TDA3 vs TDA4

[pepegot1]

I currently have TDA3. I would like to know if it is worth the effort to upgrade to TDA4? I could not get enough info, from them, on the new version, comparison wise. I am not interested in any HDVD features-strictly an SDVD man.

[lordsmurf]

I still use TDA1 over TDA3, even though I have both. Newer isn't always better.

[roma_turok]

Get the trial version and decide.
Personally I think its worth to upgrade to TDA4
only because I don't like white Apple style color interface on TDA3

[Vidd]

Does TDA4 force a transcode of already compliant input video like TDA2 and TDA3 did?

Or does is only author the video like 1.5/1.6?


I still use 1.6 because of this forced trancode issue of versions 2 and 3. Companies always seem to ruin good software.

[Alex_ander]

TAW4 is a significant upgrade, even if you only work with SD DVDs. Here's what I noticed (along with new nice interface) as new menu creation features:

1. In case you want (just mark that checkbox), calling root menu from playback will not only select proper chapter page but will also highlight the button for current chapter. As far as I can remember, even DLP can't do it automatically (at least have seen DLP guides for this based on VM command editing).
2. You can now use 3 different color schemes for buttons in the same page.
3. Button links now are better re-arranged when you move buttons from default positions, so in most cases you don't have to use the internal link editor to correct some strange links (they remain natural).
4. The object aligning in menu page is now based on positions of already existing objects (not on stationary grid). While you move something, blue guiding lines are shown between the current object and other ones (horizontally/vertically). Real pleasure to work with menus.

As for re-encoding, help file now doesn't say 'it's always re-encoding', just mentions that if you want to prevent frame interpolation in parts where audio/video length don't match, just do previous cut-editing. Didn't test it, I always make menus separately and mux streams in other programs (TDA1.6 or Muxman).

[noemi7]

Does TDA4 force a transcode of already compliant input video like TDA2 and TDA3 did?

Yes, it does. It has now a preview what is transcoded. I tested on a few DVB streams, and it looks like pretty a lot.

I think it's not worth to upgrade as far as Blu-ray is concerned. TDA4 may only write video in MPEG2 HD format. H264 handling is terribly slow - maybe with CUDA is better but I don't have it.

[Valnar]

Does TDA4 force a transcode of already compliant input video like TDA2 and TDA3 did?

It depends on what you...err...TMPGEnc....considers compliant video. I just used it last night and imported my own compliant MPEG2 video and it didn't transcode it at all. The whole menu/VOB creation process was just a few minutes.

[gyoshi]

Does TDA4 force a transcode of already compliant input video like TDA2 and TDA3 did?

As Valnar said, TAW4 won't re-encode video that it considers compliant. All properly DVD-compliant video I've thrown at it doesn't re-encode. I wanted to add that the same is true for TDA3 (and probably for TDA2, but I haven't used it much). I've never had a problem with TDA3 re-encoding already DVD-compliant video.

Now if you're trying to fit 4-5 hours of full resolution DVD-compliant footage on one DVD (and thus, needing to use the transcoding feature in the output stage), [s:422bed2958]then yes, even DVD-compliant footage will have to be re-encoded[/s:422bed2958]. EDIT: It appears transcoding won't fully re-encode the video. It will take longer than regular smart rendering, but it shouldn't take as long as a full render. Transcoding in TMPGEnc lingo is not the same as re-encoding. It is a filtering process to compress the data.

A quick way to see if your video will use Smart Rendering or not is to look for a small icon in the clip list of the Source stage. If it is compliant, a blue "SR" icon will appear on the clip thumbnail. If it isn't, a red "FR" (for Full Rendering) will appear.

[Alex_ander]

If it is compliant, a blue "SR" icon will appear on the clip thumbnail.

When I used TDA3 for complete authoring process, it only applied SR, however it used to modify video in 1 or 2 unexpected points and this was accompanied by video/audio glitches. It would be nice if that SR icon would give the user an opportunity to turn off any re-encoding.
For that reason I use TDA (even this nice version) for menu building only.