Is Tmpgenc plus worth $50?

[TBoneit]

Yup, worth the money

A Paid for TMPGenc Plus Owner
Likewise TMPGenc DVD Author & AC3 plugin Owner.

I use these every day.

I just set up a batch encode to run overnight, and set to shut off the computer when done.

Easiest to do that with that I know of.

Cheers

[SatStorm]

Is worth any penny!

CCE Basic is not as good as CCE SP (at least, this is what the experts say about CCE Basic). Compared to TMPGenc, if you combine CCE Basic with Avisynth you have 2 benefits: It is almost twice faster and has a 3% better picture quality, but only if you use a too low bitrate for a framesize which is known that needs much more bitrate to show good picture (example: 3000kb/s average for a 720 x 576 project - That's TOO low). The difference between CCE SP and TMPGenc plus ia about 5% on this (quality wise)

TMPGenc Plus on the other hand, is a far more user frienldy application or - to put it more diplomatic - it seems that follows better the logic of the average user. Also, it is a true standalone application: It can resize, filter and import direct various kinds of sources and then encode to whatever you wish. It doesn't need neccessary avisynth as CCE (any version) do. Also has less bugs than CCE. So, as an application, is overall better.
Finally, if you use avisynth with TMPGenc, you have a boost in performance and on terms of picture quality, the results are even more closer to CCE's results. Use avisynth with TMPGenc and the difference is now less than 3% with CCE.

Don't mention that there are also some other things that I have in mind to test those days (things I wish years to test....): For example, if we capture RGB and import to TMPGenc, we have an amazing performance boost (TMPGenc doesn't need vfapi and doesn't have to convert YUV2 to RGB). Anyway, those are advance topics, not for this post

Also, if we keep in mind to follow the suggested bitrates for the various framesizes, we won't notice differences between the two, except speed of course and maybe - expecially the NTSC users, a colour difference (the well known YUV2 / RGB convertion problem).

MC 1.4.2 is an excellent encoder, but far more expensive.
QuEnc is like what TMPGenc was before turn commercial (version 12 & 12a - with the broken vbr fuction, remember?). Is it Promising? It depands: Where ffmpeg gonna lead it's development

[aamir12345678]

Basically, Findedeux, if you want acceptable quality from good, clean sources, you won't need anything more than Nero's built-in VCD plug-in. However, if you want excellent results from any good, clean sources and the ability to restore the beauty of any ugly source (within limits), TMPGEnc Plus is worth every penny. It comes with a small help file, so you'll have to learn a lot on your own, but learning doesn't take forver. This is actually where Mainconcept is better because it comes with a full manual (it costs $150, though). This is not to say, however, that TMPGEnc is not user-friendly. It just means that when you want to change advanced options, you'll have to do a little bit of studying elsewhere, not their helpfile. CCE Basic has excellent quality at very fast speeds but requires you to learnAviSynth and isn't as option-rich as TMPGEnc (filters, etc.)

If you have any interest in spending some time to produce quality results with your encodes, get TMPGEnc Plus.

One final thought: you might run into some compatability problems with certain files that you would not with Mainconcept or CCE.

[thor300]

Those who say about tmpgenc "i use it all the time", that i can believe, considered the laughable low speed of its encoding. SatStorm got lots of good points, i also heard that CCE-sp is a little better, but considered the price it is much less value for the money About quality at low bitrates, thats not a problem for DVD but it is a big problem for SVCD users, and thats what the original question is about. I looked a little at some of my old SVCD's (CBR that is) and must say the quality difference is close to off the scale when comparing TMPGenc and CCE, especially long movies squeezed into only 2 CD's. With TMPGEnc one is often better off using the CVD resolution, with CCE it doesnt really matter that much. I used to prefer TMPGEnc also, but when i finally took the time to find out a little about AviSynth i have saved hours of encoding, no more authoring disks in the morning after encoding all night, cce IS that much faster. I was lazy to not learn a few basics about AviSynth before, and i suspect there are many like me out there who never get to taking the first step. Also consider the future needs, for example if you will get a digital camcorder CCE is the natural choice and you dont need to use AVS then.