Which is better quality Mpeg2 encode: Procoder 2 express or From Vegas 4?

[Bryan Roberts]

Hey - well I've been creating some DVD's lately with demo reels and client projects and I just haven't been too happy with my results (also, my regular client views my DVD's on a TV that has improper color balance and contrast which is always a bit frustrating to view my work on, but they can't tell the difference - I color correct on a Toshiba 14inch flat screen NTSC monitor).

I use Vegas 4.0 to export my 24p footage to a DVDA MPEG2 file and then send the audio in AC3 but I've been reading a bunch about Canopus' Procoder 2 and was wondering if this was worth a look-see in terms of higher quality DVD's? I understand that it's a great product for compressing video for web delivery etc. but all I'm concerned about is getting the highest quality DVD presentation I can. Any insight would be greatly appreciated...

[Dan Euritt]

i would first address why the vegas4 mpeg2 encoding isn't up to par... doesn't vegas4 use the mainconcept encoder? it's a fine product.

take a look at your bitrate, make sure that you are using two-pass encoding, etc.