Does my DVD authoring program have to re-encode?

[esmonde]

I'd love a straight answer to an MPEG2 file problem. My question is about three paragraphs down but I need to explain first.

I'm using an Hauppauge WinPVR 350 (hardware MPEG2 encoder) PCI card to capture television programme files. Capture is via composite input. I then import the files I want to author to DVD into Ulead's DVD MovieFactory 2.

I'm trying to avoid having to convert my WinPVR files again by making my DVDMF 'Project' settings the same as the WinPVR files. This should mean that once I've created my opening menu I DVDMF can go straight to multiplexing and burning. So I set them to match, select my 'In' point and 'Out' point on the file, select my 'thumbnail' frame, and carry on to the burning menu.

But DVDMF insists on doing a conversion before burning. On the long files I'm using this means an additional two or three hours.

If I don't change the 'In' and 'Out' points DVDMF skips the conversion and goes straight to burning. I've been told that if I make any changes to the original MPEG2 file DVDMF will have to convert it. Is this the case or is there some way around this.

It's almost impossible to record and off air programme, or one off tape with the exact in and out.

I'd appreciate some help or a pointer to a FAQ that can explain it all.

Regards,

Roy

[FOO]

The straight answer is that Ulead sucks despite their claims of
smart rendering.

Either edit it with something first or get an authoring program that works

[esmonde]

Is that an answer?

Roy

[elkfir]

I've been told that if I make any changes to the original MPEG2 file DVDMF will have to convert it. Is this the case or is there some way around this.

Yes, this is the case. You've hit upon one of the major reasons I don't use DVDMF. I have both DVDMF and TMPGEnc DVD Author, and almost exclusively use TDA, because of the very problem you're describing. I prefer the output of DVDMF, but TDA is much more flexible in that you can make edits and it will never re-encode (because it can't.)

[jimijames]

esmonde, I had the same trouble. As far as I can see, Ulead will re-encode if you edit the clip before authoring. I don't think there is a way around this in Ulead; seems daft to me.

I am now trying TMPGEnc DVD author; it's much better all round.
You can download a free trial version. I recommend you do!

[Hardcoreruss]

Is that an answer?

Roy

Sure is

[esmonde]

Thanks to all who replied.

It seems I do have something like a definitive answer. DVD MovieFactory always re-encodes if you edit the clip, but it doesn't have to be that way. I couldn't get a straight answer from anyone up to now.

I'm off to have a look at TMPGenc now.

Robert

[Zetti]

I don't use MF but as I am an Ulead user I have a proper idea on what you're saying.....

Are you sure that MF is really re-encoding the ENTIRE movie ? How can you know that ? Long time processing ?

Or it just needs the time to actual do all the big job of scanning through the file, "find" the proper IN point, then go ahead and find the OUT point, then demux streams, add the menu, etc, etc, etc;

More straight : Is the long time being used to actual reencode the entire movie, or doesn't MF just need that long time to do the heavy task ?


Zetti

[lchiu7]

Since I use DVDMF but have never used it to edit videos (always edit them before I pass them to DVDMF for authoring) I tried an experiment.

System is Athlon 2400+ 1G DDR memory 60G and 250G ATA 133 drives on separate channels (video is on the 250G drive) - XP Pro

Imported a converted 41 minute video in DVDMF and extracted all but the last minute. Then got DVDMF to author the DVD but only create the folders. DVDMF imposed an additional step of converting the videos (as you noted ) which for the 41 minute video took 10 minutes.

Doing the same editing in Womble took about 4 minutes with no conversion

So your experiences are what I saw apart from times.

So if TMP DVDAuthor does not convert (dont know) then that could be the answer for your or edit the MPEG2 file before you author it (using Womble which is really good and fast)