CCE or TMPGEnc

[loseyourself]

what gives better picture quality???? CCE or TMPGEnc....does CCE require an MPEG-1 plug in? what does it really cost? is there a basic version? what is your opinion?!?!?!

[Craig Tucker]

CCE is $250 for the lite version and $2000 for the full version, if you want more details visit their site. There is a link in the tools section. Its main advantage over TMPGEnc is its speed. I dont think there is a great deal in it quality wise. Personally I rate value for money, so its TMPGEnc all the way for me.

[loseyourself]

thanks for the info....i couldnt imagine a better encoder than tmpgenc but the only reason i was interested in CCE was because it has more than 2 pass VBR, i have heared thhat it can do up to 10 and maybe even more....does this necesseraly mean better quality than the regular 2 pass VBR that tmpgenc has....is it possible to do more passes in tmpgenc with a plug in or should i use CCE for that....and if i were to use 10 pass VBR would that mean it would take 10 times longer than regular VBR encoding?

[fingernailX]

Neither. I highly recommend MainConcept Standalone Encoder 1.3.1 as its fast, relatively cheap and high quality without having to frameserve. The plug-in is included in Adobe 6.5 and comes from the same company acknowledged to have the best DV codec. Whether you're converting DV to DVD or transcoding MPEG2 for "fair use" purposes it rocks. A year from now it will be the only soft encoder anyone still uses.

[loseyourself]

well my mum has these 2 DVD's that are reletively low motion as they are relaxation DVD's with background music with 'soothing sounds and images' and 1 go's for 70 mins and the other for 60 mins....what would be the best encoder for this....i would like the images to be hi quality and perhaps encoded as a PAL CVD....and both on the 1 disc....and is it also possible to change the audio to a VBR mp2 or AC3 file muxed in to the video??? i want to cram as much as i can on for convenience

[fingernailX]

http://www.mainconcept.com/archive/MpegEncoder.exe

Download the demo and encode away and see for yourself. The demo puts a watermark in the upper left of the frame which isn't in the way of 16:9 video on 4:3 display. The included .pdf gives all info you need to change settings. Enjoy!

[RabidDog]

How much faster than Tmpgenc or CCE would this encoder be ? Also does it feature 2 pass or more? (When I get my 3.8 ht p4 LOL)

IMVHO anything more than 3 passes on vbr is simply masochism.. I mean how many bits (not even bytes) are you going to save on the third or fourth pass??

[fingernailX]

No 2 pass yet. Promised in 1.4 I believe. I don't use 2 pass for 'home' stuff and use MPEG Works and a Targa 3000 for RT hardware encode at work. I capture MPEG2 15Mbps I frame only PROGRESSIVE and then trim commercials with Womble and then Batch encode the trimmed mpgs with this bad boy. I had my DVD image of last nights West Wing by bedtime last night

Even if you buy now any 1.X serial works on any 1.X version. Check info here http://www.mainconcept.com/mpeg_encoder.shtml

[banjazzer]

and if i were to use 10 pass VBR would that mean it would take 10 times longer than regular VBR encoding?

It would take a lot longer - maybe not exactly 10 times longer. It would also be overkill. According to the Cinemacraft manual:

Image quality slightly improves each time encoding is repeated,but
quality improvement reaches its limit at 3 ~4 times of encoding.

Personally, I never use more than 3-pass, which is the default setting. But try increasing the number of passes until you can't tell any difference.

[johneboy]

How much faster than Tmpgenc or CCE would this encoder be ? Also does it feature 2 pass or more? (When I get my 3.8 ht p4 LOL)

Well, on my 500mhz k6-2, it takes tmpgenc 125 hours for dvd -> dvd-r re-encodes.
Takes 18 hours on MainConcept.

[banjazzer]

I used to encode to VCD on a K6-2 400, and it used to take around 24 hours.

TMPG is very slow when using 2-pass VBR, even with much more modern equipment. I can well imagine your time of 125 hours. However, from what I have gathered here, the 2 best mpeg2 encoders are CCE and TMPG. Have you compared quality with what you get from MainConcept?

[johneboy]

I can well imagine your time of 125 hours. However, from what I have gathered here, the 2 best mpeg2 encoders are CCE and TMPG. Have you compared quality with what you get from MainConcept?

Glad there is someone out there who can feel my pain

as for quality wise, i really can't tell the difference between TMPGenc and MainConcept... never could get CCE to work
Tho i'm not one to ask about quality differneces, as i really dont see a quality difference from DVDs to 1 CD VCDs under 100Min using Kwags templates on my 27" tv

[banjazzer]

as for quality wise, i really can't tell the difference between TMPGenc and MainConcept... never could get CCE to work

I'm firmly of the opinion that good and bad quality are nebulous concepts. If a person is happy with a particular quality, method, resolution or format, then that will be good quality from their frame of reference. 8)

I have always been happy with TMPG's output, although the lengthy encoding times with SVCD inclined me to move to CCE. With regard to the latter, I could never get v.2.5 to work. Have you tried any later versions?

[johneboy]

With regard to the latter, I could never get v.2.5 to work. Have you tried any later versions?

v2.5 is what i have, and no, i havent tried any of the newer versions, for some reason i thought that i read somewhere that i didnt meet the system requirements or something (processor wise) for the newer versions...

[banjazzer]

I'm not sure. But you really do need a more powerful PC. I think there was a problem with v.2.5 and the K6-2 CPUs - at least there was with mine (mustn't generalise )

[RabidDog]

Sound ... I think athlons didnt DO sound .. just to passe dearie!

[banjazzer]

I only use Athlons now for my video stuff.

[RabidDog]

If you look at avisynth scripts there is a special bug fix for .CCE ... for...
People with Athlons who want to do sound !!
its not athlons fault its not my fault
Does YOUR AMD do sound properly??

[banjazzer]

Mine does, but I prefer to process the audio separately and mux with TMPG.