i've been creating dvds for quite some time, i've come across some good encoders that get the job done quick. But in terms of quality for the bitrate- well thats the biggest problem i face. i heard macs do the job good but then again- macs
Are you looking for an encoder or encoding software? For encoders you have HCenc (free) and CCE (pay) For encoding software (not transcoding) there's DVD Rebuilder. You could transcode with Rebuilder although I never did or will.
For a 1 step program, probably ConvertxtoDVD. If not, Mainconcept (lot's of tweak's) and an authoring program, neither is free. Heard good thing's about DVD Flick (free) or HCenc. I believe Ulead MovieFactory (authoring program) has the MainConcept encoding engine though I could be wrong. None have anything to do with Mac's. Anyway, I'm extremely happy with both, MC gives a little better quality (not a lot) and I'm quite fussy about that. CCE is excellent and fast too.
i've also done some experiments and i see that autoGK likes to split the video and audio leaving it as avisynths- but that is actually good because if you do the math- this program offers really good quality but also lets you do the audio. thats just one story, i also find FAVC a really customizable way to author dvds- at the expense of time. I think 2-pass encoding is the big answer to my question though- but it does bring lag to the picture.
CCE is probably the way to go with Avisynth. I believe CCE allow's multiple passes while MC will do 2 pass. Don't know anything of AutoGK but I always do the audio seperately as a wav, I use Goldwave but VirtualDub (free) has that capability.
Never used CCE but assume it can. I always use MC to encode the avi and created wav to an mpg which is authored to a DVD with simple menu using Ulead MovieFactory. The version of UMF I use is an old one and contains MC but I haven't used it to encode in years. I prefer a standalone program which has many more tweak's and can't remember how much or any difference there was. Plus, if Ulead still contains the MC engine, it won't accept a wav.
i like messing around with a lot of options and all but i have to say- sometimes it gets out of the perimeters of my understanding. divx, xvid, h.264, avc, mp4, -i still can't come to a solid opinion on which format does best quality/speed-per-byte compression, even some mpeg2 compressors like ffmpeg, mencoder, mc, etc. have extremely marginal differences. it stinks
It doesn't stink, and there is no Best DVD encoder. Different situations and sources call for different approaches. You asked about DVD encoders but now you've switched gears talking about divx, xvid, h.264, avc, and mp4. It takes time, practice and research to understand and implement.
would contacting a specific company be a good idea? like universal, paramount, or some sort of DVD publisher, it may be something that they won't share though.
There is a heap of information relating to dvd authoring.. encoding.. splitting muxing and all kinds of crap right down to how to access the dvd player registers directly using inbuilt stream flags here http://afterdark13.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=75 (the results of 8 months of work.. as creaky well remembers) with stuff about portable device format (asf m2s4 etc) conversion here http://juliadream.forumup.com/viewtopic.php?t=204&mforum=juliadream It all depends how technical you want to get... Personally I wouldn't bother too much about "the best".. because every way has pro's and con's.. Just use the playoff between quality and speed.. What's the point of downloading say a 700mb avi then spending 8 days encoding it using more money in power than just going and buying a retail disk... and it's still only going to look as good as a crappy 700mb downloaded avi at the end of it!! See.. it's a compromise.. unless your source is full band HD at 12GB+ per hour (and that ain't going to go on a dvd anyways without compressing it to hell and back and chopping it to 720x576.. so what's the point) then the standard freeware tools will be more than adequate for your use.. Remember.. garbage in-garbage out.. applies to video and audio now just as it has for the last 100 years. people have preferences for certain payware software based either on fanboyism or because they get some kickback for telling everybody about it all the time.. try all the freeware ones first, and if you are still unhappy then by all means pay out for something which probably isn't going to be any better... and in many cases will be worse than what you have already tried... freeware apps are generally made because somebody was unhappy with the way the payware worked.. worth remembering is that
so what is really the best? if you say there is no encoder that's the best, what ARE the best encoders? we are asking the best, not get told to just buy retail disk. ^_^
the best is what the big companies pay big money for. as for us, i'm interested in this new gpu encoding software.
