CD Freaks Presents: The TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 Review

CD Freaks Presents: The TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 Review

You can read the review here
Please feel free to comment on the review in this thread.

Looks to me like your MPEG 2 authoring test took WAY too long. Was there some reason why this MPEG file had to be re-encoded? This is a HUGE drawback to TMPGEnc-Author v2 and v3, in that they sometimes re-encode MPEG that does not need to be re-encoded. Sometimes even DVD-video will get re-encoded needlessly. This would be a very compelling reason NOT to buy version 3.

I switched back to version 1.6 after trying this verion due to it re-encodes video that does'nt need it. All i wanted to do was author, my video and audio was compliant with dvd specs yet it started re-encoding. Major down fall of this program.

If the default settings are left as is, then it will re-encode ( eg, default output sound format is Dolby Digital). Motion precision is also set to high, etc etc.

Even if you don't touch the audio, it will often re-encode DVD-compliant MPG video. This makes it just another one of the many that degrade video and waste time. It's a pity to see one of the best and simplest authoring tools ruined like this. Less is better. The lines are blurring between editing/encoding tools and authoring tools, and it's a shame because both seem to suffer for it.

Is there no way to set the program to insure you don't reencode compliant mpeg2 files?

Not that it matters to me much. I stopped using or even considering TMPGenc products when they started periodic key validation.

Am I wrong or this fine piece of software does not support a very basic feature as track audio dubbing and mixing (you cannot add a audio clip and mix it with the video setting different volume for the original track and the audio added)?

Yes this can be done if multi audio is selected in the input properties. You can load several audio tracks separately and adjust the volume if required.
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Well I've been using TDA ver3 from the 1st day it was released (and $20 cheaper than it is now ) and the only way I can get it to re-encode any files is to set a Project to PAL and load in NTSC files or vise-versa. TDA ver 2 would change the Project automatically, TDA 3 doesnt.

TDA 3 imports SRT subtitle streams into your projects, earlier versions did not.

New update yesterday, to ver 3.0.8.158

I downloaded the TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 Trial version to give this software a tryout and I thought this was exactly what I had been looking for.

That is until I found that it re-encoded my DVD compliant VOB files.

I've burned these VOB files to DVD before and they play fine on a standalone DVD player. I thought I would use TMPGEnc to edit out two short scenes out of it (each were about 15 seconds long). I was then horrified to find out that it re-encoded the whole video as a result.

This would have been a great program, but it should not re-encode already compliant files, and I will not buy this program because of this. I do not want to put my MPEG-2 files through even slightest degradation by a re-encode when it is completely unnecessary.

Here is a quote I read from an article regarding this issue:
http://www.videoforums.co.uk/guide-DVDencoding-51.htm

I will look for another program which leaves my files pristine and untouched. It's sad, because this program had promise. When they make the "Smart Encoding" in this software truly "smart" by knowing when not to re-encode unnecessarily and leaving the original MPEG as original as possible, then I may reconsider.

Divx ignorant that I am, can someone tell me what this "DIVX-Ultra" is? I ran some video through and got the DIVX file, but none of my older DIVX/MPG-4 encoders will open the file.

For the people who have observed that v.3 re-encodes streams which are already compliant, I'm interested in whether you can tell this from the results or from the length of time the authoring takes or from something else.

I use DVD compliant .m2v & ac3 streams which are correctly sized (ie. just below the TDA limit of 4,438) and the authoring using v.3 takes around 7 to 8 minutes. That short time made me think there wasn't any re-encoding going on ... but I agree that the quality of the authored DVD seems inferior to those authored using version 1.6 (using the same inputs).

So what is the giveaway sign that re-encoding is taking place?

It's 10 min vs an hour here. I have figured out that it is based on the changes you make or don't make in the video properties, and/or audio re-encoding. About the only thing I'm able to change and still avoid a re-encode is the aspect ratio, I can change 4:3 to 16:9 with no re-encode. I'm using MPEG-2 files with AC3-2 ch. Also noted that changing from interlaced to progressive also forces a re-encode.

I have been using TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress + TMPGEncDVD Author 2.0 to create awesome looking DVD's.

However... now that DVD Author 3.0 came out, it can now accept .avis (xvid/divx)! Will it result it poorer quality going straight from AVI to DVD Author or should I still bother with the XPress conversion?

Many thanks for an appropriate answer

Also editing short scenes, even just one or two, out of the movie will cause the WHOLE movie to be re-encoded. The resulting re-encode takes an hour or more.

With TMPGEnc touting their "Smart Rendering" in this software, I had thought that just the video immediately adjacent to the edit points were re-encoded and the rest of the movie preserved in its original quality, but this is sadly not what happens. It is clear that the entire video is being re-encoded. This is a completely needless degragation of the original files.

Sorry, that is just unacceptable. TMPGEnc can do and should do much better to protect and preserve the original files.

It doesn't do that here, I edit all kinds of stuff out with no re-encode.

Im not sure if people are still interested but as long as you flag the sections you change and make sure it has smart rendering enablked it will only repack the movie and only encode the changed sections. I think some people here are making assumptions about what it does and doesnt do. Secondly you can only compress a file so much that regardless of how much rendring takes place there is only so m8uch compression that will take place thus not degrading anything.

Cheers!

Seriously considering buying the program, despite some of the encoding concerns above. I don't like the internet validation. That is almost unforgivable. However the interface is very intuitive and it's easy to get the job done. It's nice. However I am having a hard time getting good audio results when using audio files ripped from cds as the audio tracks for slideshows and such. The audio has to be upsampled from 44 to 48 for dvd and it's also 16 bit off the cd. I've tried both dolby digital (which is lossy and also applies some "processing") and pcm (sounds a bit better) options but it still sounds "edgy", somewhere distorted, or crunchy. The audio on my video tracks sounds better than audio ripped from cds. Any tips here on how to get better audio quality, and what settings to use?
I'm making musician dvds so the audio has to be good.
Thanks for any help on this.

Do you remember with which version this periodic key validation started ?

All Author 3x versions and Express 4x versions require validation. Appears to be monthly here.

Thanks CDan !

I noticed that the version I have: TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5.21.63 does not have this periodic key validation.

I agree with you


But in this comparison chart between TSUNAMI MPEG DVD EasyPack, DVD Author 1.6 and TMPGEnc DVD Author 3
here:
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/pr...omparisonchart
I can read in the line:
" Ability to exclude certain tracks from transcoding"
that only TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 has this feature.


So at least it is posssible to exclude a whole track from re-encoding ... what was not possible with former versions 1.6 and 2 of DVD Author.

The 2.x version of TMPGEnc DVD Author also requires periodic key validation. The 1.x version did not AFAIK.

I had v-2x for a while, it required an initial validation but none after that. Didn't have it for more than a few months.

The periodic key validation happens automatically so you don't see it (unless it fails presumably).

I'm still using TMPGEnc DVD Author v2.