Are all conversion apps, the same?

[mattyboy]

I would like to know everyones opinion on what avi to dvd program is the best, and which if any gives the least compression artifacts. Sometimes its not too bad, but often the compression crap on my TV after I burn the AVI. (after conversion) to a dvd is unbarable. Right now Im using VSO AVI to DVD. Anything better. I did a search and I love the fact that there is a guide for all the apps. but if someone can tell me their story with any other app. it would be great.

[bugster]

Not all encoders are the same by any means. The one click avi to DVD solutions tend to be the weakest. Use a dedicated mpeg encoder 1st, then author your DVD in a dedicated authoring program.

Good/popular mpeg encoders include TmpGenc, mainconcept, CCE etc

[mattyboy]

OK Ive encoded it with TmpGenc (7 hours later!) And what can you recommend for the next step,the file is now 4.11 GB in a mpeg format (its got the windows media player Icon on my desktop, so I guess that because I have MP set to play mpegs) Does it now have to become a Video_ts file? Im not sure where to go now, but I want to burn this to a dvdr once its in a dvd format. BTW Thanks for the recommendation on TmpGenc, it seems great.

[ZippyP.]

Does it now have to become a Video_ts file?

Yes, TMPGEnc DVD Author is good for this.

[mattyboy]

Man, Im starting to wonder if its really worth it. 7-10 hours just for the encoding process alone is a lengthy price to pay for a dvd version of this movie. Unless I save up for Intel Extreme Edition CPU, I cant see myself doing this very often!

[ZippyP.]

7-10 hours just for the encoding process alone is a lengthy price to pay for a dvd version of this movie.

Seems a little much. There are probably some settings you can change to speed things up. Motion Search Estimate is quicker and I find the quality is acceptable and don't use any filtering.

[anubis13]

The quality of your Mpeg will depend on how much money you want to spend on the encoder and your system resources (some high end encoders require multiple processors)

If you want fast, try MainConcept. Its fairly decent in quality. On my P4 3.0 gHz 800mHz Fsb I can encode a 2Hr file in about 2 1/2 hrs (not doing anything else)

[Soopafresh]

Or try VSO DivxtoDVD . It is FAST.

[mattyboy]

Thats what I am using , I made the mistake of calling it VSO AVItoDVD in the first post. That one still takes a few hours, but I guess thats indicative of the encoding process, no matter what program you're using.

[mats.hogberg]

On my system, I usually get > real time encoding with MainConcept. (2 hr AVI to DVD mpg in about 1.5 hrs.)

/Mats

[jimmalenko]

Man, Im starting to wonder if its really worth it. 7-10 hours just for the encoding process alone is a lengthy price to pay for a dvd version of this movie. Unless I save up for Intel Extreme Edition CPU, I cant see myself doing this very often!

Welcome to the wonderful, fulfilling ... mega time-consuming, frustrating and expensive hobby we all know and love called video

Everyone's different - some want the finished product ASAP, others find it a labour of love and will take as long as it takes for perfection (or as close to it as possible). This is why it is often suggested to many people that perhaps buying the DVD (assuming movie is available on DVD, of course) can often be the best option for those that find this sort of thing a little too time consuming for their liking. That said (and as other people have mentioned) there are a few settings you can tweak in order to get faster times, or there are other MPEG Encoders that are much quicker than TMPGEnc also. There's quite a few guides both here and on Lordsmurf's site that can assist you with configuring TMPGEnc for quality and speed, as well as numerous other guides, tweaks and tips for the other MPEG encoders also. It pretty much comes down to how much research and reading you want to do - either that or asking specific questions and letting the forum contributors make suggestions for improvement