Best quality: DVD recorder or software MPEG2 encoder?

[cosmin]

Hi,

I am interested in getting the best quality out of an MPEG-2 encoder, and I wonder if a good DVD recorder (like Pioneer Elite) beats a good software encoder (MainConcept/ProCoder/CCE/etc.). I also wonder how well (or how badly) does a hardware encoder (like Hauppauge PVR) do the same job.

I know that, in theory, a good hardware encoder should be no different than a good software encoder. I wonder, however, how well do these things behave in practice. There are, of course, other issues regarding software vs. hardware encoders (speed, convenience, price, etc.) - but I'm asking strictly from the output quality point of view.

Best regards

[victoriabears]

my experience and experimentation is coming to a long end.

If you only have projects you can record in 2 hour chunks-get a dvd recorder, my best quality(But they are not reliable) is JVC, then Toshiba,even the dayteks can be good.

Capture cards seem to need a lot of careful managing.

[stantheman1976]

If you are wanting to capture something like a TV movie or documentary that is going to be close to 2 hours or more then a stand alone recorder is your best bet.

If you are going for something that hits the 1 hour mark or very shortly over that a software encoder (I'm partial to TMPGEnc) will give excellent results that will look identical to the source material to the majority of viewers.

Capture cards are iffy. I'm sure some will swear by them, but most people who are serious about quality don't use direct MPEG-2 encoding. It's pretty intense on your system and if you don't have the memory, HD transfer rate, and free resources to keep up with the encoding process you will run into serious trouble.

[cosmin]

Thank a lot, guys, for your answers. So it turns out that DVD recorders do not necessarily give better video quality, but they give at least similar quality, when compared to software MPEG-2 encoders.

This sounds very good. I might get one myself. I read very good reviews about Panasonic EH75V. Check out this one, for instance:
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Panasonic_DMR_EH75V/4505-6474_16-31864416-2.html?tag=sub

In particular, I like it that it not only gives you VBR mode, but also the possibility to optimize the output size depending how long is the input (so you can get the best output for, say, 1:30h of input video). This is something that only software encoders usually do.

Cheers

[DeepOne]

If you are wanting to capture something like a TV movie or documentary that is going to be close to 2 hours or more then a stand alone recorder is your best bet.

If you are going for something that hits the 1 hour mark or very shortly over that a software encoder (I'm partial to TMPGEnc) will give excellent results that will look identical to the source material to the majority of viewers.

I think you have that backwards. Greater program length means lower bitrate, and lower bitrates are where software encoding has the advantage over hardware encoding (due to the ability to use multiple passes and/or the ability to lower resolution before the bitrate becomes too low to support the highest resolution well). Of course, software encoding is very time consuming, but the question was regarding quality only.

[RabidDog]

Most hardware encoders will use CBR bitrate encoding or something very close to it. SO, if the bitrate you specify is high enough then there will be little or no picture quality degradation (dvd recorder 1hr or 2hr mode) . Software encoders have the luxury of a VBR option which can be more efficient. It really depends on what you want to do, where you want to do it, and what your major parameters are picture quality, disc space, time or cost.(added: and of course what your source is)
Software encoding is getting faster and faster, with a 6.3ghz dual core tmpenc can be almost speedy!

[cosmin]

Indeed, I would only use a recorder that does VBR encoding (and newer DVD recorders do VBR). On the other hand, I realize that hardware (real-time) encoders can do one-pass VBR only, and sometimes there could be a visible difference in quality between one-pass VBR and multi-pass VBR.

Thanks!

[BJ_M]

Indeed, I would only use a recorder that does VBR encoding (and newer DVD recorders do VBR). On the other hand, I realize that hardware (real-time) encoders can do one-pass VBR only, and sometimes there could be a visible difference in quality between one-pass VBR and multi-pass VBR.

Thanks!

high end pro encoders do multipass VBR realtime with hardware ... some pass the tape again and some have huge buffers ...