MPEG1 (VCD-complaint) Encoder comparison

[ookzDVD]

@Forum,

I think in the MP4 era, people will laugh to me if I'm asking
this (like topic).

To be honest, I'm still doing business DVD -> VCD since in my country
VCD is still the most popular format.

Is there any good site which can provide fair-good comparison for the
MPEG1 encoder, as such : bbMPEG, TMPGEnc, CCE, Canopus Procoder, etc.

Thank you.

[Manngo]

Check this (http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm) out!

[Wolfman]

IMHO, AFAIK, NO OFFENCE INTENDED
bbmpeg I dont know anything...
tmpgenc .. very good product v flexible and good results a little bit slow (but only 1pass on vcd)..free
CCE .. is very good .. very fast.. but quite unfriendly ..basic is cheap £40+, std is very very expensive £2000
canopus procoder is meant to be very good and very fast..

My opinion ..Go for tmpgenc as its free so try it.. then try trial versions of the others

[SeeMoreDigital]

Check out KVCD.net (www.KVCD.net). A guy called Kwag has created the best Mpeg1 matrices I've ever seen!

Cheers

[ookzDVD]

@Manngo,
Thank you for the link, it's very enteresting!

@Wolfman,
Yes, I've been using TMpgEnc for the last 6 months,
the result is not too bad, but somehow, the encoder
can't handle the fast moving scenes (lots of macroblock).

@SeeMoreDigital,
Which one you prefer ? There are a lots of matrices.
I prefer to have the matrix for the standard mpeg1 vcd
complaint (cbr 1150).
I've tried all their matrices before, but it seems they
hurt the picture so much.

Thank you.

[IDENTITY]

ookzDVD, I already tried tmpgenc, cce, Procoder and mainConcept. for me the fastest is CCE followed by mainconcept. And my personal choice is cce coz it is less blocky than mainconcept. BTw I use DVDx for converting DVD to vcd, it transcode on the fly and supports plugin for CCE.

[ookzDVD]

@IDENTITY,

Thank you for the reply.
I just trying CCE SP for VCD encoding,
it's FAST and the result is less block than TmpgEnc,
but somehow TmpgEnc can have sharper result than the CCE
in the stop or slow moving scenes.

For fast moving scenes, CCE is better than TmpgEnc imho.

Thank you.

[Wolfman]

If you are suffering macroblocks make sure to check other settings(tmpgenc), quantize matrix, mpeg standard & soften block noise (change both values to 16,16) this distinctly lessen the impact. Also give it more bitrate than the standard say 1300CBR and motion search precision slow/very slow. kwags stuff is good for putting a lot of stuff on one cd, but frankly the quality suffers. try some filters like "soften" etc.

[ookzDVD]

@Wolfman,

Sure, I'll try your tips.
Thank you.

[yup]

Try Panasonic MPEG1 Encoder. I use version 2.51 and found that it better than CCE and TMPGEnc. And do not forgot about prefiltering video before encoding.
yup.

[ronnylov]

TMPGEnc has the sharpest picture but as you said it suffers from macroblocks. I have tried Mainconcept encoder and it was a little bit less sharp in picture and it had less macroblocks but there was a pumpung effect in the picture (like two bad frames each second). So I tried Canopus Procoder and encoded to mpeg1 with mastering quality setting and there was almost no macroblocks at all. But it was a little bit more "mosquito noise" around edges in motion scenes. The picture was also softer than both TMPGEnc and mainconcept. When watching it on TV at normal playback speed Procoder gave me the best results and the mosquito noise could not be seen on the TV.

My advice is trying Canopus Procoder.