[turntabletux]

I've been using iDVD a lot lately and I've been getting a little frustrated. I'm wondering if there was any way that I could speed up the encoding process. It takes hours to encode a movie or sometimes even a few episodes of my favorite show. Should I use a separate app to encode my media first, if so what should I use? Thanks in advanced!

[Cadaver]

I would think that other encoding apps would have similar speed (or lack there of). Encoding video for DVD is a CPU time-intensive process. Basically, the only way to significantly speed it up would be a faster CPU.

[turntabletux]

Originally Posted by Cadaver 

I would think that other encoding apps would have similar speed (or lack there of). Encoding video for DVD is a CPU time-intensive process. Basically, the only way to significantly speed it up would be a faster CPU.

Arg, I guess I'll just suck it up and time it right when I want to burn a dvd. Thanks for the help

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by turntabletux 

Arg, I guess I'll just suck it up and time it right when I want to burn a dvd. Thanks for the help

How long is it taking to encode the DVD? On my Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz with 2GB RAM it's taking somewhere around 4 or 5 hours.

[turntabletux]

It takes me about 3-4 hrs on my Macbook(specs in signature).

[jersey]

3rd party encoding apps are way ......... way, faster. I do a ton of encoding, and best quality encode, on a file that is 32 minutes, and 180 gig in size only takes about a half hour.

iDVD and DVDSP are notoriously slow. However, I cant think of any freeware, or even middle of the road, encoding apps. If you want to buy one, you're looking at $600 just to get in the game.

My best suggestion is just set up iDVD to encode, and go to bed. It'll be ready when you get up.

[AKcrab]

Elgato Systems

[jersey]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

Elgato Systems

While this is a nice piece, it doesnt create a DVD compatible file. DVDs utilize a m2v file, so if you were to use this, iDVD would simply have to re-encode the file, losing quality, and taking even more time.

[Chuckit]

Have you tried ffmpeg? I haven't timed it against iDVD, but it seems to be fairly speedy.

[AKcrab]

Originally Posted by jersey 

While this is a nice piece, it doesnt create a DVD compatible file. DVDs utilize a m2v file, so if you were to use this, iDVD would simply have to re-encode the file, losing quality, and taking even more time.

Yeah, you're right. I misread the description in a review. It mentioned iMovie, not iDVD.

[turntabletux]

Originally Posted by jersey 

3rd party encoding apps are way ......... way, faster. I do a ton of encoding, and best quality encode, on a file that is 32 minutes, and 180 gig in size only takes about a half hour.

iDVD and DVDSP are notoriously slow. However, I cant think of any freeware, or even middle of the road, encoding apps. If you want to buy one, you're looking at $600 just to get in the game.

My best suggestion is just set up iDVD to encode, and go to bed. It'll be ready when you get up.

Thanks for the advice Jersey. I think that's what I'll probably do from now on. At the end of the day when I'm done with my Macbook and ready to go to bed, I'll set it up.

And what might be the names of the $600 apps? Thanks again

[jersey]

Originally Posted by turntabletux 

And what might be the names of the $600 apps? Thanks again

My favorite is Sorenson Squeeze, but on occasion I'll use Episode Pro. Then they need to be muxed, with something like MPEG Streamclip.

Those will get you going on the Mac side, but there are many more, and better, alternatives on the Windows side.

[galenea]

If you don't need the fancy menus of iDVD, then you can compress your media into mpeg-2 files with ffmpegx, then use Toast to create a DVD from those files. Toast will recognize the mpeg-2 files and not reencode them when you click burn.

When iDVD was first introduced, it took 2x real time to encode DVD video with a 733MHz G4. What I don't understand is why it still takes 2x real time with a Core 2 Duo at 2.0GHz. Why is this?

[- - e r i k - -]

I use Compressor for faster and better quality results than the DVD SP encoding.

[hab]

Originally Posted by galenea 

If you don't need the fancy menus of iDVD, then you can compress your media into mpeg-2 files with ffmpegx, then use Toast to create a DVD from those files. Toast will recognize the mpeg-2 files and not reencode them when you click burn.

Galenea has it exactly right. iDVD spends a ton of time creating animated menus with video and audio. Dropping mpeg-2 files into Toast and burning a DVD was real time on my 800MHz G4 but on my new C2D iMac, burning a 2 hour movie takes 18 minutes.

[peeb]

Have you thought of taking a different approach entirely and getting an iTV?

[mr. burns]

The trouble with iDVD is that it only uses 2 cores. When I encode a DVD on my quad MacPro, only 50% of each core is being used.

I'm going to try ffmpegX again. I tried it a while ago when I had an old G4 and it never really worked. My dvd player couldn't play the discs. When I got the MacPro, I used iDVD just because it was easy and it worked. I don't want to wait an hour and a half for a movie to encode anymore, though.

[legacyb4]

I was just reading a review of the USB hardware add-on from Elgato that speeds up compression but that might be specific to h.264 only.

[mr. burns]

hmmm i tried out ffmpegX and it's a lot faster and the quality of the compression is noticeably better, but the video playback isn't smooth. it kind of stutters at a constant once every second or so. the frame rate of the source and converted movie are the same, so i don't get it. maybe it's my player.

[- - e r i k - -]

If you encode at a higher combined bitrate than recommended by the DVD specs your player might not be able to handle it.