Comparisons
| Price Comparison | DVD software players | VCD software players | MJPEG/MPEG Cards | TV Cards | Operating Systems |
| CD Writers | VCD MPEG1 Encoders | SVCD MPEG2 Encoders | PICVideo MJPEG | Video file DivX,VCD,SVCD |

Video comparisons between software dvd players, encoders, tv card, video files, players, codecs...Use the links above here to navigate.


Video File Comparison

Format
VCD
SVCD
DVD
HDDVD
HDTV
(WMVHD)
AVI
DivX
XviD
WMV
MOV
Quick-
Time
RM
Real-
Media
AVI
DV
Resolution
NTSC/PAL
352x240
352x288
480x480
480x576
720x480²
720x576²
1920x1080²
1280x720²
640x480² 640x480² 320x240² 720x480
720x576
Video
Compression
MPEG1
MPEG2
MPEG2, MPEG1
MPEG2
(WMV-
MPEG4)
MPEG4
Sorenson, Cinepak, MPEG4 ...
RM
DV
Video bitrate
1150kbps
~2000kbps
~5000kbps
~20Mbps
(~8Mbps)
~1000kbps
~1000kbps
~350kbps
25Mbps
Audio
Compression
MP1
MP1
MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, AC3 QDesign Music, MP3 ... RM DV
Audio bitrate
224kbps
~224kbps
~448kbps
~448kbps
~128kbps
~128kbps
~64kbps
~1500kbps
Size/min
10
MB/min
10-20
MB/min
30-70
MB/min
~150MB/min
(~60MB/min)
4-10
MB/min
4-20
MB/min
2-5
MB/min
216MB/min
Min/74min CD
74min
35-60min
10-20min ~4min
(~10min)
60-180min 30-180
min
120-300
min
3min
Hours/DVD
N/A
N/A
1-2hrs
(2-5hrsª)
~30min
(~1hrs)
7-18hrs 3-18hrs 14-35hrs 20min
Hours/
DualLayerDVD
N/A
N/A
2-4hrs
(5-9hrsª)
~55min
(~2hrs)
13-30hrs 6-30hrs 25-65hrs 37min
DVD Player Compatibility
Great Good Excellent None Few None None None
Computer CPU Usage
Low High Very High Super high Very High High Low High
Quality
Good Great* Excellent* Superb* Great* Great* Decent* Excellent
kbps = thousand bits per second
Mbps = million bits per second
² approximately resolution, it can be higher or lower
~ approximately bitrate, it can be higher or lower
ª DVD with lower video quality, similiar to VCD/SVCD video quality
* the video quality depends on the bitrate and the video resolution, higher bitrate and higher resolution generally means better video quality but bigger file size



MPEG2 SVCD Encoders Comparison

Testfile:
Uncompressed RGB AVI, 60 seconds, 1500 frames at 25 fps, 720 x 576 interlaced.
CPU: P3 750 with 512 MB RAM running Win2k

Encoders:
TMPGEnc 12j
Cinema Craft Encoder 2.50 (require P3/Athlon processor and I had to use a external resizer and frameserve to CCE)
LSX MPEG Encoder 3.5
Nero 5.5 with MPEG2/SVCD/DVD Plugin
WinTV PVR (hardware MPEG encoder)

Converting to PAL SVCD Format using 2400 kbit/s Constant Bitrate with the "slowest" encoding settings to get best quality. I checked the actual average with Teco LTD's Bitrate viewer.

Results:
Cinema Craft 2.5
TMPGEnc 12j
Nero 5.5
LSX 3.5
WinTV PVR
Settings
Pal SVCD


2400kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2345)

224kbit/s audio
Pal SVCD
High Quality

2400 kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2347)

224kbit/s audio
Pal SVCD


2400 kbit/s VBR*
2600 kbit/s MAX
(actual average bitrate 2448)
224kbit/s audio
Pal SVCD
Very slow

2400 kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2402)

224kbit/s audio
Pal SVCD


2400 kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2346)

224kbit/s audio
Time taken
resize using tmpgenc
3min 24secs

resize using virtualdub bilinear
5mins 36secs
8mins 12secs
12 mins 51* 13mins 6secs 1 min
Encoding speed (frames per second)
7.4 fps with tmpgenc resize

