Encoding Made Quick and Easy With TMPGEnc MovieStyle

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224293554.usr1.jpg" /></p><p><a href="http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tms.html" target="_blank">TMPGEnc MovieStyle</a> ($39.95 USD) is video encoding software created for device-specific encoding. It has a slick, user-friendly interface that's quite easy to use - once you get it working. TMPGEnc MovieStyle, like its more expensive big brother <a href="http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/te4xp.html" target="_blank">TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress</a>, has an extremely irritating online activation security scheme. I won't repeat myself here - you can read about my dislike of this sort of software protection <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/90978/the-swiss-army-knife-of-video-encoding-tmpgenc-4-0-xpress.html" target="_blank">in my other TMPGEnc review</a> - but I find myself especially irritated because I installed this software to test it while I was a passenger in a car driving back home after visiting some friends in the countryside, and I wasn't able to use the software because I didn't have Internet access. I thought maybe on this cheaper, consumer-focused video encoding product, they'd have a more relaxed approach. There's not even a graceful limited trial mode for the software when it can't be activated - it simply won't load until the license is activated online. These sort of heavy-handed, "treat your customers like thieves" tactics are frustrating to see. But let's get on with the review, shall we? <MORE /></p><p>Once I returned to the land of Internet access, I was able to start up the software - only to be greeted by a warning that, without Quicktime installed, the software can't import Quicktime files. With the superb <a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/" target="_blank">VLC Media Player</a> installed, I don't usually need to install Quicktime. It's unfortunate that TMPGEnc couldn't work around this issue. After clicking on the curiously named "Inherit" button to bypass the Quicktime warning, the application finally launched. The user interface is slick - the opening screen matches the screen shot above. First, you select the device you want to prepare the file for: PSP, iPod/iPhone, Zune, Sony Mylo, Nintendo DS, PDA, Apple TV, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and a DivX option. For each device there's a Standard Quality option, High Quality option, and an Audio Output option. When you click on the quality option a file select window pops up, and you can select the video file you want to transcode. Files supported include DivX, AVI, MPEG, DVR-MS, WMV, MOD, ASF, and a few others. The Web site listed MPEG4/h.264 support, so I was confused why I didn't see it listed. Playing a hunch, I installed Quicktime, and not only did MOV file support show up, but so did MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, and AMC. So it seems that in order to get any support for MPEG4 files, in any form, you need Quicktime installed. Bummer.</p><p>There's a DVD import function as well - once you manually select the VIDEO_TS folder on a DVD (that has been decrypted with <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/29053/anydvd-the-tasty-secret-sauce.html" target="_blank">AnyDVD</a>, naturally) you get the option to select one or more titles on the DVD, including selecting subtitles and the language track. There's an option to copy it to the hard drive for faster transcoding, and options for quality (Standard, Long Play, High Quality, Audio Only). My test rip of a 22 minute TV show was flawless - I had selected the Zune High Quality option, and the resulting 320 x 240, 1344 kbps WMV file looked great and had perfect audio sync. I performed a similar test with a DVR-MS file I'd recorded off TV, and it worked equally well. I did notice that there's no format selection for the hardware types though; for instance, the Zune is locked into encoding only to WMV. I'd have liked to be given the choice to encode to h.264.</p><p>Once the encoding started, MovieStyle showed its pedigree: when encoding using the high-quality Zune setting, it used around 90% of the Intel dual-core CPU on my laptop. There are numerous nice finishing touches throughout the program - for instance, if you right-click on the big Standard Quality, High Quality, or Audio Output buttons, you can pull up the settings summary is for that setting. You can also re-assign the buttons, so if you'd like one to be Long Play and one to be High Quality, you can change it to match what you want. Other enhancements for customization and speed include turning on Quick Encode, which gives you the ability to right-click on any video file you have in any folder, and kick off a transcoding setting with a couple of clicks. You can tweak the right-click function to only display certain devices, which helps streamline the process. It also has the ability to monitor a "drop folder", meaning you could point it at your Recorded TV folder and whenever a show is finished recording, MediaStyle would transcode it so it's ready to sync to your Zune or Windows Mobile smartphone. There's also a 24 fps Cinema mode conversion, speed shifting (making a video file slower or faster), and a dubiously useful "Karaoke mode" which as far as I can tell simply removes the audio from the video.</p><p>TMPGEnc MovieStyle is a surprisingly powerful program for the price, and given its flexibility and features, I highly recommend it as a tool for video transcoding. While <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/29697/taking-your-dvds-with-you-using-clonedvd-mobile.html" target="_blank">CloneDVD Mobile</a> is more streamlined and easier to use when it comes to DVD ripping, it can't convert local files. I've used a lot of video encoding/transcoding applications over the past few years, and many of them are junk. <a href="http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tms.html" target="_blank">TMPGEnc MovieStyle</a> is a truly superb program that is virtually flawless - it earns my highest recommendation.</p><p><em>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys <a href="http://photos.jasondunn.com/" target="_blank">photography</a>, mobile devices, <a href="http://www.jasondunn.com/" target="_blank">blogging</a>, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He likes transcoding videos.</em></p>

