPG.

I use Ulead DVD movie factory (version 4.04 SE came with the DVD drive) for burning, and I was wondering if it's performing correctly in terms of speed. For a 400 min video(burning at VCD quality, since I haven't figured out how to convert files as above), it takes around 3-4 hours, which seems like a really long time. Is there something in the settings I should change, or is that the regular amount of time for such a long video? If I can convert files into DVD quality, would the burning take just as long on Ulead?

I've tried burning ISO on the same program, and for a regular TV series type DVD with around 4 episodes (so roughly around 160 min) it takes only 8 minutes or so.

Thanks in advance!

[mats.hogberg]

If you know how to do VCD, DVD will be a breeze. In TMPGEnc, just use the DVD template. Up the bitrate as much as fits on a disk, and go. Use 2 pass for even higher q. Every conversion will degrade quality some, but compared to what happens when you convert to VCD, the DVD encode will be very much closer to your source, as long as you keep the bitrate in the 4000 kbps and above range.

/Mats

[thecoalman]

Are your computer specs right?

There's lots of variable for the time it takes, source, output etc. Straight encode from DV-AVI to 6000kbps 720x480 MPEG2 takes abotu 45min to 1 hour on 3ghz P4. that's just to encode the file.

If you material is already DVD compliant it can be accomplished very fast, look in the manual for "do not convert compliant files"

[bellyting]

Thanks mats.hogberg -
I don't know why I never noticed the templates. Heh.

Thanks thecoalman -
the time seems about right then. I guess DVD authoring can be a slow process. I was hoping that it took so long because I was stuffing almost 7 hours into a DVD.

Again, perhaps a really stupid question:- How would you convert a 23.97fps to a 29.97fps on TMPG? They don't have a 23.97fps selection on the DVD templates, only selections fo different qualities and sizes as such. I want to make sure that works before I buck up for the MPEG-2 charge on TMPG. Would this conversion overcome the AC3 audio that some files might have? As said before, when I convert files with AC3 audio, it loses all audio.

Would something like VCM - a program that I have but never used since I got TMPG - do the trick of converting those 23.97fps files?

[EddyH]

"Degrades" the quality? I dunno what you were doing or the source material, but i haven't ever had much complaint about VCDs made in TMPGenc, even at standard CBR; VBR with a 2x maximum (roughly equivalent to the compression style of a DVD) shows no discernable evidence of compression except in cases which challenge DVD anyway. The main problem with those old discs now is the resolution more than anything.

That said I can't vouch for it's MPG-2 encoder (no chance to test it, no desire to either pay for nor crack it), but I'd suspect with the right settings it'd be just as sweet. Certainly for converting from AVI, where regular 2-to-3 hour DVD encoding should match or outstrip typical DivX...
It is also known for it's slowness, as it does some deep motion analysis, so approximately realtime encoding isn't surprising (given most other programs I've tried on my own don't quite hit 2x most of the time anyway), though your computer might be long overdue an upgrade if *VCD* isn't beating 2x (400 mins, or 6h40, in ~3h20) so that actual DVD quality encoding isn't to become an absolute bind.

(ISO seems so quick as there's absolutely no encoding involved, in fact as the drive will use DMA mode you won't see it touch the CPU hardly at all as it just dumps the data contained in the file from the hard drive directly down the cable into the DVDR; all the hard stuff has been pre-done on another computer further up the trail)

edit: ah, misread what it was taking all that time... a complex/long disc may well take a long time to author, though i'd still suspect that the ULead (ugh) program is actually recoding your VCD videos, as even a very complicated disc i made with a DVDAuthor tool took less than an hour... regardless of the length, multiplexing 4.3Gb will take about the same amount of time, as it's largely independent of the running time, it just takes the data (or two seperate files, mushing them together), processes it lightly to make it compatible, and saves it back out to HD (or directly to the DVD). Perhaps your PC does need an upgrade, or at least better software.