Procoder Newbie Question

[urvieh]

I'm new to the combination of Procoder Express (current version) and DVD-RB. What will happen if I send it the "Mastering Quality" parameter?

TIA.

[EYEREX]

I normally use procoder 2 for my backups and have it always set to mastering quality so all that will happen is you will have a great backup just it can be a bit slow to encode i'm running a P4 3.4 which for a movie only backup can take 2hr 30 for a average movie

[urvieh]

I forgot to mention that "Mastering Quality" is not available in the settings of Procoder Express. That is why the question came up ...

Edit: It's doing something. But I sometimes am facing a "procoder doesn't allow multiple instances message" ... Let's what it will look like.

[jdobbs]

Are you using the latest version of ECLPRO (included with the DVD-R Installer)? If I recall correctly, the "multiple instances" message was corrected in that version.

[urvieh]

It's the one that came with the full pro install package. I corrected the Pause parameter to 20 (default seems to be 10 now), and the rest worked fine.

[robot1]

Using Procoder Express, you have to uncheck "Multiple Encoder Processes", as dual encoding is not handled with Express.

[jdobbs]

Good to know... I wasn't aware of that.

[robot1]

With Procoder 1.5 and Procoder Express, EclPro needs to send some commands simulating keystrokes, so it's impossible to have two istances for the Procoder window.
For Procoder 2 the process is fully automated (EclPro translates the ecl file in a .pcp file).

[urvieh]

But what happens to the "Mastering Quality" command if this option is not available in Express? Is it available, but hidden in the gui? Is it converted to "HQ" automatically?

[wmansir]

Try it and see.

If you lanuch ECLPro.exe manually it will ask you if you want to load an ECL file. Pick one with "Master Quality" set and then check out the program settings. When launched this way ECLPro will just load the settings, it won't start encoding or automatically close when stopped/finished.

[urvieh]

Thank you all for your replies. Yes, yes, yes, all's been done and set. But my question referred to what it is that Procoder Express receives if "Mastering Quality" is set. Mastering Quality, Highest Quality or no quality setting at all? I mean, I would have to test with both settings if there is a difference, but I've got more things to do than testing :). Guys, you give me no chance of being lazy :D.

[lilhobo]

chances are its the number of passes, or a more stringent algorithym.

only 2 hrs for a dvd on highest quality in procoder when i hear CCE is taking somehere up to 9 hrs??

[jdobbs]

Where'd you hear that? First, ProCoder doesn't have that capability to do more than two passes... second, CCE is at least 2-3 times faster than ProCoder and takes less than two hours for a typical movie, and that's on my middle of the road single processor Athlon XP 3200.

There are a lot of people out there who are spreading silly information about CCE and speed. I have no vested interest in CCE -- but -- it is hands-down the fastest software encoder on the planet. The only one that comes close in terms of speed is FFMPEG. End of story. There are those who just don't understand and somehow think you have to do these ridiculous pass counts (which, by the way, have been proven to be meaningless).

[lilhobo]

well it looks to me that cce sp2 does a 200Mb to 100Mb in 20 min for one pass on a p4 3.0Ghz

SO thats 40 min for 200MB !!!

extrapolating it: 1 Gb/ 200min x 7 Gb for DVD9 =1400min = 23 hrs

EDIT: ok on second inspection you can half that time :D And this is consistent with the 9 hrs the lady was doing on the Atlantis disc...so i was surpised to hear procoder being quoted at 2-3 hrs

[SpazzHH]

well it looks to me that cce sp2 does a 200Mb to 100Mb in 20 min for one pass on a p4 3.0Ghz

SO thats 40 min for 200MB !!!

extrapolating it: 1 Gb/ 200min x 7 Gb for DVD9 =1400min = 23 hrs

EDIT: ok on second inspection you can half that time :D And this is consistent with the 9 hrs the lady was doing on the Atlantis disc...so i was surpised to hear procoder being quoted at 2-3 hrs

I have a couple of problems with that line of reasoning.

1.) It's not the size of the video in GB that determines encoding time, but the number of total frames and the complexity of the original source.

2.) I have a computer with the same processor and it usually takes me no longer than about 2 hrs to do a 3 pass encode with CCE. The same disc takes about 3.5 to 4 hrs with Procoder set on Mastering Quality.

[urvieh]

It states to be set to "Highest Quality", but encoding takes a little longer for my taste.