New Panasonic MPEG encoder.....

[Dr Mordrid]

The big differences in encoders now are that MC and TMPGEnc have a s***load of settings. TMPGEnc's got a bit higher quality most times, but MC's got some settings in there that can make up the difference.

Fun times in MPEG land for sure

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

You're right about MainConcept. One of these days, I need to sit down with a 6-pack and some 5 minute clips of varying quality and try out some tweaking in MC, and make some notes about how it does with various source clips and settings. Some people have reported some awesome encodes with MC and some unnamed tweaks.

Wouldn't it be great if this upcoming Panasonic product does all that for us? I mean, makes a quick scan of our source video clip and then makes optimal encoder settings, automatically. That would be sort of revolutionary. I guess that's sort of what 2-pass does, but, very slowly.

[wkulecz]

Tweaks -- mostly waste of time

Unless the varied settings are keyframable its lagely a waste of time to tweak encoder setting unless you are willing to chop up your source and encode many small parts seperately. The "experts" hopefully have chosen the best compromise settings. Anything you do to make one section "better" is likely to make another section worse. Who's got the near infinite free time it'd take to evaluate such a thing?

Encoder speed is my lowest priority. Best quality with the minimum amount of *my* time is the goal. If I have to spend as much time tweaking and doing test encodes as editing its a non-starter.

Encoding one while I'm editing another (or asleep!) is no big deal.

--wally.

[Brian Ellis]

Wally, you've said it all!

[dchip]

C'mon now, there's always room to tweak. That's what all those fancy settings and sliders and checkboxes are for Exploring, trying to get it better. In between jobs, I rather enjoy toying with these encoders and seeing what I can get out of them. You're right, though, it is time consuming.

[Dr Mordrid]

Who knows.....with all the competition we just might get keyframeable encode settings one of these days. Until then we'll just have to do with some good CQ and CQ_VBR settings.

Those or the upcoming TMPGEnc Server's (up to) 20 pass encoder

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

20 pass encoder!! I definately would have to bring the old P-II out of retirement drop me some more network cable and have it in the basement encoding video 24 hours a day, day in day out. I guess 20 passes would be pretty close to as accurate one can get for VBR. We'll get Hollywood quality yet..

[Dr Mordrid]

Quote from the original TMPGEnc Plus press release (a few edits due to translation problems here but....);

"High quality mode with estimated file size, Multi-pass CQ (Plus:2pass, Server: up to 20 pass)

Judging from our research, although this is very hard to do, we are aiming at storing high quality 2 hour movie into one DVD-R (4.7GB). In this case, user needs to set average bitrate as 3500 - 4000 kbps which is far from high quality, but with this Multi-pass CQ mode, more optimized quality can be expected in low bitrate setting. In this mode output file size can be specified and bitrate would be allocated automatically. Since TMPGEnc Server can use up to 20 pass, more optimized results can be expected. "

You might have to wait a while for it to finish, but I'd love to see the results!

By the way: you should see how nice a result TMPGEnc Plus delivers when you encode at 4200-4500 kbps, CQ_VBR w/a quality of 70 and a frame rate of 23.976 fps (yes, it's DVD legal for NTSC). DVD decks will do the 3:2 pulldown automatically for display on NTSC devices at 29.970 fps.

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

Now that is exciting. Probably as exciting as any press release I have read in recent years. My what possibilities that would open up. In 20 passes the encoder could probably examine each scene and then group the bitrates according to types of scenes (lighting, motion,etc.) and give us 2 hours of very good quality. Right now, 2 hours on a DVD for me would mean something that looks like a bad VHS tape.

Man, what innovators outfits like TMPGEnc are. A lot of people pay thousands of dollars for packages that force them into settling for rigid specs, while TMPGEnc and others are creating magic for us prosumers. I'm very excited.

[Dr Mordrid]

Ahhhh......the wonders & advantages of the free market system

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

I had been holding out and had still not purchased TMPGEnc Plus and just continued using the free one, but, this "20-pass" press release you have shared has me so juiced that I just purchased and downloaded the Plus version. I should have become a registered TMPGEnc user a long time ago. I've loved the software since day one, over two years ago. Anyway, hearing about 20-pass was the final nudge I needed. Not sure what 20-pass will cost when they get it ready but I bet it will be worth 10 times what they charge for it. THANK YOU for mentioning 20-pass!

[Dr Mordrid]

Yeah...I'm looking forward to TMPGEnc Server myself.

BTW: VideoTools are close to releasing the new version of Premiere VideoServer. If the RC works out it should be out pretty soon. After that they start on the MSPro version of VideoServer

Can you even imagine frameserving TMPGEnc Plus or Server from MSPro?

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

Hey guys, 20 passes? I'm already over three score and ten -- I want to still be alive to have a look at the finished DVD

Anybody know where I can buy a cheap Cray supercomputer configured for W2k?

[Fred H]

Anybody know where I can buy a cheap Cray supercomputer configured for W2k?

I tried to upgrade my old Sinclair Spectrum 48K to get one.
Maybe someone can help me?

[IM_Riktar]

Well they bumped the plugin back to September 15th. The standalone is still listed as September 1st.

I am getting a bad case of the "wannasee's".