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What is BitVice? Can I produce DVD's with it?
BitVice is a standalone application that encodes high quality MPEG2 video files from Quicktime movies or Final Cut Pro reference movies (which meet the MPEG2 input requirements). The resulting MPEG2 files can be imported into any compliant MPEG2 authoring or multiplexing tool such as Apple's DVD Studio Pro. Future support for other platforms is planned.
Does BitVice encode both audio and video?
BitVice is a video-only MPEG2 encoder. For audio, a preferred solution is to export your movie sound track as an AIFF file and use the A.Pack utility included with DVD SP to encode your audio into the Dolby AC-3 format..
You say BitVice is "two pass variable bit rate encoder." What does that mean?
A two-pass variable bit rate encoder produces the highest quality MPEG2 files. A DVD can only hold a fixed amount of data (think of it as your data budget") and for Video DVD's most of that space is used for the video.
As a general rule, the more data you can devote to each frame of video, the better the quality. Some MPEG2 encoders, such as the one that comes with DVD Studio Pro are essentially constant bit rate encorders (CBR) and use just about the exact same amount of data for each frame whether it needs it or not. For example, frames that are nearly identical to the frames that come before and after them don't need as much data as frames that are part of a motion sequence where the image is constantly changing.
Yet, a CBR encoder (or near-CBR encoder) treats them all the same and the only way to increase quality is to reduce the length of your video so that data storage space on the DVD can be spread over fewer frames. A good example of this is in iDVD, which has two encoding settings: a higher quality (i.e. higher bit rate) setting for movies under 60 minutes and a lower bit rate for movies from 60-90 minutes long. With DVD SP's Quicktime MPEG2 encoder you have a wider range of quality choices, but each of them still allocates the same amount of data to each frame.
With a variable bit rate (VBR) encoder such as BitVice, your "data budget" can be allocated where it's needed most instead of being equally distributed amongst each frame of your video. A "two pass" VBR encoder actually analyzes the video frame-by-frame before doing the encoding to determine the unique compression needs of each frame.
With BitVice, we have developed an encoder that incorporates new "smarter" encoding algorithms that further improve the quality of the final video by not only determining how much data is allocated to each frame, but also how that data is allocated within the frame.
Besides the quality gained from two-pass variable bit rate encoding, are there other noteworthy advantages to using BitVice, compared with the standard DVD SP/Compressor and/or other encoders?
BitVice incorporates a color and gamma adjustment that will compensate for the darkness users often report when producing MPEG2 files from DV sources. BitVice also includes several options settings that will be of interest to advanced users.
What is BitVice's speed compared to the Apple MPEG2 encoder that ships with DVD Studio Pro?
We have been pleased to hear from users who say, "BitVice is slow, but because of the high quality, that's not a concern - it's worth it." If speed is your main concern, then, as Apple notes, "you may want to consider a third-party hardware encoder that can translate in real time."
I created chapter markers in Final Cut Pro but after I encoded my movie with BitVice, I could not use them. Doesn't BitVice support chapter markers?
BitVice 1.2 supports the chapter markers feature within DVD SP, however the chapter markers which can now be generated within FCP for use by DVD SP 1.5 are not yet supported.
After BitVice created the m2v file from my movie, I double-clicked on the new file and Microsoft Excel tried to open it. Shouldn't this be a Quicktime file?
Quicktime cannot play m2v/MPEG2 files, yet. So even if the BitVice files had a "Quicktime file type," you would get an error message if you double-clicked them. The m2v files have a file type that indentifies them as generic binary files and they work just fine when you import them into DVD SP. However, when you try to double-click these files, your computer uses whatever program (such as Excel) that is the default for opening generic binary files. If you do have a application that plays m2v files, such as VideoLAN Client for OS X, you can open these BitVice m2v files through the application's Open menu.
I cannot find the output file that BitVice is supposed to create when I encode a movie. Where did BitVice put the MPEG2 file?
BitVice places the new MPEG2 file in the same directory as your source movie. It has the same name as the movie but with a "m2v" extension.
I have trouble installing BitVice. What am I doing wrong?
Aladdin Sytems, makers of the installer application, reports that, "On some machines (installers) seems to crash during 'Preparing to Install'." Aladdin says this, "seems related to the Logitech Mouseware extension/control panel combination, and may involve other third party software as well." Try disabling the third party extensions and control panels and restart before installing.
Can I use BitVice with iDVD?
No, iDVD has its own MPEG2 encoder integrated into the application and cannot accept MPEG files from any other source.
Can BitVice handle drop-frame and/or non-drop frame movies?
BitVice handles both drop-frame and non-drop-frame.
Can BitVice re-encode already encoded MPEG2 files in order to change the bit rate?
No
I tried encoding 720x486 (D1) resolution, but the encoder responded "not divisible by 16."
Fixed in BitVice 1.2
DVD SP reports "data rate too high" when I try to use a BitVice file
BitVice 1.2 SR1 solves this problem. However keep in mind that for a DVD the recommended maximum data rate (bandwidth) should be no more than 9.8 Mbps, including audio and video. If you want to conserve as much of that bandwidth as possible for video, then use A.Pack to encode your audio in AC-3 format at 192 Kbps (for stereo audio).
I noticed that when BitVice is encoding still frames, that the bit rate gauge drops way down below my target rate. Does that mean the stills will have lower quality?
No, not at all. As a true variable bit rate encoder, BitVice can deliver high quality while giving some frames 50% less than your target rate. Frames with little or no motion and/or little complexity do not need the same amount of data as fast moving complex frames, so when the “easier” frames get only the bits they need, the complex frames can get even more than your target rate (maybe 50% above it).
Will BitVice work on G5's?
Yes, and from early reports it appears that BitVice tested on a 1.6gHz G5 with just 256MB of RAM was faster than Compressor on a 1.8gHz G5 with 4GB of RAM!
Considering the latest version of BitVice stills runs in OS9 as well as OS X, we were quite pleased to learn that. Keep in mind that encoding times vary according to the type of video source video you have and encoding options used, but for high quality two-pass variable bitrate encoding on the Macintosh, BitVice still looks like the fastest and best option and it will only get better as BitVice becomes optimized for OS X and G5's.
