DVD encoder

[Mike Velte]

It is pretty darn good, although maybe not the best. Many think Procoder ($500) or CinemaCraft ($2000) might be better.

[Perry Cheng]

Mike, 🙂 I love your response.

Perry

[Scot Sheely]

The encoder in PPRO, After Effects, Encore and even Sony Vegas is the same animal: The MainConcept encoder.

I have tried Procoder, which I think is very good, but IMHO it takes a back seat to the full-blown version of MainConcept that you can buy directly from that company off of their website.

As it stands, the version that comes standard with the Adobe and Sony products is darned good, especially in the MPEG2 and .AVI encoding. Lots of variables to adjust, and best of all, you have not only their stock presets to work with, but you can customize and save your own, which I heartily recommend.

Optimal settings for any project depends entirely on the project requirements itself, but in general terms, for encoding MPEG2 (which is what is required for a DVD), I would select the following attributes:

1) VBR 2-Pass encode, NTSC, 29.97 FPS DF (for Region 1)
2) 4:3 or 16:9 depending on your source video; lower fields
3) 6 or 7 Mbps target, Max 7 Mbps, Min 5 Mbps High Quality
4) PCM audio (unless you purchase the Dolby encoder option)
5) Demuxed (use elemental streams; in other words, choose “None” under the Multiplexing option. This will create two separate files, one for audio, one for video).
6) Leave the M and N frames as default (3 and 15 respectively)
7) Post encoding tasks: I personally prefer to have LOG FILE DETAILS available to check for errors (like a dropped frame, etc.). This is not absolutely necessary, but can help you troubleshoot a problem.

Once you set this type of encode preference in the MainConcept / Adobe encoder, be sure to save it as a custom name you recognize next time. For me, I always save as something like: “Scot’s 16×9 High Quality 7 MB 2-Pass VBR PCM Audio” (without the quotes).

That way, when I go to encode another project, I know by the name what the most important settings are without having to open preset and view them manually.

One thing to note: you cannot save a preset using the colon (” : “). A 16:9 or 4:3 screen ratio needs to be saved as 16×9 or 4×3. Some special characters are not recognized by the application.

Something I didn’t mention earlier, but is very important to learn how to do, is create a “Bit Budget”. This can be done using any number of free Bit Budget Calculators that can be found on the Internet. Here is a link to one of my favorite freebies from a guy who really knows his stuff, Bruce Nazarian, that I met last year at WEVA EXPO 2006:

https://www.recipe4dvd.com/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,50/Itemid,151/

You will need to register on his website and use the free one-week trial to get to that link in the downloads area, but its all good. Although Bruce is a Mac fanatic and uses FCP and DVSP, the calculator applies to any and all DVD Authoring tools available, regardless of manufacturer.

FYI, Bruce used to play guitar in the ’70’s rock band Brownsville Station (“Smokin’ In The Boys Room” and “Martian Boogie”, amongst other killer songs).

Sorry for the long post, but I sincerely hope that helps you out. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any further questions and I will gladly assist you to the best of my abilities.

Scot Sheely
IMG Videos.com

[Spsingh]

thanks Scot Sheely for elaborate description.
also thanks to mike velte for suggestions.

[Anthony Marotti]

Hello,

The MainConcept site is a bit bewildering, I can’t find the stand-alone version anywhere. It either doesn’t exist, or they hid it pretty well.

I see their “Reference” and their plugins, and all of their many SDKs, but no stand-alone.

Am I blind? I might be 🙂

Thanks!!

AM 🙂

[Scot Sheely]

https://www.mainconcept.com/site/consumer-products-4/mainconcept-reference-20373/information-20393.html?L=0

This is the durect link for their new “Reference” program, which appears to have supplanted the previous versions from just a few months ago.

In all cases, what you are supposed to do is download and install the free trial, then select the codec(s) you need, purchase that / those option(s), download and install any and all of the ones you buy.

I agree, their site has turned into a confusing and uttely bloody mess. It is hard to navigate and even harder to make sense of all of the changes they have made recently to their product lines.

If they intend to stay competitive in the marketplace, they need to do something to clarify their products and descriptions immediately.

Although I love their products and IMO think that they previously have been the very best of the encoders on the marketplace, this is ridiculous and will definitely run off many potential customers who cannot find what they are looking for.

I will call or e-mail them tomorrow to make sure all of this info is correct and to recommend to them to get the engineers and web masters together for a “lunch and learn” session to hopefully improve their website.

Scot

[Anthony Marotti]

That sounds great Scot, and thanks for the reply!

AM 🙂