TMPGEnc 2-pass: new vs. old type

[kinneera]

I've browsed through several pages of topics and run a search (possible suggestion: the search feature could be more useful if it returned threads rather than individual messages) and I haven't really been able to find much direct comment on the difference between TMPGEnc's old type 2-pass encoding and the new-type found in the plus version.

Is the new type really a noticeable improvement? My first priority is visual quality, although a speed boost is a plus too (but definitely not lower quality for greater speed!). If it makes any difference, I'm targeting mainly SVCD around the 1500-2000 kbps range. Also of interest if anyone has any experience with it is how it performs with animation.

[EddyH]

TMPGEnc, 2pass and animation wise, seems a bit fudged up at the moment....

Currently I've defaulted back to v2.02 because of issues with technical stuff in the new versions and how they mess up the output. If you can tell me where to get the version which offered both old and new 2pass types I could give it a try for you be quite interested to try it myself.

[kinneera]

Unfortunately to my knowledge there are no versions which allow a demo period with the new 2-pass, thus the post here.

I'm curious about your remark that you went back to 2.02... I'm using 2.51 and I haven't noticed any technical issues with the output. What kinds of problems did you experience?

Still hoping to hear from someone who has had the opportunity to use the new 2-pass. Looks like I'm not the only one either.

[Anonymoususer]

I have TMPGEnc Version 2.58.44.152 and their are 2, 2Pass VBR Options..the New one and the old one..is that what your talking about ? If so I really haven't tried out the Old Way.

[kinneera]

Yes, that is what I'm referring to.

Surely there must be more people who have been using TMPGEnc long enough to have used both. Can't anyone comment on this?

[EddyH]

Ah but DivXerous, have you the registered/cracked version, that's the thing... i only have the uncracked shareware so far. ($50 will have to wait til after graduation, when i have money).

As for the problems with 2.58's animation matrix, i havent got a tv capture card so all i can say is it caused *wierd* mpeg errors on my DVD player if you ever paused, rewound, fastforward, searched by time or even skipped tracks. Like nothing i ever saw or could easily describe. Just bonkers distortion, shuffling of the luma levels perhaps and smearing of chroma, on a block-by-block basis. Ugly.

Also I dunno if it's something to do with those errors, but when I use the bitrate analyser, it seems the "Default" matrix beats both "Animation" (by a few percent) and "MPEG standard" (by like 25%!) in terms of bits used to keep the same CQ, or resultant compression level with a fixed bitrate. Mebbe Animation works best on _really_ hard edged CGI type images, like game shots or raytraced sequences produced at target rez, rather than animes which are just that little softer and more flowing in their appearance, esp with backgrounds.

However the situation's the same in 2.02 too, exactly the same error - i've gone back to it mainly because it offers CQ as an option (having CQ and a GOP length limiter would be nice, wonder if there's some intermediate offers that?).... still use 2.58 to mux tho, i like having a progress bar
Maybe there's some way I can analyse my older anime VCDs that dont exhibit this problem to see what version i used? 1.9 sounds familiar.

Any why o why won't (x)VCD encoded files open in 2.02 without crashing? (prolly not in 2.58 either). Both versions seem to have a filter that is 'missing', "error could not load file" or whatever in the VFAPI menu... 2.58 has an extra 'microsoft mpg1' decoder tho.

(/ramble)