Need help choosing an MPEG-2 converter for DVD creation

[echo1434]

Hi,

I have tried using several programs to make my final MPEG-2 files for DVD authoring, but just wondered if there is a difference in quality between them. My primary source files will be Huffyuv AVI's.

I'm looking for something that has a 2-pass VBR option and an user-defined bitrate. Here's what I have in mind. Any other suggetions are welcome...

TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator
Canopus ProCoder
Adobe Media Encoder (found in Premiere Pro)


I'm sure Adobe is great, but it is very glitchy for me. I've had good luck with TMPGEnc products before, but since it is so inexpensive I'm just wary of whether it is good as the other "high-end" products I've mentioned. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[wwjd]

I would add CCE Basic to your list. It costs $58, does a great job and is very fast.

[TBoneit]

And I'd add in TMPGEnc Xpress 3 with the AC3 plugin. You can select between DVD-5, DVD-9 as output size or custom size the output bitrate. It is easy to use and works good for me. And of course with the AC3 plug-in it'll output Mpeg2 w/ac3 audio ready to author. It has settings to optimize for speed or quality. I don't even bother with a bitrate calculator these days. And I prefer it over TMPGEnc Plus, and CCE Basic. Trial version has 14 days to use but no AC3. it'll give you a feel for wether you like it or not.

It is $79 with the plug-in and $58 without, or $59 with plug-in if you bought a TMPGEnc product before. And the AC3 Plug-in works for both Xpress and DVD Author so it only needs to be bought once. Does need to connect to the internet now and then for license renewal.

It has taken all kinds of input files as long as I have the proper codec installed. Only problem is with MP3 variable bitrate files.

Good Luck