AMD or Intel for dv->mpeg2 encoding?

[mijalis]

I'm going to buy a new PC which I will be using it mostly for dv ->mpeg2 (sometimes dv->divx/xvid) encoding.
From googling around a bit I found that some people are saying that Pentiums are faster... The thing is that most benchmarks are referring to divx/xvid encoding...For the encoding I mostly use tmpgenc and Ulead's Videostudio 8.
I am mainly interested to dv->dvd encoding...
I am between Pentium 630 (Socket 775) and AMD 64 3200+ (Socket 939) which cost approx. 190€
Any comments? Any more benchmarks which are mpeg2 specific?

[rallynavvie]

Last I checked TMPGEnc is still favoring Intels, but then only by a small margin. The only noticeable difference in long encodes would be from the highest-end chips from each camp. I'm unsure of what Ulead prefers, I know Adobe and Sony both like Pentiums. I guess it would then depend on what else you're going to do with it besides crunch video.

[mijalis]

Last I checked TMPGEnc is still favoring Intels, but then only by a small margin. The only noticeable difference in long encodes would be from the highest-end chips from each camp. I'm unsure of what Ulead prefers, I know Adobe and Sony both like Pentiums. I guess it would then depend on what else you're going to do with it besides crunch video.

I will also be capturing tv shows (directly into mpeg2 with software encoding) - i am not sure which mpeg2 encoder it has - it is avertv.
Another use will be watching divx movies (via the graphics card tv-out)
Threfore, it will basically be a video crunching machine..

[rallynavvie]

Most tuner cards have onboard MPEG2 hardware encoders so that they are able to encode on the fly. Are you sure it's a software encoder it uses? Which Avermedia card do you have?

As for playback it doesn't really matter which platform you go with as long as your video card supports the options and screen resolution you want. In this case you can get away pretty cheap, even onboard video does a good job with 2D video playback. However if you want something that you can hook up to your high-end home theater equipment you'll probably want to look at the middle-of-the-road cards from the latest generation from ATi or nVidia. Personally I prefer nVidia cards and I can recommend the 6600GT for a good value card. It will allow you to output to two DVI (with converters for HD15 analog RGB), composite video, s-video, or component video. If you buy the nVidia MPEG2 decoder pack (or perhaps they're packaging it with the cards these days) then it'll enable your overlay video players (like WMP, VLC, Quicktime, etc.) to take advantage of the MPEG2 hardware decoder onboard the video card and use up virtually no system resources when doing so. Not terribly important since MPEG2 playback doesn't use up much for resources but if you're watching the tuner's MPEG2 stream as it's recording it may help. Depends on how the tuner implements it's encoding I guess.

[AlinaVastag84]

""In five of seven tests run, the Athlon 64 3200+ beat the Pentium 4 630, oftentimes by a healthy margin. In the Blobby Dancer and POVRay Landscape tests, the 630 came through with some very strong wins, topping even the Athlon 64 3800+, in one case leading the reviewing to suspect a flaw in the benchmark. Glimmer of hope? We'll have to wait and see. Gaming wise, the 630 was trounced by the Athlon 64s, as we've come to expect as of late.""
That`s what I`ve found on the net , I also have now a Athlon 64 3000+ and I switched to Windows 64bit Edition and I`m very happy it works fine. As a difference for the Pentiums , this Athlon 64 works cold and this is something to consider if you plan to encode for hours and hours. Also I believe it`s cheaper then the Pentium one...

[non-linear]

From what I have heard/seen, Intel processors tend to be better for multimedia stuff, while AMDs tend to be better for gaming. Not sure how accurate that is or if it still applies (I started hearing it years ago).

[rallynavvie]

Helps to post where you quoted that from so they can see for themselves. I'm loathe to base decisions on most of the big hardware websites as they've been bought off by one camp or the other.