mpeg2 quality (> or <)

[Premjit V.P.]

If I encode an mpeg2 with a good software encoder (like cinemacraft) as per the mpeg specifications, giving maximum work for the encoder in terms of complexity, will I get a video file with quality on par with that of hardware encoder? It is assumed that the source footage is very good. It is also assumed that time factor is not a constraint.

Thanking you in advance for your reply.

[Baldrick]

please post conversion/encoding questions in our conversion forums. moving you.

[scardi]

In my experience [https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=244130] you obtain better results transcoding from avi to mpeg rather than encoding directly, via hardware, to mpeg file.
In this forum and Canopus forum have been reported same results.
If you search you' ll find them.

[mats.hogberg]

Neither method is inherently better than the other. Just as there are crappy software encoders, there's crappy hardware encoders.

/Mats

[bugster]

It is assumed that the source footage is very good.
.

You really need a proffessional to answer this, but my bet would be that given enough cash, a top level hardware encoder will be as good as the best SW encoders. At the consumer level, or even so called pro-sumer level, IMHO, SW encoders win practically everytime.

[scardi]

Hardware encoders do the job in realtime and then they may have trubble encoding difficult scenes. Softwares take all the time they need and obtain this way better results.
Of course I,m speaking about hardware encoders at consumer level

[mats.hogberg]

Hardware encoders do the job in realtime

That is not necessarily so. But you perhaps think about hardware encoders in terms of "capture card"? You could well "imagine" hardware encoders that reads AVI files, and don't have to perform their task in realtime...

/Mats