TMPGenc DVD Auth 1.626 vs Nero Vision Express 3.1016

[EAO]

It takes a lot for me to try something new.

I had posted a long while back about issues I had with TMPGenc DVD Author - about how it's 'estimate' would occasionally be way off from what actually authored into vob's. I do use vbr to capture mpeg2 from a Hauppauge PVR-250 and I suspected it may be the vbr setting but no one seemed to suffer from this issue. and no one really had an answer for this so I finally solved my problem by reformatting.

I'm not exactly certain that this solved the real issue but it did make the problem disappear. I've reformatted about 4 times in the last year and a half for other reasons so the issue hasn't reappeared until now.

I'm capping off of TV. I noticed that DVD auth would make some edited episodes 2.21 total gigs (in vob files) while others of the exact same length would be 1.52 total gigs. Crazy thing was it would play the complete episode on preview so I cannot tell what's missing.

I tried running the files through Video Redo to see if remuxing them would get rid of the problem = no.

So I finally had to try a new DVD Authoring program (or I would have to reformat and I've got waaaay too much stuff to backup now.). I've had Nero (and Nero Vision) since the beginning of time so I gave it a go. I'm not going to comment on my opinions of the menu/chapter structure because I've only 'played' with it this once (Maybe with time I'll like it better.)

What I do want to comment on is the quality of the resulting vob's. I have a decent 19" LCD and I know it makes my TMPGenc DVD AUTH caps not look the best if I play them on a preview screen bigger than 8" inches. When I played the Nero Vision files they looked great up to about 15". I had chosen the smart rendering feature BUT these mpeg2 captures were not transcoded (I do believe) because they were smaller than a std DVD blank to begin with.

Would this mean that TMPGenc DVD Author actually impacts the quality of the original capture... while it authors to DVD? Is this possible?

While I prefer TMPGenc DVD Author I cannot dispute the quality of the Vision Express vob process. I am so far behind on making backups I do not have the time to figure out how to post a comparison.

I would suggest to anyone curious - give it a go. But from what I've read stay away from the new Nero Vision software

[Wile_E]

Authoring does not impact or degrade quality at all. All it does is "convert" your files to a different structure (VOB) for DVD. This is a lossless process. So TMPGENC DVD Author won't degrade what you are authoring. I am not certain about the latest version of Nero Vision, but previous versions would re-encode the video for no reason. This is a lossy process. That's why I stay away from Nero.

I think the reason DVD Author's disc estimate is off, is the way they choose to count bytes. It's the 1000 vs. 1024 bytes problem. Just like hard drive manufacturers use 1,000,000 bytes in one MB. It should be 1,048,576 bytes in one MB. They are getting away with giving the consumer a drive that has less capacity then stated.

What I do with TMPGEnc Encoder and DVD Author is to use a seperate bitrate calculator, and select a higher bitrate. If DVD Author complains that you went over capacity, ignore it.

[EAO]

I understand what you say about lossy vs lossless, and about ignoring estimated capacity (which I do regularily with DVD Auth).

However when I use explorer on the created DVD folder to see the vob's:

TMPGenc DVD Author is smaller.

Since it is Explorer that is showing this to me I can only conclude that TMPGenc DVD Auth is having issues with that particular mpeg2 file and is not able to author it properly while Nero Vision not only has no issue authoring (since it does show bigger in Explorer) but for some reason shows up as better quality on my monitor and on my TV.

As far as lossy issues and NeroVision go... I would have to believe that no lossy process went on because it authored the DVD vob's (Two 45 minute mpeg2 files) in about 9 minutes Would that be a reasonable assumption?

Edit: Two hours later... yeah I see now. If the file is 100% compliant NV3 will take it - no transcoding. Everything else get's nailed. As others have said - they need to fix this.

However that still doesn't explain the vast difference in true size that occurs when I use TDA on some mpeg2 files.