Charles Simonson
Forum Replies Created
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What broadcaster is going to distribute 25Mbps SD encodings on their systems? They are going to have to re-encode it and at that point you would be better off using DVCPRO tape to distribute. But if you really want to send 25Mbps encoding files, make sure you select an all I-frame encode. This should get you to desired bit rate, or at least enough bits will be dedicated to each frame that 25Mbps may not be necessary for some frames. MainConcept, Digigami, and Compression Master should all be able to get you there. With MainConcept and Digigami, try High level or High Profiles too. In Compression Master, try using 4:2:2 color. Even though Apple’s encoder may not play these back, try VLC which can decode much more types of MPEG-2. The decoder a broadcaster will use is much more robust than Apple’s simple decoder.
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Flash 8 can be a good way to go. If you’re willing to spend some money, then the VP6 codec (ie not the standard Flash 8 encoder that comes with most encoding suites) is worth it as Daniel mentions. There are a number of ways to go about encoding VP6 FLVs on the mac, from Flix and Squeeze, to my favorite, Compression Master 4. But I still wouldn’t underestimate the ubiquity of Windows Media. Offering an option of Winodws Media or Quicktime (either SV3 Pro or Compression Master’s MPEG-4) is especially a good option if you feel there may be value in allowing the user to download and archive the movie for later playback.
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Compressor is very limited for MPEG-1 encoding and is not ideal to use.
Personally, for MPEG-1, I really like Compression Master 4. MainConcept also has a good encoder.
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Are they scan lines or telecine lines? This is a question probably better suited for the FCP forum.
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I’d suggest sending Popwire an email on this. I have read reports of this before but I have never personally experienced this. I do know that Popwire’s support is usually quite fast at answering your questions. They are a Swedish company, so there might be a delay in answering though.
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ffmpegX is definitely quirky, but what do you expect from a $15 shareware app. If you can handle it, the results can be quite decent for most encodings. I would make sure you have the proper support codecs installed and try just using the preset encode settings from the first tab. The forum for ffmpegX is quite good and active too.
Squeeze acually licenses the MainConcept encoder for MPEG encoding, but its the pre-processing where Squeeze shoots itself in the foot. For instance, Squeeze treats every source as though it is interlaced for MPEG-2 encoding, so if you have a progressive source and encode it with Squeeze, the result will show interlacing artifacts. Just unacceptable. Also, Squeeze’s scaling engine and color space converter are among the worst on the mac for encoding.
I would have thought not recommending Cleaner would have been obvious. It is the slowest encoder on the market and doesn’t output video that is among the top three quality encoders. Cleaner and Squeeze are in the same price range as Compression Master, so if those two are on the dockett, then I don’t understand your reservations about CM. The versatility of being able to use CM for so many more encoding projects makes it very attractive. Plus, Popwire has yet to charge for any of their major upgrades (v2 to v3 to v3.1 to v3.2 to v4 have all been free).
As far as the darkness, the only two encoders that I think do a really good job of preserving the color space are CM and Compressor, but Digigami and MainConcept do have user-selectable color encoding methods which if tweaked would provide better results than what you are likely seeing by default.
Per dissolves, that may be an issue with interlaced sources. Compressor does have some issues there with deinterlacing. But I hope you are not deinterlacing the source for encoding. For MPEG-2 and working from DV, I would not deinterlace, especially if the target is TV playback. I would only deinterlace if encoding from D1 to 1/2 D1 (perfectly acceptable for MPEG-2) or if scaling from DVCPROHD or similar to SD MPEG-2.
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There are honestly 5 or 6 good MPEG-2 encoders on the mac right now, including the shareware app ffmpegX that uses open source encoder mpeg2enc. If speed is your thing, then I would recommend Popwire Compression Master 4, MainConcept 1.5, or Apple Compressor 2. If it is color that is true to the source, then Compression Master or Compressor. If it is quality, then I suggest Compressor, Compression Master, MainConcept, BitVice, or mpeg2enc. Digigami can offer very good quality too, but that requires using the longest encoding method, which is very slow. If you want encoding options, the Digigami and MainConcept encoders have you covered. And I would by all means stay very much away from Cleaner’s and Squeeze’s encoder.
The best news is that all of the encoders I list have at least some sort of demo available for download. I suggest trying them out yourself to form your own opinion as to what would be best for your needs and workflow.
The following is an idea of encoding times that should give a bit more detail. The source was a 480p square pixel 16:9 uncompressed 10bit QT movie using a Quad G5 w/ 5GB RAM and OS X 10.4.6. The times from each encoding without audio (1x=Real-time) : Popwire Compression Master 4.0.1 = .4x/pass; MainConcept encoder 1.5 = .7x/pass; Apple Compressor 2.1 = 1.1x/pass; ffmpegX 0.0.9w4 mpeg2enc = 1.5x/pass; ffmpegX 0.0.9w4 ffmpeg = 1.5x/pass; Sorenson Squeeze 4.3.3 = 1.75x/pass; Innobits BitVice 1.7 = 1.9x/pass; Digigami MegaPEG Pro HD 3.3 (best setting) = 2.4x/pass; Autodesk Cleaner 6.5 = 2.6x/pass.
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Thanks for the posting Ben.
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The MainConcept MPEG encoder has a capture mode that allows you to capture directly to MPEG-1 or 2 in real-time provided your machine is fast enough (MPEG-1 isn’t that intensive, so requirements are less than if capturing to MPEG-2). It does this without a box and can work directly with a Firewire camcorder or any DirectShow compatible capture card.
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Yeah, there are definitely times where Compressor just won’t encode a project correctly no matter what settings you use, although I do find version 2 to be infinitely better than version 1.
Being that you are using DV, then I would say that there is almost absolutely no reason to go with an MPEG encoding card. The benefit of a card based solution is mostly evident when using sources that provide very little compression, like D5 or DigiBeta and the SDI input connection on the card. By single-format, I mean that the card can only encode to one format, therefore its options are limited.
As far as time, these days a software encoder on a fast system is actually faster than a realtime card, believe it or not. A real-time card can only encode in realtime from a live source. Whereas, a software encoder which encodes from a stored file can encode as fast as the data can get to the encoder and process it. A card would be faster even still, but in the case of Optibase, I don’t believe the product accepts file-based inputs (could be wrong). Also, technically there is no reason why a good hardware encoder is better than a good software encoder. ProCoder 2 proves that.
FYI, with the MainConcept encoder, on a Dual G4 1.25GHz, I get encoding times of around real-time. On my Quad G5, it is much faster than realtime with MainConcept and Compression Master 4. With a Dual 2.6GHz Opteron, ProCoder 2 encodes faster than real-time as well, but not as fast as my Quad mac.