New Review: TMPGEnc DVD Author 2.0

DVD consumers' champion Flash has been busy again, this time with a review of the new DVD authoring software from TMPGinc. You can read his review here. And, in related news, Flash is excited by TMPGinc introducing VideoSync encoder technology.

Press Release: TMPG Inc have announced its new all-in-one VideoSync™ encoder which allows individuals to easily put their favourite videos onto a portable digital device along with 3 different quality options, for viewing anywhere, anytime.

It is compatible with today’s hottest portable digital devices, such as Video iPod®, PSP™ (PlayStation® Portable) and other H.264 and MPEG-4 supported devices. VideoSync also supports Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs which use Windows Mobile 5.0), as well as PLAY-YAN, and PLAY-YAN micro made by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS/DS Lite. The software is available for download on the company’s website.

“VideoSync software makes it easy for users of portable digital devices to take and view their favourite videos wherever they go,” commented Kimi Matsuki, TMPG CEO. “Users now can transfer videos from their PC using just this one program and a simple mouse click. With VideoSync, there is no longer any need to buy separate software titles for each mobile device a person uses.

With its user-friendly interface, the power of transferring videos from a PC to the portable is done with a simple drag-and-drop manoeuvre. Encoding can even be accomplished while the user is away from the PC utilizing the Drop Folder which is perfect for Microsoft Media Centre PC files.

VideoSync provides easy file management as it seamlessly helps keep data and files organized, eliminating confusion as to what is on a device. It will, for instance, help manage a PSP memory stick/duo as well as registering your files to the iTunes video playlist. VideoSync also has the ability to conserve memory space, as users can choose the quality level of the video to sync. This provides twice the functionality as it allows either more space to fit more videos or to display videos at optimal viewing quality.

Other features include, time stretch to watch your videos 1.18x, 1.33x, or 1.5x ‘s faster than normal playback with fully understandable audio and video, PSP Overdrive that improves picture playback quality playback on your PSP, subtitle support of DVD source files, and much more.

After conducting an in-house benchmark test*, TMPG found that VideoSync was approximately twice as fast as Apple QuickTime PRO (with MPEG 2 plug-in) in encoding uncompressed AVI, MPEG-1, and MPEG-2 video clips; and virtually the same in encoding uncompressed MOV files.

VideoSync is desktop computer compatible and works with Windows 2000 and XP (Home, Professional, and Media Centre editions) operating systems. It supports AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, Microsoft Media Centre (DVR-MS), and QuickTime (MOV); DVD-Video; and DVD-VR video input file formats, as well as MPEG-1 Layer 2, Dolby Digital, and Linear PCM audio formats.

TMPG VideoSync is available for download at www.tmpg-inc.com. Retail and Trial versions are both available

*The test file for this comparison benchmark was a 10-minute 16-second clip. It was selected for a good balance of light and dark colours in addition to the fairly high amount of motion and detail. It was extracted from a DVD and converted to AVI, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 format. The MPEG-2 file size was 566MB, and encoded using the standard MPEG-2 specification; the audio was set to MPEG-1 Audio layer II (this is the only audio format that complies with QuickTime Pro)

Testing was performed with a single Intel Pentium 4 HT processor running at 3.2GHz. The amount of installed memory was just under 1GB.

TMPGEnc VideoSyncMPEG-2 encode times include both the audio and video portions, encoded and output as a muxed audio/video file. Contact TMPG for complete test results.