Which encoder

[PGM]

I recently bought Dvd rebuilder which i believe is a great program but reading all these threads/posts in this section of the forum made me quite to confused as to which encoder (free or not) to use for MAXIMUM quality of my back ups.Time needed is not a problem ......
Pls enlight me a little .......

ty u in advance

[Digga]

...but reading all these threads/posts in this section of the forum made me quite to confused as to which encoder (free or not) to use for MAXIMUM quality of my back ups.here comes the short answer you probably was already expecting:
this question has been asked numerous times now.
quality is subjective, you have to see for yourself which encoder suits you best (or on which scenario).

if you are confused with all the threads here, start reading again and ask some specific questions, rather than "tell me what's best".

putting that aside, why don't you try HC (free) with a few movies. if you're not convinced, try the next encoder, etc.

[laserfan]

You could use Hank's Encoder (included) in BEST mode, or you could go crazy trying to find one scene or another where this encoder works better than that encoder etc. etc.

Last year I rebuilt Spiderman 2 with Hank's encoder and was astonished that I couldn't see any glitches whatsoever in this frenetic program. Of course, I was caught-up in the story/action, which is what good encoding is about--not getting in the way of enjoying the show!

[Rafterman]

Well not free I would reccommend CCE Basic($60) and free I would suggest Hanks. However unless you are compressing a very long movie(in excess of 2hrs) I find the difference on a pc monitor or 32" CRT TV is not that noticable and really comes down to personal taste. Some encoders produce a slightly brighter pic(Procoder) than others so you should download some of the trial versions and give them all a whirl for yourself as only you can tell what suites your setup best.

[urvieh]

Not to forget about Procoder Express. ;)

[steptoe]

Its very subjective and personal preference, but it was suggested that HC be used for low bitrate and animation or cartoon sources as this appears to be better than CCE

But, again its very subjective and a lot depends on personal preference, entire threads have been devoted to the arguments for and against what encoder is best for what


I'm now using HC for encoding and set to maximum quality, and also using the avamat7 matrix which has apparently been tweaked to cover bitrates in the region of 1800-3500 which should cover most low bitrate projects like episode disks

It does appear to me to offer sharper results than CCE that I was using before, but again this is personal preference


I've been using avamat7 for a very long while with no problems, I also use the bitrate distribution option in DVD-RB Pro to spread the bitrate as even as possible across an episode disk, and as I have now also moved over to dual core also have the multiple encoders option set



Plus HC is free