Best DV capture and mpeg encoder software package?

[Anonymous65]

What is the best DV capture and integrated mpeg-2 encoder package? I know of Ulead Videostudio 5, Pinnacle Studio 7, Videowave and so on. Pinnacle Studio 7 seems to be the best for capture and mpeg conversion. How is the speed and quality of the mpeg-2 converter?

[EricB]

skittelsen,

I think the correct answer to your question is there are none (or I haven't found it!). With the key word being "integrated".

Check the www.pinnaclesys.com web forum on Studio 7. I haven't heard anyone accusing this product of encoding well. Lots of people have lockups all the time.

Ulead does a decent job with both VideoStudio5 and the DVD Movie Factory. The Ligos encoder is OK (but you already knew that).

At the end of the day, you capture, edit, save as DV, then use TMPGenc.

[Anonymous65]

You're right, it seems Ulead is the only one with a usable encoder, Ligos, which seems to do a pretty good job at mpeg-2, and is fast. I guess I'll be frameserving to Tmpeg for awhile...

[cuervo]

Sonic Foundry has released version 3.0 of their Vegas Video package, that includes MPEG1/MPEG2 video encoders from MainConcept. If MC's MPEG encoders are as good as their DV codec, you can expect great things. I downloaded an eval version of VV3 and am still testing it. Reviews are saying that VV3 is becoming more popular with pro's than Avid, and beginning to rival FCP.

[KAce]

my capture card is the hauppauge win tv200 PVR(usb) capture device
and boy is this good not to sure if this is correct
MPEG2 half = Resolution support 352x480 NTSC or 352x576 PAL
grabed with this and tpeg this to go on dvd and still gob smacked as good as svcd if not better
ihave put to 124 min films on one dvd wit chapters
and the good thing its usb wich will go with me lap top

******** excellent


KAce

[Feuerwehr]

I don’t think you would be happy with any of the integrated packages unless you are willing to settle for mediocre results. The weak point in all of the software packages you mentioned is the quality of mpeg conversion. I have tried all of the package solutions mentioned. They are generally easy to use, and are relatively fast, but I have not been happy with the end results. Ulead does the best job of mpeg conversion among the packages, but cannot come close to programs like TempGEnc.
Of the three packages Studio 7 is my favorite for capture and editing. I use Studio to produce an edited AVI file, which I encode with TempGEnc. I burn with Nero 5.5.

[TheInformer]

Are there any encoders, besides TMPGEnc and CCE, that are any good? What in the heck is the use of having a video editing package unless it has a good encoder?

Funny how the best product is basically a free product as well.

Oh well, I guess everyone has Blu-Ray discs to store their DV on.

[Mirror_Image]

For what I paid for Ulead Video Studio 6 ($50 upgrade from UVS 5, which was bundled with my Radeon AIW card), it works pretty well. The editing features are pretty damn good for the price, with 112 transition efects, tons of title animations, and quite a few effects filters. You can run your project at any time, and instantly, with SmartRender (new in UVS 6).

Once you get it all dolled up, going straight from edit to burn, stopping to generate basic menus for VCD, SVCD, and DVD (no nifty motion menus, but fairly customizeable for backgrounds, opening video clip and whatnot) and burning compliant disks all in one program, relatively quickly, and without having to use 2, 3, 4 or 5 programs is pretty nice.

I capture in either MPEG-1 352x240 2.4MBit/sec, MPEG-2 352x480 6MBit/sec, or MPEG-2 720x480 8MBit/sec, depending on the source quality and intended purpose for the footage - VCD/SVCD/DVD (or, in my case, mini-DVD) or archiving. I think the final product looks pretty good, and the disks play in almost everything I've tried.

There's better stuff out there, but UVS 6 has me fairly content due to the budget price, ease of use, and pretty good features.

[TheInformer]

Ok, let me play the dullard here for a moment ...

What you're saying is VideoStudio 6's MPEG encoders do a good job then? How is the quality vs. TMPGEnc's quality? Rendering times?

I'm more concerned with quality, but rendering time is important to me as well.

[EricB]

Having used both (and continuing to use both) the Ligos encoder in Ulead is pretty good. However, if you just take two files and encode one with TMPGenc and one with Ulead, I think you can see the difference easily. Obiviously use equivalent settings. TMPGenc also gives you tons more options for times when you need to tweak.

So ultimately, there is no harm in using the Ulead system as a whole, but TMPGenc is free and does it's part of the puzzle better and faster.

[Rich927]

I agree. VideoStudio 6 and TMPGnc are two very good programs for the money(and free). TMPGnc really compliments VideoStudio. Been having some fun tweeking Videostudio templates. Videostudio's DV capture makes editing easier and faster if you use the split scene feature. Each scene is saved to it's own file. When you go to edit, just pull up the scenes you want to use. I had a DV capture 55 minutes long with 189 scenes taking up about 8.5gigs total. It took me about one hour to edit it down to 20 minutes of video. Used TMPG to clean it up. Studio 7 is ok but start having sync problems after about 15 minutes. It will not open type 1 DV avi files. It captures DV as type 2 avi. Like Adobe too(when I can use it).

[cuervo]

I have been testing the MPEG2 (SVCD and DVD) encoders from MainConcept all weekend long. These encoders are currently bundled with Sonic Foundry's vegas Video 3. The quality is every bit as good as TMPGEnc and they recognize dual CPU's, so the render is very fast.