Need some help here! I'm a Mac user and probably won't ever change that- I love my Mac. However, encoding options are very limited on the mac. The best I've found through the guides and talking to others is to create mpeg1 files using Toast Titanium. It allows me to export toast mpeg1 from Premiere, Final Cut Pro, or Quicktime. The quality on mpeg1 files is just mediocre. I really need to find a way to encode higher quality files. Vids encoded with Xvid look beautiful usually. Is there any way of making better looking vids on the mac, comparable in quality to Xvid ones? I really don't want to upload my next vid if the quality is not near perfect. PLEASE HELP!!!!
Mac users, I know you are out there somewhere.....
Mac Encoding Options
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Lonley Driver
- Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2003 2:37 pm
- Contact:
You might try ffmpegX. It's free, but you might need to mess around with it a bit to get it working.
http://homepage.mac.com/major4/
As an alternative, you can always release your videos in Quicktime format. I'm not really sure why people have such an aversion towards them.
http://homepage.mac.com/major4/
As an alternative, you can always release your videos in Quicktime format. I'm not really sure why people have such an aversion towards them.
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Red Wolf
- Joined: Wed May 01, 2002 6:02 pm
- Location: Atlanta, GA
- Contact:
The new DivX software for Macs, version 5.0.7, does include a DivX encoder now. It isn't perfected by any means but it is one of the more simpler DivX encoders available on the Mac. It is also pretty cheap to purchase and there is a trial period.
If you need MPEG-2 support you can also turn to Virtual PC and run TMPGEnc through the emulated form of Windows. It will take 3-5 times longer to encode than it would on a cheap PC but it can be done.
A couple of things to keep your eyes open for. Toast 6 Titanium is due out in a few weeks. Among many other updates it will have an improved VCD encoder (MPEG-1) and will also include an SVCD encoder (MPEG-2). While the new MPEG-1 encoder may not jump up to your desired quality level the SVCD tool will produce a low quality MPEG-2 (DVD MPEG-2s average around 8MB/sec while this SVCD MPEG-2 will be 2MB/sec) file that may fit your needs. Plus you'll be able to run both through your editors as you do now. Also check out Mac OS X 10.3 which is due out by year's end. With any luck QuickTime will be improved so that it's native MPEG-4 encoder (MPEG-4 is the basis of all DivX/XviD codecs) won't be crap.
If you need MPEG-2 support you can also turn to Virtual PC and run TMPGEnc through the emulated form of Windows. It will take 3-5 times longer to encode than it would on a cheap PC but it can be done.
A couple of things to keep your eyes open for. Toast 6 Titanium is due out in a few weeks. Among many other updates it will have an improved VCD encoder (MPEG-1) and will also include an SVCD encoder (MPEG-2). While the new MPEG-1 encoder may not jump up to your desired quality level the SVCD tool will produce a low quality MPEG-2 (DVD MPEG-2s average around 8MB/sec while this SVCD MPEG-2 will be 2MB/sec) file that may fit your needs. Plus you'll be able to run both through your editors as you do now. Also check out Mac OS X 10.3 which is due out by year's end. With any luck QuickTime will be improved so that it's native MPEG-4 encoder (MPEG-4 is the basis of all DivX/XviD codecs) won't be crap.
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schrizo
- Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2003 11:14 am
- Location: Miami, FL
thanks for the info redwolf. I'll be getting OS X10.3 when it comes out, so it might help. i'll have to check which Divx version I have (might be the one you recommend). toast's mpeg1 would have to improve SOOO much to get to the quality I desire that I doubt the upgrade will help. mpeg2 might work, but it tends to be used less and I don't want a vid that others can't view. 2mb/sec would be too big for downloadable vids. I can make high quality versions of my vids already, but they take up about 1GB per vid. Tips much appreciated!