Video Encoding Software?

[missyouth]

Just wondering which encoding software u guys use . I can't decide which one to purchase. I'm looking for one that will encode .wmv to .avi.

[evolved]

Im assuming that you are PC based?

[Michelle69]

Try "super" its a freeware and does all you want

[da1uwant2meet]

try sony vegas...

[CIVMatt]

Vegas here

[2012]

smartsoft video converter
http://www.smart-soft.net/video-converter/

[killfranky]

WMV to AVI converter ... its the fastest on the planet!

[missyouth]

Which avi codec is best recommended? I did a wmv to avi encoding of a 1.8meg file...the outcome to .avi is 3.8meg for exact quality. Is that too high?

[cardinalvices]

WMV is equal to MPEG4 compression. While AVI is MPEG2... Its like tryind to convert DV into HDV..

[Yoni]

avi is actually a video container. You're able to put a mpeg4 video/audio stream inside it or a mpeg2 stream as well.

more info

[brandonstills]

Try "super" its a freeware and does all you want

ffmpeg is free and supposedly does a lot. I haven't used it yet though.

[softwareguy]

Which avi codec is best recommended? I did a wmv to avi encoding of a 1.8meg file...the outcome to .avi is 3.8meg for exact quality. Is that too high?

Have you tried using the DivX codec? It gives amazing quality at low file size.

[farkedup]

ffmpeg is free and supposedly does a lot. I haven't used it yet though.

its a bitch to get all of the codecs working just right and the multi core support is rather spotty. FFMPEG itself isn't the only deciding factor in its use of multi cores.

Big downside?
Both the source codec and target codec have to support threading for it to work! Say you compile xvid(divx) with threading support but the source codec wasn't compiled to support it... you end up just running a single core!

What I'm finding is MOST of the time the E8400 will encode things faster than the Q6600 will when using ffmpeg. It just doesn't seem to use all of the cores all of the time.

BIG upside?
Cheap/easy clustering...
with a little coding work you can quickly tossup like 4-5 E8400 based machines and it'll encode like a champ.

I'm still tinkering with getting better usage of the various cores but for most people FFMPEG simply isn't a decent solution. If you know your way around linux well enough though it can work quite well. With the money you spend on some encoding software + windows you can basically have a whole new machine so 2 E8400 systems would easily be considerably faster than that single quad core rig.