Is encoding to SVCD supposed to be this slow?

[Gribnitz]

I converted a 60 minute MPEG video today from a video I captured as a VCD MPEG. It took 3 hours and 45 minutes just to convert it to SVCD using NERO and its default parameters ( I don't have a clue what I am doing if I screw with the options ).

Am I doing something wrong, or is this the way it is? Is TMPG faster at encoding? I haven't tried that one yet.

[videoguy79]

Encoding speed depends on many things, not the least of which is the system you are running--CPU speed and RAM are huge factors in video encoding. What kind of system do you have (e.g. specs)?

[Gribnitz]

Sorry, your right I should have put system specs up as well. I am using a Pentium 3 750Mhz with 512K ram. Video card is a NVIDIA TNT2 PRO card. I am using Movie Star for captures and NERO for converting to SVCD and burning (standard settings).

Anything else on the system make a diference in the conversion speed?

[videoguy79]

Well, you just named your problem. . .Nero's mpeg-2 encoder. DONT use Nero to encode your mpeg, the resulting file will be of inferior quality and you'll have grandkids before it's finished. Try TMPGenc--I feel that it is the best comprimise between quality, speed, and price (free!).
BTW, while 512MB RAM is certainly sufficient, a P3 750 is rather slow by today's standards for encoding, so give your software time to work, especially if you are using filters and/or the "high quality" setting in TMPGenc should you aquire it. Try to exit out of all background applications while encoding and don't multitask. . .I often set everything up before I hit the hay so the computer can use all of its resources towards encoding while I sleep. (I have a shitty 566Mhz Celeron w/256MB RAM, though I'm upgrading to a Athlon 1800 and 1GB of DDR once I get the $$$).

[lucindrea]

another note that gets missed alot ... virus software ... alot of the software now will try to scan files as/before they are written to disk ... this is a nightmare for video editing ... if you have virus software then disable it before trying to encode. ( personaly i just boot to a scan disk once a week )