Best Encoding Software & Why?

Justin Reade

Justin Reade

Active member
Task: to export your film as a QT .mov, or what have you, and ultimately drop it into a compression/encoding program, achieve the absolute best quality SD DVD of your footage shot on your HVX200. Because this question postulates the issue in terms of achieving the BEST QUALITY DVD, it does not discriminate amongst platforms. So, PC, MAC, whatever -- what is the BEST ENCODING/COMPRESSION program (in terms of end product clarity/fidelity/quality) to suit our beauteous footage??

[e.g., Compressor, BitVice, Popwire Compression Master 4, Cinemacraft, et al.???]

Are there TRULY ostensible quality differences if you use one over the other?? DISCUSS!

--Justin.
 
It changes so often and so fast, but...

It changes so often and so fast, but...

On the Macintosh, Compressor is the way to go. I think it does a wonderful job and now that DVDSP 4 can do DL discs, you can really create some wonderful looking things for your DVD. BitVice has had some apparently decent results, but I think Compressor provides slightly better results, and being its ingrained with FCS, it helps post workflow in a big way.

On the PC its all about Cinema Craft. That is like the be all and end all. Its not best bang for your buck at all, but its best quality you're going to get. You can go down in quality (and ease of use) and go for the ProCoder. Gives decent results, certainly well above average, but the UI isn't too clear so its not the easiest to use. So you can upgrade the UI with only a minor degrading of quality and go with Cleaner.

Absolutely period, best of the of best, 'this is a DVD,' quality compression you need to go to hardware compression. Software compression can provide better bang for the dollar or 'good enough to my eyes' quality, but it won't top a real hardware encoder. I certainly wouldn't make a master for distribution without using one. But can you afford $25,000 - $50,000 (even in rental costs)?

As for the truly visible quality differences by using one of the other, yes. The better ones handle fast moving motion, transitions (such as dissolves), and other such difficult images much cleaner and crisper. Talking heads, well perhaps not so much, as that's not quite as a demanding task for the algorithms to process. Also in the richest blacks and whites is a good test point. A weaker encoder tends to break down in those sections of an image. However, tests I've read about and done myself, often end up yielding different 'best choice' for different productions. But amongst the more 'affordable' range, I think they end up being so close, that frankly your best bet is to pick which ever will give you the best workflow and reduced possibilities of errors or conflicts.

Anyway, just my $0.02.

cheers.

:Drogar-Smoke(DBG):
 
On a Mac, BitVice in my view has no equal.

Cinemacraft on a PC is pricey at $2K, but from what I've seen worth every penny. If I had my choices, I'd author in DVD SP and encode in Cinemacraft on a PC.
 
BitVice?

BitVice?

Just out of curiousity, anything in particular you've seen quality wise from BitVice versus Compressor that draws you to BitVice? I've not used it much, and prefer Compressor for workflow reasons, so am just curious. I certainly haven't looked at the most recent version, but knocks on it I've heard were in regard to lacking advanced features (can't recall which specific ones they felt it lacked though).

I totally agree about DVDSP and CCE though. That is a serious power combo. But $2,000 for CCE is a bit of a pill to swallow.

cheers.

:Drogar-Smoke(DBG):
 
I'd just like the look of BitVice.

It also permits VBR two pass without the spikes that Compressor causes.

BitVice does just about everything Compressor does except HD encoding, and encoding audio to AC3.
 
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