Good MPEG2 encoder for DVD5 and DVD9 quality? MainConcept vs Procoder?

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

what is...well a good mpeg2 encoder that gives results with a dvd5 or dvd9?...i tried mainconcept Hc and procoder..(pro) gives well a nice quality its a bit how you say blur but to a point its not a problem...i just tried them but need to know what you would recommend so i can stick with it...and also carbon coder....or are there others?

....sorry for asking alot but i just go back and forth with encoders becaues i read comments and im a bit confused...i just want good results.

Procoder version 1.x was an amazing encoder, well respected and well-liked in the professional community, and worth every bit of the ~$500 or so it cost at the time. It looked better than Cinemacraft software (CCE) and it was less expensive. For whatever reason, however, Procoder 2 and 3 had noticeably lower quality for MPEG-2, even at Mastering level. It slowly fell out of favor among many users, and MainConcept took its place.

Most compliaints against "MainConcept" are not against MainConcept but rather the usage of the MC SDK by third parties, like Ulead/Corel, Adobe or Sony. You really cannot compare Adobe Premiere Pro exports to MainConcept's own MainConcept Reference product. Although similar, it's not 1:1 the same, and most of the observed issues with exports from NLEs is due to the NLE maker itself, and not the SDK or the encoder.

I know, lots of words, complex answer to what probably was believed to be an easy question. But it's not.

MainConcept looks best.
Then comes most other "name brand" payware. (Procoder, Episode, Sorenson, Compressor, etc)
Then comes freeware and older payware (TMPGEnc).
Then comes all the crappy cheap Chinese software from various brands. It's all $30 range junk.

A big issue with many users that insist MainConcept isn't good is that they're relying on so-called "anlysis software" instead of their eyes. I don't care what software tells me. If I see color, noise and block problems, I see problems. Screw the "rating" on PNSR, SSIM, etc. I'd say most of them are also not comparing it to Reference, but an SDK implementation. And furthermore, few seem to be competent at using the best settings, especially the complex ones buried in sub-menus.

I can understand how this gets confusing, because comparisons between encoders quickly buries you in tech jargon.

If you still have questions, reply here. Thanks. Myself or somebody else will assist you.

This question was asked in a private message. Rather than hide our tech advice in private conversations, Site Staff will often answer PMs (from any site) here in the digitalFAQ.com forum, so that others may read and benefit from our expertise. Please continue the conversation here. Either login or join as a Free Member, and we can continue troubleshooting your video, photo or web related issue. Thanks for understanding our tech Q&A policies.

[jrodefeld]

Hello LordSmurf,

I am in the process of trying to encode maybe 30 hours of video captured from VHS source in huffyuv. I am using MainConcept Reference 2.2. However, I am having problems getting as good a quality encode as I believe is possible. Could you please tell me what settings I should use to get the very best quality encodes for VHS sources captured in huffyuv?

I would greatly appreciate it.

I created a thread about this a while ago. http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...tings-vhs.html

However, I was told that a guide was being written. I don't need a guide, I just need some pointers from an expert like yourself on what settings I should use for specific interlaced, vhs captures.

Please help me. Thanks.

[creed]

Hello, just wanted to say thank you this help me out in a big way!....now I have been testing out mainconcept again
and the one thing that i don't really understand is the 2:3 or 3:2 pulldown the way i see it its (23.97p > 59.94i PD) and (24p> 60i PD) is this right and shouldn't it be 29.97....I'm really used to seeing 23.98 pulldown to 29.97 because now when i import to dvd lab pro it wont import?...and i know that if i convert 23.98 to 29.97 with out pulldown then it will get all jittery and shaky on the T.V.

...I would like to get an insight on the settings for main concept i have looked up some of its settings...but to get a good quality setting for dvd (or) 720x480 mpeg-2 elementary stream what setting would be recommended?....and last question is do you think it's a good idea to just import a file and have MC size it down when encoding or should i just start using avisynth to resize my video to 720x480?....thank you again sorry about all this question ones i start i just keep going even with questions that might seem simple

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Hello, just wanted to say thank you this help me out in a big way

Glad to hear it.

59.94i is another way to express 29.97 fps --- remember that it's almost 60 fields per second, a.k.a. almost 30 frames per second

To borrow a decent quick explanation from Wikipedia: Reducing the visibility of interference between the chrominance signal and FM sound carrier required a slight reduction of the frame rate, from 30 frames per second to 30/1.001 (approximately 29.97) frames per second, and changing the line frequency from 15,750 Hz to 15,750/1.001 Hz (approximately 15,734.26 Hz).

3:2 pulldown = 24 frames played @ 29.97 (59.94i)
Not 2:3.

There was some recent discussion on tweaking MPEG-2 settings here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...tings-vhs.html
Read through that first.

If you need anything else, ask. Thanks.