procoder vs tmpgenc and other newbie stuff

[shania1]

Hi all

I have some questions

1.why when I convert Divx/Xvid to SVCD with TMPGEnc the movment of the film isn't always smooth, it seems like it skips some frames
2.why when I convert Divx/Xvid to SVCD with ProCoder the quality is much better althogh it seems that the picture is a little bit dark in some scenes (maybe it is just me!?)
3.generally which is better? (TMPGEnc or ProCoder)
Is the price difference justified ?
4.Why is ProCoder slower than TMPGEnc ?
5.If I split a 800 svcd into 2 parts or more and than I burn it on 1 cd
how can I avoid the half second pause/jump between each two parts

Thanks a lot
Amir

[Chordmeister]

3. Speed depends greatly on what settings you are using in either encoder. For example, high quality noise reduction will increase encoding time in TMPGEnc; 'Mastering' quality will do the same for Procoder.

My personal preference is Canpous Procoder (above any other encoder I have tried in fact).

[tphaggerty]

If you are going to try and put 2 hours of 8mm home video on DVD, then ProCoder is definitely worth it (I have TMPGenc, CCE Basic, Mainconcept encoder and ProCoder). ProCoder on Mastering Quality (very slow) is fanatastic for this application. The others (IMO) just don't work as well for this application.

[shania1]

But why does the procoder make the movie a little bit dark ?!?

[tphaggerty]

Darker than TMPGenc? Possibly because one or the other IS or IS NOT doing the 601ITU color space conversion thingy.

I haven't figured this one out myself completely, but due to NTSC restrictions, colors below and above certain values are capped (so blacks are less black and whites are less white) so that older TVs would be able to handle the signal correctly even as they age. From what I understand, this is a solution to a very old problem.

By default, TMPGenc "expands" the color range of a file from the restricted 15-235 range (or close, not sure of the exact numbers) to the full 0-255 range, which "brightens" the resulting video. In Procoder 1.5, you can do the same thing using the ITU601 color space expander filter on the target (or stop TMPGenc from doing it by selecting the "Use ITU-601 color range" (again, not sure of the exact terminology in TMPGenc) checkoff box (its on one of the advanced tabs, not a filter). I tend to not use ProCoder filters, but to use AVISynth instead and frameserve to ProCoder (need 1.5 to do this easily).