TMPGEnc 2.00 - Is it really any better?

[AP Enterprises Ltd]

Well? Is it?

I know it's a lot faster (if you have a P4, like me) than the beta 12x versions, but is that all (aside from the fixed GOP bug)?

How about MPEG2 quality? Any better? Worse? Right now I am using TMPGEnc 12j and it works like a charm, the MPEG2 quality is fantastic and I have unlimited MPEG2 encoding.

Should I move on, or stick with my 12j? Version 2.00 looks tempting.... I hope they didn't change their MPEG2 30-day MPEG encoding trial period algorithm, because that is really easy to bypass.

Anyone want to share their thoughts on Version 2.00?

[AP Enterprises Ltd]

Okay - I just downloaded it, and it is basically the same thing... The 30-day limit is still there, but fortuately, it is the same "type" as the beta versions. So I again now have unlimited MPEG2 encoding... Speed is a tad bit faster... I wish VCDHelp.com would make a comparison because I can't really see a difference in visual quality.

[Jestorius]

How did you fix the unlimited mpeg2 encoding?

[PolarBear]

I tried it on a very small 1 min clip, comparing 12j and 2.00. I loaded a 352x576 clip and encoded with default svcd pal template. 2.00 was slightly faster. There was a resize on the clip so that might have affected the apparent performance difference. I don't see that it's so much faster as to get too excited over, but I at least should say that I appreciate TMPGenc for making such a high quality encoder available. If they do start charging, then I probably would buy from them.

I echo the suggestion that vcdhelp adds it to their comparison. There are a few new encoders based on the Ligos Gomotion technology, so a comp with that would be cool, like Ulead MSP 6.5 or Power VCR(I believe).

Matt