Myth No1. Do not use CCE for audio encoding.......it sucks.....

This follows on from a topic originally started by KoalaBear on January 24th. this year which led to many overheated posts and little in the way of actual facts.

CCE version 2.5 SP had serious problems with Athlon processors, particularly if a VIA chipset was on the mainboard (some Intel chipsets were not immune either). Depending on the version of the chipset one either got no sound or very poor sound quality. Most of these problems were solved by the release of CCE version 2.56 SP - although the VIA chipset still gave problems with the generation of frequency spikes leading to a rather thin sound quality. By the time CCE version 2.64 SP was released, the VIA chipsets KT266A and KT333 had been dramatically revised, and the sound quality was excellent - with the exception of the 2.64 Premiere plug-in that had no sound at all (later corrected by an update made available to registered users).
CCE version 2.66 SP provides a sound quality second to none in MPEG, WAV and AIFF formats, and can multiplex these with the video if required.


Myth No2. CCE does not run well with dual processors......

Since 1999 CCE has been optimized for dual processors. At that time the only operating system able to support duals was Windows NT 4.0, which had serious drawbacks for multimedia uses. With the advent of Windows 2000 Pro and XP Pro these drawbacks were a thing of the past, and CCE continued to optimize their products for these operating systems.
Version 2.66 SP operating with dual Athlon MP2000+ processors and an AMD chipset attains an encoding speed of better than 2RT (Real Time) on ultra high quality encoding - this translates as between 4 and 8RT for the projects that most members of this forum are interested in.
Users of dual Xenon processors may or may not achieve these speeds dependent on which Intel chipset they have. Intel are aware of this problem and intend to bring out a new chipset shortly.


Myth No3. I always use the timecode 00:00:00:00 and it works for me.....

This statement is only true if you are doing a straight encode - it is NOT true if you want to use some of the more advanced features of CCE, for example the insertion of chapter points. For these features to work CCE links the first frame of the source video to the timecode 01:00:00:00 and references the frame numbers you insert, for the special features, by generating its own internal timecode from this point. Insertion of the timecode 00:00:00:00 signifies "end of timecode" to CCE and it will ignore any inputs you have put in and do a straight encode - that means no chapter points in the example given above !


Myth No4. Iam using CCE and I have the following problem......

The myth here is to attribute to other forum members the powers of clairvoyance and prophecy normally reserved for certain biblical characters. There are 9 major versions of CCE plus a large number of revisions not to mention the various Premiere plug-ins (which incidentally do not always have characteristics identical to those of the SP version bearing the same release number).
If you want help, and there are many members willing and able to help, PLEASE give at least some details :-

1. What version you are using, and the settings you have been trying

2. Some basic computer details, for example is it a 286 based machine obtained from a School Jumble Sale, or a Cray 7 that your wife uses because she works for the CIA, NSA, NASA...........

3. The operating system you are using.

4. Some specific details of the source material such as, x by y pixels, NTSC, PAL, Secam.........

5. Brief details of what you are trying to achieve as an end result.

Of course these comments also apply to any other programmes you may be having problems with, for example VirtualDub, TMPGEnc.......


Regards to all, Dick.