mm2 and Sonic v. 5.0

[Jay Miller]

Does anyone have a better confidence in the MPEG2 encoder
in Sonic v 5.0. I've read from prior posts to use
TMPGEnc to do my encoding of DV-AVI movies and then drop
them into Sonic to burn my DVD. If the encoder if v 5 is
better, I could drop a step out of my process (assuming
Sonic doesn't try to re-encode my MPEG2 file - I don't
think it does.)

Thanks in advance,
Jay

 

[Jake]

Hi

I haven't had a problem with Sonic MyDVD 5.0, but then I haven't compared it
to any other MPEG2 encoder and I've only burned a couple of DVDs. What are
the problems that you get?

Jake

 

[Jay Miller]

I don't have any problems - I am just curious if I can
speed up my DVD making process by just trusting the Sonic
Encoder and not using TMPGEnc.

 

[Jake]

Fair enough. 'Fraid I wouldn't know the answer to that one as I've only
used the Sonic encoder, as I mentioned. It's slow going, but I suspect any
limitations are processor/memory related and not as dependent on the
encoder.

I plan to use Adobe's encoder (in Premiere) for my next project, but since
this is a MM2 newsgroup and Premiere's an expensive bit of kit that's in a
different league then it's probably not relevant posting my thoughts on it
here.

Jake

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Jay and Jake,

Good quality encoding takes time. So you need to schedule the encoding
sessions to give it the time.

I use MyDVD 4.5, TMPGEnc and Premiere but I'm not much into making MPEG2
files and DVDs. I usually am going in the other direction.

Test the process with a smaller video file. Go thru each app to get the
MPEG2 file, time the encoding session, put both on the same DVD. Watch it on
TV and assess the differences.

For low cost encoders TMPGEnc continues to get the most acclaim. It nicely
defers to you if you want to use the computer to do other things during the
encoding session, continuing in the background but giving you enough space.
And you can opt to have it shut down your computer when the session is done,
for when you let it go overnight.

My experience with Premiere is such that it provides a zillion features but
sub-optimizes many of them. I tend to prefer software that specializes in
one task and does a great job at it. So TMPGEnc gets my nod here.

PapaJohn

 

[Jake]

Yes - as I have discovered MPEG2 encoding takes a long time and is best left
to when the PC's not needed, e.g. overnight or when I'm going out.

I have to say I am happy with the quality of the results from MyDVD, so I
will probably stick with that rather than use Premiere's encoder based on
your experience. I've considered trying TMPGenc, but I quite like the
'one-shot' convenience that MyDVD gives me.

Jake