[Stinger]

I've used a lot of video encoding/transcoding applications over the past few years, and many of them are junk.

I couldn't agree more with that statement. 95% of video encoders I've tried are absolute junk. Either the quality/audio sync is poor or it's abilities are very limited.

The only ones I've found that are worthwhile are Nero Recode and Handbrake. Even these two have their downsides. Nero Recode has to be purchased as part of the Nero bloatware package and uses a proprietary subtitles standard. Handbrake doesn't have a video preview in the Windows version and only supports encoding from DVDs.

Is TMPGEnc capable of batch encoding? i.e. can I insert a TV show DVD and get it to rip all the episodes separately?

Looks like I'll have to see if there's a demo version available.

[Flycs]

Thanks for the review, I still have some PPC-related questions left: which resolution is outputted when transcoding for PDA devices (QVGA, VGA, WVGA)? Can I customize that output resolution? Can I create my own output profile (resolution, bitrate, codec, etc.)?

[gjw]

Can resolution, FPS, volume, and audio-rate be individually altered or is it all based on pre-sets?
Are there any cropping options?

[Jason Dunn]

Is TMPGEnc capable of batch encoding? i.e. can I insert a TV show DVD and get it to rip all the episodes separately?

Yes, I just did a test and it allowed me to select each TV episode. There's an option to combine them all into one file, so by default it saves each out separately.

Looks like I'll have to see if there's a demo version available.

Yes, there's a free trial version:

http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/download/tms.html

[Jason Dunn]

...which resolution is outputted when transcoding for PDA devices (QVGA, VGA, WVGA)? Can I customize that output resolution? Can I create my own output profile (resolution, bitrate, codec, etc.)?

Resolutions supported are 320 x 240, 320 x 180, 640 x 480, and 640 x 360. Bit rates supported range from 256 kbps up to 992 kbps - there are low, normal, and high pre-sets for the bit rate. The PDA preset is fixed on WMV - you can't change the codec.

If you want more flexibility in terms of codec, resolution, and bit rate, I suggest CloneDVD Mobile (http://www.slysoft.com/?aid=50312) [Affiliate].

[Jason Dunn]

Can resolution, FPS, volume, and audio-rate be individually altered or is it all based on pre-sets?

There are options for resolution (please see my earlier post in this thread) and audio bit-rate; volume is fixed.

Are there any cropping options?

In the preferences there's an option for "Crop the Picture" but it's just a check-box...there's no way to specify the number of pixels cropped, etc. I'm honestly not too sure how this option works. :o

[jeffd]

Well if you are still into playing around with video encoders jason, how about trying and comparing these free ones.

One that I just tried out today called StarxRip (http://www.planetdvb.net/staxrip/) I got because I was looking for a h264 encoder. I had capped some HQ game footage using fraps and it was looking nasty in xvid so I wanted to try out h264 encoding. The GUI is uncluttered, although there are many pro settings available hidden deep. What impressed me is while the initial program lacks some things like besweet, avisynth, codecs and such, the program tells you exactly what its lacking when it requires it for a job, and you just have to click one button to download what it needs. It uncompressed it and installs it automatically. The program also pops up large windows of text when you enter a new gui window explaining what the options that you are about to see will do. So new people to encoding are not left in the dark.

Best of all, its the first and only encoder I have seen that pegged every core in my quad core to %100.

I did pass over handbrake, it seems like a popular app for ripping dvd's to h264 files with plenty of presets for portables. However it dosn't support .avi at all so no single file encodes.

