VRO to MP4 - please suggest a faster converter than TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0

[mbextreme]

I routinely have to convert clips from my Panasonic recorder to MP4 files. I usually put them on DVD-RAM with 8 clips of 30 minutes LP material to fill the disc.

When I use TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 to convert to MP4, it often takes about same time as the clips to do the converting; ie: 4 hours of material would take 4 hours of real time converting on my 3.0Ghz P4 machine. This is with the material already downloaded to the hard disk by the program.

Is there other converter program that you would recommend that can do faster with decent quality? I don't need any editing abilities in the program; just plain old converting.

Note: I have tried a number of programs in the TOOLS section. I found the ones that CAN work with VRO files would only treat the VRO file as one huge clip and give me one huge MP4 file. I need them in their native 8 separate clips/files; which the TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 does; but painfaully SLOW.............

[Baldrick]

H264 video conversion? If so then it's slow even with new computers
What video encoding settings are you using? Like 2-pass encoding is sloooow.


And can't you output as mpg files with tmpgenc xpress(no video conversion)? Then you can try convert those mpgs using the x264 converter (use guis like xvid4psp, staxrip) and see if you can get fast speed.

[mbextreme]

Baldrick, Below are my typical settings in TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0:

MPEG-4 file output: Stream type: ISO MPEG-4 format

Output container type: Normal

Vidoe Size: 352 x 288
Framerate: 29.97 fps (Progressive)
Rate Control Mode: Constant bitrate
Average bitrate: 200 kb/s
GOP length: 30 frames
B frame setting: none
Quantization mehod: H.263

Audio Encode type: AAC encoder
Sampling rate: 48000
Channel mode: stereo
Bitrate: 64 kb/s
MPEG version: MPEG-4 (ISO/IEC 14496-3)

This nets me a MP4 file that is watchable; a 55MB file for a 30-minute clip, and it usually takes 30 minutes to encode.

I am looking for a faster converter, while keeping the total file size as small as possible. Thanks.