a Quick question that requires a X-PERT to answer

or at least someone with proper exposure to HW conversion VS. Soft. How much time are we actually saving?! Are we saving? Going from Compressed 2 (Edit UnComp.) back to Comp. Or any one of these process. On average Conv. Going up or down takes me 45min. per DVD or DiVX. So base on that average, does anyong have experience with HW encoding. Plextor goes from source to DiVX. Anyone seen the quality of this process?! Inquiring Minds want 2 know!

 

Conversion from what format to what format? (Properly termed "encoding").
What software? Some is MUCH faster than others.
What hardware? Same problem.

 

Well, not to really get neck deep into terminology crap... What I'm am actually attempting to describe is a 'conversion' or a more detailed reply would be a decode from one format (either DiVX [or] MPEG2 -DVD- ) to then re-encoding to another format. I assume that would be a conversion? Or maybe a transfer from one format to another. Either way going to from DiVX (mpeg 4 compression) decoding and re-encoding to MPEG2 (DVD Format Compression). Or Pulling, ripping, duplicating, etc. MPEG from a DVD and into (2) XViD / DiVX / MsMPEG 4v3 Videos takes me 45min per XVCD. It takes me 45min from each DiVX-XVCD into 1 DVD film. Meaning (1)DVD --into--> (2) DivX-XVCD (45min. x 2)/ or / (2) DiVX-XVCDs --into--> (1) DVD (45min. x 2) Obviously its is longer going from a larger src and compressing down to a smaller src, but by in large it works out to be 45min a XVCD. Hope this helps clear some of this up. I am wonering is HW (mpeg card or capture HW device) would be faster and or have the quality of software (during any of the above mentioned process).

 

Well, not to really get neck deep into terminology crap... What I'm am actually attempting to describe is a 'conversion' or a more detailed reply would be a decode from one format (either DiVX [or] MPEG2 -DVD- ) to then re-encoding to another format. I assume that would be a conversion? Or maybe a transfer from one format to another. Either way going to from DiVX (mpeg 4 compression) decoding and re-encoding to MPEG2 (DVD Format Compression). Or Pulling, ripping, duplicating, etc. MPEG from a DVD and into (2) XViD / DiVX / MsMPEG 4v3 Videos takes me 45min per XVCD. It takes me 45min from each DiVX-XVCD into 1 DVD film. Meaning (1)DVD --into--> (2) DivX-XVCD (45min. x 2)/ or / (2) DiVX-XVCDs --into--> (1) DVD (45min. x 2) Obviously its is longer going from a larger src and compressing down to a smaller src, but by in large it works out to be 45min a XVCD. Hope this helps clear some of this up. I am wonering is HW (mpeg card or capture HW device) would be faster and or have the quality of software (during any of the above mentioned process).

 

Hardware is usually faster.
A divx avi, to mpeg-2 via hardware is at least realtime. Software depends on what software, and how fast your cpu is.
Going from DVD to avi, is software. I know of no hardware devices to do this, unless you mean a capture device, then it's realtime.

 

Plextor (yes the CDROM company) actually has a couple of units that capture into DivX. There is also a few HW PCI DiVX cards that process straight into "MPEG4 / DiVX" the only thing is that I hate the artifacts that DiVX 5 leaves in videos. When high compression / a smooth result is needed I still use either DiVX 4 (Project Mayo OR the terrible confused DiVX MPG v3 (Micro$oft Hacked beta) codecs. I find (at any bitrate) Div5 has a hard time with high contrasting colors in accellerated scenes. Alot of security companys are really investiing a TON of money into this due to the the longer record times that can be acheived (per DVD-R9). There are already over a hundred different units from 40 different manufacturers selling this technology to the public. Some with an interal HD that go 3 months before a blank DVD is deamed neccissary to start the backup process. But you guessed it looks great for 7-11 and a great mistake for high fidelity viewing. (just a lil' info 4 thinkin, or food 4 thought)