Video encoding improvements in Toast 8?

[nolemming]

Yes, Toast 8 has new features.

 

But has Toast's video (VCD, SVCD, and DVD) encoding speed and quality been improved from version 7 (which shows vertical striations in DVDs encoded from DivX/XviD files)?

[jhillestad]

Get the stand alone divx 6.4 pro version form divx.com because the one in toast 8 does not appear to multithread... My speed test show on a mac pro that the export via quicktime using divx was faster than the version 6.4 through toast 8. So if you want speed better get the one that works with quicktime at divx.com because toast's export will only work in toast and I guess it does not multithread on 4 processors....

[saf_e]

I can burn about 3 hours of HD Xvid content to DVD in 3-4 hours using the custom settings in Toast with motion estimation on high and half-PEL turned one. If it is taking you 10 hours for the same thing, some of the settings just aren't right in Toast, or you have some of the older Divx components installed.

 

Ok, I can give that a go and report back. I presume that if I install Toast 8 with the DivX option turned on, I should get the current DivX components (is there a way to be sure)? Could you also tell me what you set the average and maximum bit-rate too?

 

Could you try doing your 3 hour xvid encode using the automatic best/fast setting and let me know how long it takes (perhaps save to a disc image if you don't want to burn a disc, particularly as it will probably be more than 4.4gb). I used that as an example of how even at the presumably highest settings, the results still suffer from significant compression artifacting.

 

Cheers.

 

Postscript: I use ffmpegx an awful lot, and find it only infrequently fails or is unreliable. And when it does/is, you can just tell it to use another encoder codec that likes your source material better. But if Toast can work as well as ffmpegx, that would be grand.

[freshburn]

I would download DivX 6.4 and install it. You will get the lastest codec for decoding. It also installs preferences which can help with quality and speed.

 

For my bit rate, I adjust it to about 5.5Mbps Average/8.0Mbps Max for DL media. For SL media I set it to about 3.5 to 4.0 for average.

 

I always save a disc image first to get as much as possible on the disc. The lower the bit rate, the higher the Motion Estimation needs to be so I turn it up all the way to high and turn on Half-PEL.

 

This can take longer, but it will result in the best quality.

 

I'll try to do some encoding in the new couple days when I have some time.

[nolemming]

Encoding speed is dependent on the speed of your Mac. Slow mac, slow encoding. My DVD's look great from Xvid and DivX. The Toast 7 and 8 encoder is one of the best there is. If you don't have good quality, you need to adjust the custom settings, or you just have bad content to start with.

 

I have a 2.0 Ghz G5, so speed isn't really an issue. I asked if Roxio improved the encoding quality and speed for version 8 because ffmpegX produces higher quality DVDs and at a much faster speed from DivX files. So clearly, there is room for improvement in Toast.

[sjkrox]

I would download DivX 6.4 and install it. You will get the lastest codec for decoding.

DivX 6.6 is the current version of the product suite download, which includes version 6.4 of the codec that apparently can't be downloaded/installed separately from other components in the suite.

[res1492]

I have a 2.0 Ghz G5, so speed isn't really an issue. I asked if Roxio improved the encoding quality and speed for version 8 because ffmpegX produces higher quality DVDs and at a much faster speed from DivX files. So clearly, there is room for improvement in Toast.

 

Didnt know that about ffmpegX and DVDs, always thought it was slower, never really timed it. You can't beat toasts VCD encoding though, its like lighting.

 

I just hope i get help with 8 to launch or i have wasted my money. Infact would you say i have or roxio has?

[freshburn]

Encoding speed is dependent on the speed of your Mac. Slow mac, slow encoding. My DVD's look great from Xvid and DivX. The Toast 7 and 8 encoder is one of the best there is. If you don't have good quality, you need to adjust the custom settings, or you just have bad content to start with.

[saf_e]

I had the opportunity to put Toast 8 to the test the other day, and found its avi->DVD encoding was still very slow and produced significantly worse results than my preferred encoder, ffmpegx.com.

 

For example, on my 2.0ghz Dual Core Mac (2gb RAM), 3 high quality digital TV rips in standard xvid format (3.5 hours total) took around 10 hours to encode to DVD at the automatic/best (fast) setting; ending up about 5gb. The results had fairly annoying compression artifacts, including pixellation, vertical striations and 'jaggies'. This is not what I'd call 'fast' or 'best'.

 

I reencoded the same files to MPEG2 in the ffmpegx application at high-quality, two-pass mode; and the total time was around 3 hours (3 times faster!). I also set them to total 4.3gb so they were more compressed than Toast. The results had far less compression artifacts, no striations or jaggies, and better colour and detail.

 

I acknowledge that 3.5 hours is quite a bit to expect from a single-layer DVD, but I often use ffmpegx to encode 3 hour DVDs and they look as good as the high quality xvid source material.

 

If a $15 shareware program can do it so much faster, better and smaller; why can't Toast?

[freshburn]

ffmpeg is just an interface for lots of open source apps. I personally have never had any luck with it. It often fails and is not reliable in most cases. If you like the results, use it.

 

Toast's MPEG encoder/decoder is very fast. However Toast uses QT for decoding, and the DivX and 3ivx decoders for QT are very slow. They don't handle multi-tread processes well.

 

I can burn about 3 hours of HD Xvid content to DVD in 3-4 hours using the custom settings in Toast with motion estimation on high and half-PEL turned one. If it is taking you 10 hours for the same thing, some of the settings just aren't right in Toast, or you have some of the older Divx components installed.