TMPGEnc still significantly better than MS Pro 6.5 IMO

[Hulk]

Since I picked up a +R/RW DVD writer I've been archiving a lot of old projects to MPEG-2 format. I've been doing a lot of comparisons between MS Pro 6.5 and TMPGEnc, no doubt about it TMPGEnc is better, not huge, but significantly. Bitrates can be much lower before macroblocking appears. Artifacting around text and other "hard" lines is also less at same bitrate.

Is there any way to use TMPGEnc as a plug-in for MS Pro? I remember something about a frameserver project a few months back. Is anything happening there?

Also, what is the difference between CQ and VBR_CQ?

I would think that CQ would have to be a VBR mode.

[Dr Mordrid]

VideoTools is still committed to a version of the VideoServer plugin for MSPro as soon as they finish the new Premiere version, which is in very late beta as we speak.

VideoServer allows you to export the timeline directly to any encoder that can load *.avi files. It uses a pseudo *.avi file to pass frames between the two programs.

Excellent product. Use it all the time in Premiere.

Dr. Mordrid

[wkulecz]

I'd be happy if Ulead ever released the "re-complied" PowerPatchII to fix the mpeg2 pulsating artifacts in MPEG.now.

Except for the pulsating artifacts in high contrast scenes, I'm very happy with the speed/quality from MPEG.now at VBR5000 which lets me get ~2hrs on a disk with layer2 audio.

--wally.

[Hulk]

Wally,

I think the pulsating artifacts are the B and P frame spoilage. I've noticed that it stops happening when the VBR bit rate gets to 6000 or so. I forget how to get to the advanced settings for MPEG-2 in MS Pro but maybe there is a setting there that can be adjusted.

If and when the frameserving occurs for MS Pro it will be a good day!

[wkulecz]

I certainly see it at 6000VBR. Higher bit rates are moot if the video won't fit on the disk.

--wally.

[Hulk]

I see the effect on some of my high res stills in the video. Yes, high bitrate make the whole thing pointless since you end up with large files.

I was thinking that perhaps tweaking the codec could help your results.

[Dr Mordrid]

It's a bug with the previous build of the MainConcept MPEG SDK. This was fixed in the SDK and Ulead is betaing the fixed PowerPatch as we speak. Patience...

Dr. Mordrid