Encoding taking way too long

[Btibert]

I have been using beta version 12a for a while now to encode my VCD's. I recently attempted to do Shrek, only a 90 min movie, and its is now taking up to 22 hours to encode, where before, normal 2 hr movies only took 8 hours. I have not changed any settings intentionally and can not find out the root source of the problem.

Settings:

Motion search accuracy=high quality
Non interlace
Odd Field First(Field Order B)
Source Aspect Ratio=16:9 525 line NTSC
Fit to Frame(preserve aspect ratio2)
Noise reduction, Audio effects, edge enhancement
Soften Block noise (35,35)

My system is a P3 1G 128 MB, 40 gb hd. I dont know what is differnt now.

Secondly, can someone tell me what the effects of choosing the different opitions under fit to frame are?

Thanks

[Erik_Osterholm]

Under the claim that you haven't changed anything, there's little to no explanation. However in my experience, when someone says this, they are wrong :)

What's the process you use for getting the DVD to your hard drive? When you rip, do you rip only the streams you want or do you rip the entire DVD?

With all the filters you're using, and Shrek being animated, (non-standard, I'd bet TMPGEnc was not optimized for that style of film) that could be it, but a jump from 8 hours to 22 is a bit much. What can you tell me about the framerate for Shrek and the framerate you're encoding at?

As for the options...
They've changed the names of some of it since your version, and all I have is 2.54, but if you download that from http://www.tmpgenc.net/ and hold your mouse over the dropdown box for "Fit to frame" then it gives you a description of each option.

[Milkman Dan]

Yeah, is there a particular reason you're still using a version that is that old? 2.51 introduced SSE optimizations that would benefit your PIII.

I'd also use the Motion Search setting instead of the one you're using. I never made a quality difference in my work, and it's a damn sight faster.

[Erik_Osterholm]

I've heard people say that the 12 series is better quality than the 2.5 series... I don't have any of the 12 series offhand so I can't make such comparisons. The SSE note is correct, though, he'll probably see a 20% improvement (based on turning my optimizations off).

[Btibert]

I still use the old version of TMPG because I have not had any problems with it, until now. I fooled around with a few of the settings and the normal encoding time returned. Thanks alot!!!

One last question. I have a HDTV 34'' widescreen TV at home. What would be the best settings to use so that my VCD is in widescreen. (I have never been a big fan of the black bars)

Thank you

[Milkman Dan]

Err...I don't know that VCD supports widescreen. My guess is prolly not. You might search in the VCD forum to see if that question has been answered already.

I imagine VCD wouldn't look that great on a TV like that anyway...

[Btibert]

You would be surprised, many of the VCD's I have look really good on the tv.

[Milkman Dan]

Well, I guess you make better VCD's than a friend of mine. Those looked awful.

Or I might be really picky. Either way.