In terms of SVCD video quality what are your results? i just did an informal test and found that Canopus is a slightly better in terms of producing a less "blocky" image - i'm no where the expert in judgeing encoders so i'd like to get your opinions. what do the experts here have to day about these two encoders going head to head?

I should mention that i'm talking about Canopus Procoder and MainConcept MPEG encoder 1.1. More info on these two enocoders can be found here:

http://www.canopus.com/US/products/procoder/pm_procoder.asp


http://www.mainconcept.com/mpeg_encoder.shtml

Sorry, not commenting here on the quality of encodes but the stability.
Main Concept MPEG Encoder 1.1 installs MC DV Codec also. I am having
problems with it on Win2K SP3 system. Damn, it could not encode the AVI
generated by Premiere 6.5. It will always crash/report error at the same point.
After installing this, even Adobe premiere started "disappearing" during encode of the same project from the timeline. After changing the prem60.ini file to ovrride the codecs, it started working again. Procoder handles the
same AVI flawlessly and even CCE SP 264

I can't comment on MainConcept, because I've not heard of them. I gather their standalone product is under 50 dollars US, and requires AVI source.

procoder will except many different formats as source besides AVI including DV, MPEG 1 and 2, and translates NTSC/Pal, and can create streaming media. It is very high quality judging both by the results, and against TMPGEnc, which I've used in the past...but no longer.

Siva, how do you change the prem60.ini file to ovrride the codecs. I have the problem as you had before, it will always crash/report error at the same point.
Please help!

Thanks

Got the informaton from Adobe user forums. But I
believe even Ross mentioned this on his website.

You need to add the following lines at the end of the prem60.ini file. This file will be in
"Program Files\Adobe\Premiere 6.5" directory.

[Override]
PreferDSCodecs=1

While i do appreciate the info about premiere...

Can we pls keep the posts here relevant to my question. thanks.

I encoded a 20 min NTSC DV AVI into SVCD with Procoder as well as with MainConcept Encoder(Ofcourse MC Codec didn't allow me to do the complete encode for this particular AVI). I liked Procoder in this case. I used default SVCD settings for both the encoders. MC Encoder
seem to be faster though. Hope this is relavant

Avi > SVCD MC1.1 took 1.4*RT PC1.01.35 8*RT. Some speed difference eh..

And btw. Procoder produdecd 'blinking' eyelashes for TV-newsreader but MC didn't (some field-order problem maybe)

" and requires AVI source."

Cannot agree: converts SVCD to VCD 0.7*realtime and DVD mpeg2 to VCD 1.0*realtime and quality is as good as bitrate can allow.

720x576 Hauppauge BT878 avi can be converted to VCD @ 0.5*realtime and to SVCD @ 1.2*realtime and to DVD 1.9*realtime on a Athlon1300 machine.

All that for 50$ !! Germany Rules

Less blocky? Why do you have blocks at all? One wonders what your source looks like. I use the typical highest encode setting with Canopus and I've never yet seen it produce a single block.

hi all I am wanting to know if why when procoder finishes it leaves the file as m2p and not mpeg

thanks to all who respond..

mp2 IS mpg. You can change the extension without fear. Also, the elementary streams .mpa/.mpv are interchangeable with .m2a/.m2v

mark

Sorry Mark but the great ProCoder does actually produce some blockiness on my DV Avi > SVCD Encodes BUT YOU CAN ONLY SEE THEM WHEN YOU PAUSE PLAYBACK ON SET TOP DVD PLAYER. Have you tried some of those filters its a bit touchy when you crank up color settings but it does help on output side,of course speed suffers. But hey its so easy to set up and tweak and you always get a nice lookin output to burn onto cd. So now i have use for DVD Workshop seems to do a good job burning and lets you set up the menus nicely Just dont let it reencode compliant files Etc.Thats my 2cents worth Later all!!!