The last one was one I stumbled over for a more specific job. I was going in for jury duty so I needed to quickly convert a whole bunch of my anime to watch on my zen vision:m for hours on end. Unfortunately alot of my anime today is 720p h264/AC3/ACC encoded in a MKV wrapper with soft subtitles. You would be amazed at how many commercial and popular packages designed for converting videos to ipods/portables don't support these kind of files.

And I wasn't the only one. AllToAvi (http://alltoavi.sourceforge.net/) was created with the intention of converting Anime that made use of soft sub formats to hardsubs for portable or dvd device use. I quickly threw a bunch of episodes from several series into it and told it to go and it did so at a very good speed. It did choke on one of the h264 series...a frame every couple of seconds would be corrupted and the audio quickly went out of synch. No idea what was causing it, must have been something with the original encode. One of the nice things I liked was it was easy to scale up the subtitles, so if you really have problems reading subs scaled down to the small screens, you can scale the subs up to larger then normal sizes.

[ptyork]

Jason, Sunday's the last day for SlySoft's 20% discount offer. Since they also offer bundle savings, I'm curious if there is anything that CloneDVD & CloneDVD Mobile might offer over this option. "Effectively" you can get both of these CloneDVD packages for around $45 (if bundled with AnyDVD vs. getting AnyDVD by itself). Ignoring for a moment the disadvantage of not being able to encode from a source other than DVD, are there any really compelling reasons to buy the CloneDVD packages over TMPGEnc MovieStyle?

And perhaps a more fundamental question. I know they are a bit "apples and oranges," but since I can get Premier Elements for around $70 (I probably will anyway because I want the editing capabilities--but ignore this for now), is there a compelling reason to choose TMPEnc MovieStyle over Premier Elements??

Can you tell I like to be "compelled"? :)

Thanks!

[Jason Dunn]

Ignoring for a moment the disadvantage of not being able to encode from a source other than DVD, are there any really compelling reasons to buy the CloneDVD packages over TMPGEnc MovieStyle?

MovieStyle is slick and offers some neat features, but when it comes down to the issue of being able to encode to multiple formats, multiple resolutions, and multiple bit rates, MovieStyle falls very short. CloneDVD Mobile offers far more flexibility in that regard.

And perhaps a more fundamental question. I know they are a bit "apples and oranges," but since I can get Premier Elements for around $70 (I probably will anyway because I want the editing capabilities--but ignore this for now), is there a compelling reason to choose TMPEnc MovieStyle over Premier Elements??

MovieStyle and Premiere Elements are completely different programs - MovieStyle is an encoder, Premiere Elements is an editor that also encodes. If you need to edit video, you want Elements.

Oh, and if you're going to buy from Slysoft, please use this affiliate link (http://www.slysoft.com/?aid=50312). Thanks. :D

[inteller]

try Xilisoft Video encoder ultimate. The interface isn't as pretty but it does batch.

[jeffd]

so were going from programs that cost money, have good ui's, and lack some functionality, to free programs that lack a friendly ui, great fuctionality, to programs that cost money and have a bad ui?

Both StarxRip and AllToAvi support batch (even single encodes get added a jobs list before starting). Its not really a "new" thing these days.

[Stinger]

I finally got around to trying this software out and I'm disappointed.

The UI is great and hassle free but it falls down on two points:

1) The quality vs. file size is appalling. The videos are at least 2.5 times bigger than those created with Handbrake and the quality is significantly worse. I assume the lack of a two-pass encoding option is part of the reason.

2) There's no way to choose the output file name. Very annoying when doing a big batch encode.

[Jason Dunn]

The quality vs. file size is appalling. The videos are at least 2.5 times bigger than those created with Handbrake and the quality is significantly worse. I assume the lack of a two-pass encoding option is part of the reason.

Hmm. I have to admit that I pay very little attention to the output file size - I really only care about quality...but, yeah, the single-pass encoding is always going to be inferior to two-pass encoding. That's definitely something I wish they'd change in this product, and I apologize for not mentioning that because I was aware of it. :o

[onlydarksets]

2) There's no way to choose the output file name. Very annoying when doing a big batch encode.

The output file name is the "clip name" from the source file properties box. This is the screen you are presented with when you add a video file. See here:
http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/Video-Encoder-XPress_4.png