TMPGENC conversion AVI to MPEG

[touche64]

1) I captured a 2 hour Hi-8 -> Digital 8 via Movie Maker to AVI
2) TMPGENC: Setup the parameters by following the instructions in one of the guides using 2 PASS VBR
(Configuring TMPGEnc for high-quality, DVD-compliant MPEG-2 - http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0165394101/Compression.html#GOP)
3) The time estimated by Tmpgenc was 55 hrs+

1) Am I doing something wrong.
2) Is there something I can do to reduce the time.

Intel 1.6MHz
Ram: 512 MB
HD: 80GB 7200

[Tommyknocker]

You opted for the higher quality setttings. You may want to sacrifice a little quality if you want faster recording times. One idea is select CBR over 2-pass VBR. Try this setting encoding a minute or two of your video and see if you like the quality and estimated encoding time.

[touche64]

With CQ it works out to 29 hrs
With CBR it is 35 hrs

Is there anything I can do to reduce my coding time?

[mrtristan]

Get a faster chip.

Seriously, it takes a long time to encode to DVD format. Try selecting normal and high quality. As with a lot of other people who browse this forum, I can't really tell a difference between high quality and highest quality. If you weigh the extra time that it takes to encode at the highest quality setting against the minimal quality gain, it isn't worth it.

You can also try lowering the DC component precision to 8 bits. Since you're not ripping from a DVD, you probably won't notice a difference.

[pijetro]

How long did you let the encoder work for?? Sometimes it over estimates encoding time right off the bat. If you let it run for about 20 minutes, you'll get a more accurate estimation. What says 55 hours might turn into 20 hours if you wait for a while........

[Coop]

touche64,

There's nothing amiss - 2 pass VBR with high quality settings is v e r y slow. My first conversion was a 2 hour AVI with CBR, which took about six hours. My second was a 77 minute AVI with 2 pass VBR with high bitrate settings and the highest motion search precision setting. That conversion took just under 24 hours.

[jarvizo]

I have noticed with AVI's that tmpgenc, that when you load the file and settings then start to encode that an excessively long time is given as the estimate time, but once you start to encode the time jumps down drastically then stabilizes as the encoding progresses. I would suggest letting the process encode a little more & see what time is diplayed.
2 pass with high settings will always take a while anyway & I agree that
I see no noticable difference between High & Very High except encoding times.

[Will Hay]

I have noticed with AVI's that tmpgenc, that when you load the file and settings then start to encode that an excessively long time is given as the estimate time, but once you start to encode the time jumps down drastically then stabilizes as the encoding progresses. I would suggest letting the process encode a little more & see what time is diplayed.

I'll second that, always happens to me.
I'm averaging an encoding time equivalent to x 4 of the run time.
Will

[Tagger]

You could also lower the resolution to 352x480 which will speed up the encoding time. I do this sometimes to get longer movies onto two disks instead of three and use a lower bitrate (down to 1600). Of course this is for CVD and not DVD.

Also, make sure all other apps are closed (virus scans, realplayer, etc, etc) to free up all system resources.

Real question is, do you need the settings in TMPGEnc that high to get what you want. Experiment with short clips and make some changes. I'm sure you can lower the encoding time.

Another way to decrease your encoding time is to use CCE instead of TMPGEnc as your encoder. That is if you can afford it!! Personally, I like the price of TMPGEnc!!!

[IvIark]

I'll second that, always happens to me.
I'm averaging an encoding time equivalent to x 4 of the run time.
Will

Yes, I'll third it! I started a 1hr 53min DV capture off in TMPGEnc the other night on the very high quality setting and deinterlaced filter and it came up with 36 hours time!! I thought it was a typically high initial guesstimate, but when I went back after an hour and it said 35 hours remaining I decided to give up!
I appreciate that these things take time and having these settings and filters will add to that time considerably, but come on! I ended up doing it with CCE in 3 passes and it took about 12 hours.

[touche64]

Thank you all for your feedback.

In answer to some of your questions, yes I did let it run for 10 hrs before giving up.

Then late last night, I used the Wizard, setting it to capture NTSC, Interlaced, 720x480, etc. including using "2 Pass VBR"

The end result was that the stream type changed from Systm (Video&Audio) to ES (Video&Audio). "Do not know what the difference is.

Anyway, Tmpgenc said it would take 10 hours, and it did. The quality of the final product looks really good.

Question: I converted a 2 hour HI-8 tape. How come the mpeg file is 48 minutes

[Betamax]

Thank you all for your feedback.
Anyway, Tmpgenc said it would take 10 hours, and it did. The quality of the final product looks really good.

Question: I converted a 2 hour HI-8 tape. How come the mpeg file is 48 minutes

I don't know which format Hi-8 is, is it analogue or DV?
I capture using a semi-pro card which captures analogue directly into DV (interlaced).
The avi I have (interlaced DV) will take about 4hours (svcd cbr) or 8-9 hours (svcd 2-pass) for about 50minutes.

That it takes a long time is normal. Learn to live with it
A movie of exact 2hrs (split into 3 sections of about 40minutes each), I can encode using CBR (fast) at a very high bitrate (almost the highest possible for svcd : 2520kbps for a 80min cdr).

I've learned to live with those long encoding times.
I start the encoding after my pc-work and let it do its job while I'm sleeping during the night. The next day I can still do some 'light' jobs with my system (like Internet surfing, playing audio-cd's, preparing/authoring (s)vcd's) while encoding still is busy - though then the encoding takes a bit longer (max. 30minutes).