CCE Basic

[edsmith77]

Folks,
I just downloaded the trial version of CCE Basic. Mostly I was impressed with its ability and given its cost, even better.
However, for those more in the know than I, while trying to create MPEG-1 files I am only limited to CBR of a bitrate of my choosing. My question is has Cinema Craft deliberately locked out VBR for MPEG-1 in the trial version or can one expect that in the full up version as well??

[Edit] I also forgot to mention that I also downloaded the SP trial version but could not get it to open any files. I was always looking for ".ecl" type files. As far as I know I have no way to create those files. So how have people in the past gotten the SP trial version to work?


Thanks,
Ed

[baker]

I am a huge CCE fan, its fast and the quailty is amazing, thats speaking about mpeg 2 of course.

for mpeg 1.... erm... well I will just come out and say its tripe. Tmpegenc may be crappy at mpeg 2 but its the king 0f mpeg 1.

Baker

[bunyip]

It seems the last version of CCE to have VBR for MPEG1 is 2.5, versions since then have only been CBR.

I agree with BAKER, don't use CCE to do MPEG1 you won't be happy with the results.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that CCE itself admitted that no effort has been put in refining MPEG1 encoding - it is aimed at the high-end MPEG2 requirements - mainly DVD (even SVCD is not as good as it could be).

[edsmith77]

Thanks Gents for the update.
I guess I will have to live with TmpGenC for awhile longer for MPEG1 that is. I am still unable to get the SP trial version working. It always keeps asking for an ECL file to open vice AVI that I have.

[baker]

even SVCD is not as good as it could be

really? Where did you read this??

I would well believe it though as you said its purely a dvd encoder. But ssaying that its still the best svcd encoder around at low bitrates.

However if you set your bitrate to CBR in tmpegenc at 3000 and prepare to wait a LONG time for the encode the finish maybe the results would be better....

Baker

[bunyip]

Baker,

Yes, that's what I was getting at, quality has been slightly sacrificed for speed, (but we can't yet have it both ways).

TMPGEnc will produce a slightly clearer result in the mid-range bit rates, but this is only detectable close-up on a digital screen i.e. PC, play it on a TV and no difference is noticeable. CCE still does a fine job on SVCD.

I do a lot of VHS conversions and most can be done to DVD in Half D1 at 3000-4000bps - personal tests at this spec has shown that TMPGEnc does a better job in visual quality than CCE at the expense of time, however for the average VHS tape this is a waste of effort and so I do most using CCE.

[DJRumpy]

I think you need to look at CCE for MPEG-1 again. Make sure you change the matrix settings to something more suitable to MPEG-1 (I don't think you can this in the Basic version, but you can in the others). Select 'Ultra Low Bitrate'. You output will look excellent, with no macroblocking like you would see in TMPGenc.

In my opinion (and quality is such a subjective thing) CCE consistantly produces better quality than TMPGenc. TMPGenc tends to be more susceptible to macroblocking on high motion scenes.