SD DVD Encoding: Compressor and CCE-MP

[Matt Weatherly]

I've been through several threads here and read many great things about Cinema Craft Encoder, including the review on kenstone.net. I just wanted to get some opinions from others who have used it. Do you feel like it produces substantially greater results than native Compressor? Care to share some tests and experiences?

When using CCE with your RED project, do you let it do the downconvert as it encodes or do you prepare it differently?

Do you prefer to encode a self contained movie, or go to Compressor directly from your finished sequence?

 

[Uli Plank]

I prefer to downscale from ProRes Files with MPEG Streamclip and use either CCE or BitVice for encoding. Give them both a try, they are better than Compressor.

 

[Kaku Ito]

I use BitVice recommended by Luca, it works very fast and easy.

 

[Steve MacMillan]

Has anyone done a side by side comparison of CCE and Bitvise?

 

[Uli Plank]

Yes. But the quality is dependent on image content. Do your own!

 

[Jeremy Newmark]

I haven't played with BitVice, but we've done extensive testing with the CCE encoder and comparing it to our Digital Rapids hardware encoder, the CCE plug-in produces superior results. We tested just about every way we could think and we get the best results encoding a self-contained ProResHQ file at the actual resolution of the mpeg. That is to say, don't let the encoder do the down-scaling and don't encode from a quicktime reference file. The CCE compressor plug-in is money very well spent, it's also fast as hell. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Uli Plank]

Same here regarding actual size and codec.

 

[Camilo Ganado]

Hi guys, im searching for CCE, but it seems they only support windows OS, any ideas?
here's the link.
http://www.cinemacraft.com/eng/index.html

BTW, which of the CCE series should we buy?

 

[Uli Plank]

No, they have a plug-in for Compressor, under another company name:

http://www.omni-cinemacraft.com/products_cinemacraft_encodermp.shtml