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  1. I have read the posts on differing opinions on what encoder is the best to get. I am goind home DVD projects and have played around with TEMPGENC. I am not looking to spend a lot of money, but I am hoping to get a encoder that will produce nice results. I have looked at Cinama Craft Basic (CCE), MainConcept, and TEMPGENC. I have a AMD 1GHz machine with 512MB ram. I am using Adobe Premiere 6.0.

    I am leaning toward CCE because it seems to be faster than TEMPGENC and from what I can tell it offers a plugin to Adobe. Mainconcept seems about three times the price of CCE and from what I read they are very comparable.

    Any thoughts from people out there which one is best for the home user where encoding time is not a huge ussue and quality is more important. I have used TEMPGENC in the framegrabbing mode, but if I could get away from that with CCE as a plugin that would be cool too.

    Is CCE Basic comparable to TEMPGENC and Mainconcept?
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  2. Member
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    TMPGenc does a whole lot of helpful things that
    make it's speed tolerable. It will resize,. It will do audio. etc
    CCE will just encode real good IF you feed it exactly what it
    wants.

    CCE is not twice as fast and since you almost always have to
    Frameserve to it , you lose even more.
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  3. CCE says it has a plug in? IS this correct with the basic version? I was hoping to get away from Frameserving but I guess I will have to deal with it. I did play around with TEMPGENC and used avsynth. Is there a better way that using avsynth with TEMPGENC and Adobe?

    I got the impression from the website that CCE has a Adobe Plug in. Figure I would do a little research before I download and give it a run.

    Any thought on Mainconcept's encoder? I have read good things about all three of these.
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  4. If you want to experiment a little more, you can use bbmpeg (free) as a plug-in in Premiere 6.0. MainConcept's mpeg encoder is based on bbmpeg. (The developer of bbmpeg now works with MainConcept.)

    On a personal note, I feel TMPGEnc's output is superior to CCE's encoder. You almost have to use avisynth with CCE to get a high quality output, unless your source material is just about perfect from the start. On the other hand, TMPGEnc has enough (self-contained) options and adjustments to be able to output a quality product with so-so material.
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    I'm afraid I have to disagree with Jester,
    Don't bother with bbmpeg.

    I don't know about CCE plugin connections to Premiere but
    it doesn't matter because there is a Frameserver from Premiere
    output to TMPGenc or CCE.

    Look in Tools - Frameservers.
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  6. Member wwaag's Avatar
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    I use CCE Basic with Premiere 6.5, so I suppose it would also work with 6.0. Yes, it is a plug-in so that you may begin the encode within Premiere without having to frameserve. I also have Tmpgenc and MC, but prefer CCE for my encodes of home video material. If you upgrade to 6.5 or Pro, it comes with the MC encoder which also allows you to purchase the standalone version for $49.

    wwaag
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  7. Wwang,

    Why do you perfer CCE over TEMPENGC and MainConcept? I have seen a lot of opinions and I have it seems that there is no clear winner in terms of quality. In terms of speed it seems that CCE and Mainconcept are the winners. In terms of Quality it seems that their is mixed opinions of who is on top.

    Making the decision harder. Do you see a quality differnece using CCE with a frame grabber and using CCE as a plug in? Can you do it both ways?
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  8. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    If you (or a family/friend) are in college (sometimes even given to alumni), the educational discounted upgrade to Adobe Premiere 6.5 isn't very much at all, and it comes with Adobe MPEG Encoder (MainConcept).
    Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
    FAQs: Best Blank DiscsBest TBCsBest VCRs for captureRestore VHS
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  9. Member wwaag's Avatar
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    WeeJavaDude

    Just my opinion, but of the 3 I dismiss Tmpgenc because it's SLOW. It's a great encoder and I often use its MPEG tools. Well worth the $.

    Between CCE and MC, I find that CCE is still faster on 2-pass encodes (actually about 20% faster with my machine--see specs). Using 1.3 I tried various recommendations in terms of quantization matrices, etc. and found very little effect. Since my main concern is home video, I find that CCE does a much better job. One instance I remember in particular was a pan across people on carpet. In CCE it was very smooth--in MC the carpet had large blocks which "jumped" for want of a better term. I found the same with the latest 1.4 on some video I had captured in Alaska. Maybe its just the source, but I prefer the output of CCE encodes. Plus, there are not a lot of options--just load the file and encode--results are consistentlly good. I also do a lot of captures from satellite TV. An added advantage of CCE is that it permits source range editing--MC does not--so that you can clip the beginning and end of your capture for movies. Bottom line--it works well for me. Plus, it's a lot cheaper unless you already have Premiere 6.5.

    When I use Premiere, I actually render first to a DV file and then encode from that. For me it's a lot quicker--I've got a Matrox RTX-10 card that renders DV very, very quickly. Encoding directly from Premiere is very, very slow for me, regardless of the encoer--also reported by others.

    And finally, the suggestion of lordsmurf is really a good one. If you qualify for academic software, it's a lot, lot cheaper. E.g. the new Adobe video collection is less than $400--not cheap, but a much cheaper than retail. Hope this helps.

    wwaag
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  10. Thanks.. I have an Rt2000 so I might try the rending to DV first followed by the encoding. Not sure if it would be faster for me.

    So you dont use the CCE as a plug in for Premiere? I am curious if the plug in is slower than using the framegrabber mode?

    Guess I should give it a download and try. I do like TEMPGENC, but If I could get some speed improvements and no loss of quality that would be cool. Damn.. was hoping the answer would be obvious here.
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  11. Member
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    I have Premiere 6.5 and also I work with TMPGEnc.

    I did play with bbMPEG in my youth . It is worth working with it only for your personal videos, and if you don't have the money to buy another one. I did some tests (TMPEnc, MC, bbMPEG) and bbMPEG's quality was worst.

    What I love about MC encoder is the speed, and what I don't like is the the quality (compared with TMPGEnc). What I HATE about TMPEnc is the speed (what MC encodes in 2 hours, it encodes in 9), and what I like, is the extras (filter, more control over the imput and output, etc). If I capture something from a not so good VHS tape, or if I want to reencode a poor encoded video, I definetely use TMPEnc and use the noise filter. It does wonders!!!!
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  12. I am still trying to decide and I noticed that it looks like both TEMPGENC and CCE do not support AC3 as audio output? Any thought as to for home use what Audio output format I should shoot for. Not very familar with Audio formats and what is the best for home video use.
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