CCE: Which one to buy...BASIC, SP, or PRO? Please advise.

[ChachiFace]

I want to give the Cinema Craft Encoder (CCE) a try but not sure which one to buy. They're site has 3 listed: CCE-Pro, CCE-SP, and CCE-Basic. Would just buying the basic version be as good or better than TMPGEnc? I'm currently using TMPGEnc but don't like the bitrate spikes I'm getting, with PCM audio I'm starting to see compatibility issues with some players. I want an encoder that respects the maximum bitrate limit when using VBR. I've read that this encoder can do that. Anyway, I'm converting AVI to MPEGII for DVD using VBR and PCM audio.

Any experienced users, please advise.

Thanks,
ChachiFace

[BJ_M]

well how much do you want to spend would be the question ...

basic is like 60$ , SP is 2000$ and Pro would be around $75,000+ (as you are supposed to use a digital beta with it as it has SDI inputs)

[ChachiFace]

CCE-Basic it is....I guess what I really should have asked was if CCE-Basic is on par with TMPGEnc. I had no idea the other 2 versions were that expensive. So, is CCE-Basic on par with TMPGEnc? What are your experiences with it? (plus's & delta's vs. TMPGEnc)

ChachiFace

[axolotls]

I am evaluating CCE SP (limited trail version) right now with some small clips and comparing it to TMPGENC (newest trail version).

TMPGENC is by far more USER FRIENDLY and has some limited filtering capabilities, which I like.

CCE SP is faster and allows more than 2 passes VBR.

I am testing one clip and using CCE and TMGENC using different parameters and so far... I like CCE speed but TMPGENC seems to give me better results with concert videos.

[duhmez]

What I like about CCE is it will encode your video, pixel by pixel, without adding borders or mucking with the aspoect ratio. With tmpgenc youm ust be very careful which AR settings youchoose, or it may add borders in an incorrect fashion and create ruined video. tmpgenc doesn't seem to have a "encode thiese pixels unfiltered, don't add borders and set the dar accordingly" setting.
Because of this however your vic\deo for CCE must be premade correct with any needed letterboxing already intact, whch can be done very well with avisynth.

[AngusMacGyver]

tmpgenc doesn't seem to have a "encode thiese pixels unfiltered, don't add borders and set the dar accordingly" setting.

Yes, it has. If you select 1:1 as source aspect ratio, choose Full Screen as video arrange method and if you don't load any template after loading your input file, TMPGEnc will keep your input file framesize in output file.

[curryman]

Pro would be around $75,000+

JESUS! Thats expensive,
how can they justify charging that amount of money?

[freestyler]

$45,000 USD actually. Justification is questionable

[SaSi]

Pro would be around $75,000+

JESUS! Thats expensive,
how can they justify charging that amount of money?

Makes you wonder how Ferrari can get away with their prices. Little robbers

[vhelp]

@ duhmez and others..

I dissgree w/ the AR issue and CCE.

In my experience w/ CCE, when you feed in an video source w/ boarders,
weather properly or not, CCE will encode that black space too - non-effeciantly.

However, TMPG will do it perfecly and your boarders are alwasy pure
black, and not grey-black, and w/ very noticable DCT (or whatever it's spelt like)
or composite-looking gray-blacks. That's ben my experience when using
cce (though 2.50 and up) I prefer 2.50 because I think it is a tad bit faster
and slite quality diference.

Mind you, i'm no pro at cce, and much prefer my TMPG any day, but cce
does have its advantage that I won't dispute :P

One other thing about cce, is that for fullscreen, the the issue is mute :P
no boarders hehe.. anyways..

But, one just has to learn how to master TMPGs AR/Resolution together in
concert (of which I'm still learning) in order to become successful at every
encoding project.

-vhelp

[BJ_M]

Pro would be around $75,000+

JESUS! Thats expensive,
how can they justify charging that amount of money?

$45,000 plus the cost of the cheapest D-beta (a sony IMX machine actually as a real D-Beta would be double the price) with SDI output -- which is the input on this unit ..

though you could use a Beta Sp and a Laird or Miranda Component to SDI Convertor , then the total would only be $59,000

[curryman]

Think I'll stick with Tsunami