BitVice MPEG2 Encoder SD - 2.9

This encoder is fast and does an incredible job of encoding video for DVDs.

I purchased BItVice almost a year ago, looking for a higher quality alternative to mpeg stream encoding (for use with DVDSP2 &3). I wasn't disappointed with my purchase. At low bit-rates, BitVice beats the pants off of compressor, delivering a picture that appears to be encoded at 1 to 2 mbps higher than it actually was. If your seeking the ultimate in quality and want higher bit-rates, your output is likely to look better than compressor, but not by the same margins as when using low bit-rates. Where bit-vice has usually been weak is in it's speed to compress. I have a 1ghz AL PB G4 and a 2.0ghz G5 tower. Encoding on the powerbook is usually five to six times slower than with compressor (often, I'm forced to use compressor because of time constraints). On the G5, BitVice is speedy enough to get the job done when you don't have a lot of projects in your que. So today, when I tried BV v. 1.6, my first surprise was that the test video I encoded, did so in half the time on my G5 as I would have expected from the program in the past. This puts it nearly in the same speed league as compressor (with regard to the G5) and that makes this release a major improvement.

I have been using this amazing piece of software for the past few months. Every major release has introduced improvements exponentially better then the previous. Version 1.5 is not only incredibly faster then earlier versions, but in my opinion is the BEST encoder for DVD production. I recommend first buying the LITE version and giving BitVice a try. Most likely you will purchase the full version soon after. It's worth every penny. Easy to learn, highly stable and the absolute BEST customer service. BitVice produces unbelievable results.

I normally use Compressor for MPEG2 compression before import into DVD Studio Pro. I found the video quality from BitVice to be better than Compressor's. The reason I had to chuck BitVice is because my movie is a letterboxed 16x9 and there is a noticeable white glow around the top and bottom of the frame (where the film footage meets the balck borders) This does not happen with Compressor and is unfortunately unacceptable. Shame because otherwise it has great features and quality, back to Compressor!