encoding time help

[karms]

I currently capture live video of our Pastor's messages and burn to a DVD gold-copy for duplicating purposes. I use a ForMac external DV convertor and feed the video to my Mac via firewire. All works fine, except the encoding time is a killer - about 70-90 minutes total to burn after capture.

I see where eyetv and also pinnacle make an external convertor that converts to mpeg-2 on the fly.

My question is in regards to the encoding time. Will these mpeg-2 type of convertors actually save me the 70-90 minutes of encoding time I spend now due to my capturing DV?? If anyone has any input or suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

[pijetro]

Yes, you will save that time, but...........

Sometimes people have issues with authouring software not excepting the resulting Mpeg..
Mpeg isn't designed for editing. Many people are succesful in chopping off certain portions, like with WombleVCR, or Tmpgenc, but that's about it.
Finally, some people feel that quality isn't up to snuff, whereas a decent software encoder does a much nicer job...

It all depends on what your criteria is...

[lordsmurf]

Belongs in MAC... moved...

[adamthole]

unless you really need the video quick, let it encode. It will be of higher quality, and you won't have to buy anything extra.

[pixeljammedia]

What camera are you using? Modern camcorders usually have a direct firewire (called i-link on Sony models) connection and means that you do not need the ForMac. If you are using a Hi-8 or VHS-c then your picture quality probably won't change whether you use software or hardware. So if you need a faster better encode then I suggest the following:

plan A) Get a better mini-DV camcorder and sell your ForMac on eBay. Use iDVD or Toast to do your MPEG encodes (unless you have access to Compressor) and let the Mac take its time.

plan B) Buy a DVD recorder and record straight to DVD No muss no fuss.

plan C) buy the mpeg encoder and be satisfied with that.

[karms]

Thanks for the feedback. I am capturing live video via a video switcher. The feed to me is thru a video DA and is composite into my ForMac.

I had not considered the quality of encoding before, but that does make sense. After I capture with iMovie, I launch iDVD and add my menu and transitions in, then encode and burn.

I was most interested in the eyeTV device, as it appears capable of exporting mpeg-2 to iDVD or DVD Studio Pro. It comes standard with Toast, but I would like a bit more control over the menu and transition.

Again, my goal has been to create the DVD master as quickly as possible, as turning same day (Sunday morning) DVD's around is preferred. My duplicator tower is 8x, so the dup process is quite fast. If I could only speed up the master encoding time life would be good. But not at the expense of quality... so I may choose to experiment with eyeTV if I can find one on eBay. Thanks for the help everyone!!

[WiseWeasel]

I don't think iDVD can import MPEG2 video, only DV. DVDSP would be ideal, though. Personally, I use a Canopus ADVC100 DV bridge to capture my video, and then use DVDSP and compressor to encode and master, with very good results. Capturing in DV format (using iMovie) allows me to keep full quality during the editing process while allowing fine control over the edits on a frame-by-frame basis. I'm not sure what the MPEG2 editing options are for OS X, but I'm pretty sure they give you less precise control.