4.4 fps with virtualdub bilinear resize
3.0 fps
1.9 fps* 1.9 fps 25 fps
High action scenes
Great
Great
Good
Good
Bad
Color
Great
Great
Great
Great
Good
Blockiness
Excellent
Great
Good
Decent
Bad
Sharpness
Great
Great
Good
Great
Good
 

click on picture for image comparisons between all encoders.
Features:
Cinema Craft 2.5
TMPGEnc 12j
Nero 5.5
LSX 3.5
WinTV PVR
Resize
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom Bitrate
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
CBR
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
VBR
Yes (SP Version only)
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Crop image
No
Yes
No
No
No
Add borders(very important if you are going to convert WS DivX for example)
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Noise reduction
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Preview
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Price
$250 Lite version
$3980 SP version
$0
$49.00 Nero
$16.00 SVCD plugin
$179.95
$220
More
Require P3/Athlon processor, MPEG1 Encoding also
Freeware,
MPEG1 Encoding also, Deinterlace, Normalize, MPEG-Tools -Join/Cut/ Demultiplex/ Multiplex and much more
MPEG1 Encoding also
MPEG1 Encoding also
Hardware encoder. Capture card and TV-Card.
* Nero does only support 2-pass Variable Bitrate Encoding with max bitrate 2600kbit/s and audio encoding with 224 kbit/s.

And the winner is TMPGEnc because it is almost as good Cinemacraft Encoder and it is FREE but the differences arent so big between all these encoders, WinTV PVR is worst but a hardware encoder is then the easiest and fastest way to create SVCDs and really good hardware encoders are very very expensive.

Another MPEG2 DVD Software Encoder test here http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm



MPEG1 Encoders Comparison

Testfile:
Uncompressed RGB AVI, 174 seconds, 4360 frames at 25 fps, 352 x 288
CPU: P3 800 with 196 MB RAM running Win2k

Encoders:
TMPGEnc 12a
Cinema Craft Encoder 2.50 (require P3/Athlon processor)
BBMPEG 1.2
Panasonic Mpeg Encoder 2.51
LSX MPEG Encoder 3.0
AVI2VCD 1.33
Xing Mpeg Encoder 2.20

Converting to Pal VCD Format.

Results:
Cinema Craft
TMPGEnc
BBMPEG
Panasonic
LSX
AVI2VCD
Xing
Settings
Pal VCD
Pal VCD
High Quality
Pal VCD
Pal VCD
Pal VCD
Very Slow
Pal VCD
Pal VCD
Time taken
2mins 40secs
8mins 21secs
9mins 56secs 9mins 35secs 8mins 16secs 11mins 31secs 4mins 25secs
Speed (fps)
27.3 fps
8.7 fps
7.3 fps 7.6 fps 8.8 fps 6.3 fps 16.5 fps
Color
Great
Great
Great
Good
Great
Great
Great
Blockiness
Good
Great
Good
Excellent
Bad
Bad
Bad
Sharpness
Great
Excellent
Great
Good
Good
Good
Excellent
Features:

image comparison, click for 2x real size samples


image comparison, click for 2x real size sample
Resize
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Crop image
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Add borders
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Noise reduction
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Preview
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
More
Require P3/Athlon processor

MPEG2 Encoding
Freeware,
MPEG2 Encoding, Deinterlace, Normalize, MPEG-Tools -Join/Cut/ Demultiplex/ Multiplex and much more
   
MPEG2 Encoding
Freeware
 

And the winner is....TMPGENc

REMEMBER that the encoding speed will decrease if you add filters like resize, deinterlace, noise remover or whatever. Also remember that Cinema Craft can't resize so if the source isn't in the correct resolution you have to resize with for example Virtualdub and frameserve to Cinema Craft and the speed will of course decrease a lot than.


More comparison here http://www.members.home.net/richa2/index.htm with Ati All in Wonder and Snazzi.

Another
sample from a very good hardware mpeg encoder here. (Optibase MPEG Moviemaker).

MPEG2 Software Encoder tests here http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm

CD-ReWriters - Comparison and Prices

View the CD-ReWriters comparison made by Sefy here.


Operating Systems comparison

View the comparison betwen Win98, Win98SE and Win2K here.


DVD Software Players comparison

View the full list of 7 Software DVD Players and 1 Hardware Decoder here.


MJPEG/MPEG1/MPEG2 Hardware Capture Card comparison

View Safe Harbors head-to-head comparison between hardware capture cards here.


PICVideo MJPEG comparison

View a comparison between the 20 Quality settings in PicVideo MJPEG here.


TV Card comparison

View the full list here with 29 TV Cards.


MPEG Players comparisons


Picture quality with XingMpeg Player, Win Media Player and a hardware Mpeg-decoder card.
Screenshots taken at fullscreen.

Comparepicture (Click to enlarge)

Conclusion: Buy a Hollywood + (realmagic) and watch the movies on the TV.