What's a good real time mpeg encoder?

[tkdaim]

I've got 14 hours of video in MiniDV format. I would like to make both VCD's and DVD's from it as quick as possible. Right now I have to capture as AVI file and then encode to MPEG file using a software encoder (Cleaner 5).

Any suggestions for real time mpeg encoders under $1000 or even cheaper?

How's the ATI All in Wonder 8500DV?

Thank you in advance.

T

[Sulik]

The AIW is probably the best real-time MPEG2 encoder for the price, but if you want the absoulte best quality at low bitrate, nothing can beat AVI+noise-reduction filters+2-pass SW encoder.

For DVD at 8Mbps, it doesn't really matter, though, especially if your source is clean (no or little noise).

[Mavrick]

I have the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV. This card is good, and according to ATI is basically a regular Radeon 8500 with the TV Wonder PCI built in, and added DV support.

Neither solution has hardware MPEG encoding. And I’m not sure you will see a big improvement in final DVD, SVCD quality.

If you really want to cut encoding time, look for a hardware solution. You might want to check out Pinnacle Systems DV500 DVD. We have these at work, and they produce high quality output and really cut down on the time.

Here is a link to it…

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=564&Langue_ID=7&menuDown=sum


Good Luck!

[tkdaim]

Hey Mavrick,

Thank you so much for your reply.

So the ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV can capture DV footage as MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 (as stated in their specifications on their website), but the files can not be used to burn into VCD or DVD? More rendering is needed?

In addition, I'm glad you mentioned the Pinnacle Systems DV500 DVD. I spoke to a few guys at videoguys.com and they say that the DV500 does not capture real-time MPEG, but it has an "accelerated" MPEG encoder which may or may not be done via hardware (I didn't ask them if it was or not). I checked the website and it states the same thing. You've used it at work so this is good because this is exactly what I'm looking for...someone who has had some experience with the system. You've created DVD's from it right and you say it's pretty fast? Is it pretty good for MPEG 1 as well. The 14 hours of tape I have do not require any editing so I was hoping to find something that would straight capture and encode to MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 real time (with good image quality) and then I can burn it. Right now I capture with a Matrox Meteor 2 DV and encode with TMPEGenc and if I have to edit any footage then, capture into Adobe Premiere and then encode with Cleaner 5 (which by the way, stinks compared to TMPEgenc...I don't know how Cleaner's MPEG Charger software would do, but the standard Cleaner 5's MPEG encoder produces terrible VCD quality).

Thanks again in advance...look forward to hearing from everyone.

Tim

[Mavrick]

Oops you got me... I goofed up a little.

The DV500 does not do real-time MPEG. You're right it has harware MPEG encoding which makes it very fast to encode. The Qualtiy of the MPEG2 files (Pinnacle calles it MP2) are very good (IMHO). I goofed cause the DV500 with Premier can capture and edit without rendering previews... the only rendering it has to do is when you output your MPEG file... and this is fast...

The ATI can capture in MPEG via it's software drivers. Trust me you don't want to do this as the quallity stinks! It's better to capture uncompressed AVI the encode... This can take a while since it does not have a hardware encoder...

[Dinu Bandyopadhyay]

I have an ATI AIW128 pro capture card, on a P4 1.7 GHz PC with 512 MB of memory. I captured a lot of MPEG2 video from my analog camcorder in best quality setting (720x420, 8Mbit/S) with < 1% frame loss. I also experimented with AVI capture mode, I couldn't tell the difference in quality. Because of the smaller file size, I chose the MPEG2 capture mode. It produced excellent result. I guess, it all comes down to the processing power of the computer the card is in. In the past I used the same card on a 300 MHz Pentium PC, I couldn't use the MPEG2 mode, and the AVI mode froze my computer quite frequently.

[dvfan]

Hi, i just captured over 2 hours of a movie with the ATI aiw 128 pro and im very impressed with the results. the filnal file was 4.4 gigs although i have a questions i notice when people move you see some small pixels i dont know how to discribe it but i assume it must be common, and i was wondering if this disappears when its transfered to VCR or DVD cause i think i read somewhere that Television interprets video a little different then computer monitors, any information will be appreciated.