Version History

Summary Tables

Software Encoders, Summary Data

Product Price Frames/s MPEG
Standards
Video
Mbit/s
GOP Rate
Control
bbMPEG Free 3.8 1, 2, V, SV, DVD, HD 0.001-100 I, IP, IPB CBR, 2xVBR
CCE Basic $58 n/a5 1, 2, V1, SV2 0.5-15 IPB CBR
CCE SP $1950 n/a5 1, 2, V1, SV2, DVD 0.5-15 IPB CBR, 2xVBR
LSX-MPEG $180-250 8.7-18.2 1, 2, V, SV, DVD, HD 0.1-15 I, IP, IPB CBR, 3xVBR
MPEG Maker $100 8.0 1, 2, V, SV2 0.01-15 I, IP, IPB VBR, CBR
Studio DV $80 5.9 1, 2, V, SV, DVD 0.25-93 IPB CBR
TMPGEnc $58 9.7 1, 2, V, SV, DVD, HD 0.001-100 I, IP, IPB CBR, 4xVBR

Hardware and Hybrid Encoders, Summary Data

Product Price Frames/s Type MPEG
Standards
Video
Mbit/s
GOP Rate
Control
Audio
Cap.
TV
Out?
Live
Prev?
ATI AIW $130-230 304 hyb. 1, 2, V, SV2 0.4-15 I, IP, IPB VBR, CBR No Yes No
DCM $500 304 hyb. 1, 2, V, XV, SV, DVD 0.01-15 I, IP, IPB VBR, CBR Yes Yes No
PVR $220 30 h/w 2, V 2-12 I, IP, IPB CBR, VBR No No No

Key, Summary Data Tables

1, 2, V, XV, SV, DVD, HD MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VCD profile, XVCD profile, SVCD profile, DVD profile, HDTV profile.
2xVBR, 3xVBR... This encoder has more than one VBR rate control method
MP2 MPEG-1 audio layer 2
Type column Encoder type; hardware or a hybrid design (hardware capture, software compression, possibly with some preprocessing in hardware)

Summary Data Footnotes

    1. This encoder can produce VCD-compatible video elementary streams, but it can't combine that and an MPEG-1 layer 2 audio file to make a VCD-compatible system stream. Nevertheless, it is possible to use a VCD-aware multiplexing program like bbMPEG or TMPGEnc to re-multiplex a system stream made by this encoder into a VCD-compatible system stream.

    2. Same as the previous footnote, but for SVCD instead of VCDs and MPEG-2 program streams instead of MPEG-1 system streams.

    3. The Studio DV only supports up to 3 Mbit/s in MPEG-1 mode.

    4. Hybrid encoders can only sustain 30 fps if the CPU is fast enough. If the CPU is too slow, a hybrid encoder will drop frames.

    5. I removed the frame rate numbers for the CCE encoders because at the time of testing, their plugins didn't work with Premiere 6.0, which I used at the time.

Software Encoder Scores

The scores in each category are normalized. Each category has at least one encoder scoring 0 and at least one encoder scoring 10. All other encoders' scores are relative to the high and low-scoring encoders. There may be encoders that we do not review that would score higher than our "10" or lower than our "0".

Product Overall Score Usability Functionality Quality Core Value Bundle Value
LSX-MPEG 9.5 10 9 10 10 2
TMPGEnc 7.4 5 10 10 10 8
Studio DV 6.9 9 0 4 9 10
CCE SP 4.9 3 9 10 0 0
bbMPEG 4.6 0 8 10 10 6
CCE Basic 4.5 3 2 8 8 0
MPEG Maker 4.45 2 4 9 8 0

Hardware and Hybrid Encoder Scores

Product Overall Score Usability Functionality Quality Core Value Bundle Value
AIW 9.2 10 6 9 10 7
DCM 6.5 6 8 6 7 10
PVR 5.45 6 5 0 8 3


Updated Mon Sep 22 2008 12:15 MDT Go back to MPEG Encoder Reviews Go to my home page