Pinnacle DV500 Can it help me encode my DVD's?

[Roveer]

This may be a stupid question, but I have a Pinnacle DV500 card and just got an offer to upgrade the firmware and drivers to support newer more DVD related things.

I currently make backups of my DVD's using the following method(s)

1. If SMARTRIPPER gives me a < 4.39 size, I burn it directly with Prassi

2. If IFOEdit stripping give me < 4.39 I burn it with prassi

3. If all else fails, I'll DVD2AVI it, VFAPI it into CCE encode it as a 3 pass VBR, use pulldown.exe on it, drop that with the audio into DVDMaestro author it, then burn with Prassi.

What's bumming me, is the 8 hour CCE encodes. Is there anything I can do using my Pinnacle DV500 that will speed this process up?

Thanks.

Roveer

[Commander XJL]

I think it would take longer with the DV500. You would have to spend 2 hours capturing the video, then encode that video anyway to make it compliant for an authoring app. I may be wrong though.

[TRILIGHT]

You're not going to get the same quality you would with ripping and re-encoding if you capture via the card. It seems what you were really asking though was if there was a way the card could assist in speeding up your process as-is. Unfortunately, there isn't. The software is it's own MPEG encoder. It does not use an external hardware encoder.

That being said, you'll find a lot of use out of the card if the DVD upgrade allows for direct DVD-compliant MPEG2 captures (and I think it does). I have the Pinnacle DVD1000 card and you really can't beat realtime DVD-compliant capture! The resulting files will go straight into your authoring program. Never an audio sync or dropped frames issue (as with some cheaper solutions like the DVCII).

[Roveer]

Thanks for the responses. I had a feeling that it wouldn't help in the encoding. I don't want to do any kind of capture. I was hoping that it could replace the CCE encoding step and use hardware vs software, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm probably going to get the upgrade. The software/hardware upgrade is just 85 bucks for registered users, so It won't hurt. I have a DV cam and do captures once in a while. I plan to author this stuff to DVD (someday), and I also want to get a Sony VX-2000 (prosumer DV cam), so, I will probably do the upgrade.

I guess I shouldn't complain. I'm getting 1.1-1.3 speeds on CCE, but 8 hours really puts a cramp in my process. Guess we have to live with it.

Roveer

[Arky]

To be honest, it's nigh-on impossible to beat CCE SP for Quality, unless you spend at LEAST $2000 (Canopus's Amber MPEG2 Hardware card), and even then, CCESP will probably still pip it to the post in terms of absolute MPEG quality. The MPX3000 is where the serious hardware encoding action is, but I believe that costs somewhere in the region of $15,000. In short, I'd be inclined to capture DV as normal, to an AVI file (or rip MPEG from a DVD, whchever is relevant to the particular job in hand) and transcode/re-encode these using Cinemacraft. In light of this, your money would, IMHO, be best directed towards a faster CPU, for a couple of hundred bucks, to let CCE SP run that bit faster.


Arky ;o)

[Arky]

http://www.creativecow.net/forum/read_thread.php?threadid=87744&forumid=55&postid=102268985445681

http://www.creativecow.net/forum/read_thread.php?threadid=81683&forumid=55&postid=102099906340894


Arky ;o)


http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=23157