I've peered over your shoulders for many years, but rarely spoken up before. Mostly, that's because I've always been a year or two (or three) behind in hardware, so have not all that much new commentary to contribute
But now, for a change, with a strong enough tail wind I am within spitting distance of the front row, so thought I'd pass along a couple of things I've worked out.
See...I have an i7, a Z28 chipset, 16G of RAM, and 12 TB of storage space...and am learning how to use it.
I've used VirtualDub for years, mostly compressing DVDmpeg to DVIX and XVID. I've ripped around 1500 discs to drive, most of them on the best quality motion detection the so-called 'insane quality' at around 2Mbps. We found that much above that isn't noticeable to us, and much below that can be (depending on the amount of motion in the field, and on the original quality). It works out to be a good compromise for us, viewed on a 42-inch Samsung LCD screen from about 10 feet away (that's 3.3 meters, for you modern humans out there).
A typical half-hour BritCom (now you know) takes about an hour to compress with the stock Divxcodec using 2 passes.
I couldn't stand not knowing how Quick Sync would work, so broke down and bought a copy of Media Espresso the other day.
Digression: I have two 24-inch Samsung monitors. Until just the other day, I had both of them fed from an nVidia 260...not much of a card, but adequate for what I do. I don't watch much video on it, and I don't play many games. Now, I have one of the monitors hooked into the mobo (an Asrock Z28 Pro3, running Virtu at the 'high quality' setting). I cannot distinguish any difference in image quality between the two monitors.
Anyway...I ran the same file (a Monty Python episode...number 31, if you must know) through Espresso and through the 6.8.2 DVIX codec (VirtualDub), with settings as comparable as I could make them. Espresso doesn't have nearly the flexibility that Vdub has, but I think there's enough to make a case for apples/apples.
On Espresso, I've run the mp4Divx settings and the mp4H.264, and the AVIDivx (which I suspect is actually the same as the mp4 Divx). I've run each of those settings at increments of bitrate up and down from 2Mbps, with and without Quick Sync acceleration, and with/without the Cyberlink enhancements.
The upshot is as follows:
The Cyberlink enhancements are too aggressive for my taste, and slow compression down by a factor of 3 to 5. Turns out Quick Sync cannot run with the enhancements (but the frame rate is still pretty high, possibly due to Virtu...I'll have to try another round with Virtu turned off altogether).
It is also possible that Virtu is allocating work to the GPU via CUDA...which, according to online reports (see AnandTech) really sucks in video quality. The 'insane quality' Divx setting through Vdub results in marginally better video quality than the H.264 at the same bitrate and highest quality setting on Espresso, but we really have to squint to see the difference.
A half hour show takes around an hour to compress (Divx 2 pass) on vDub - maybe a little longer for some shows.
The same show compresses as H.264 in (hold onto your hats) about 90 seconds on Espresso, with Quick Sync enabled and the enhancements turned off.
60-ish minutes...90-ish seconds. Kind of like Sheldon doing the Flash!
I didn't mean that quite the way it came out.
I had a lot of lip sync trouble using the Divx codec in Espresso, but was able to re-marry the original audio to the compressed video using Vdub. That's kind of odd, since most of the sync problems I've had were from dropped frames (resolved by using DVD Decryptor to pick off exactly one view) - that is, from video issues. Here, it's clearly an audio issue, since the original VOB's audio nails down to the compressed video all the way to the end of the show. Kind of silly having to do that extra step...turns out not to be a problem using the H.264. Go figure.
Espresso will ONLY handle stereo sound and (as far as I can tell) not all formats thereof. Not a problem for old TV shows...will have to figure out how to deal with it for 5.1 audio on DVD and Blu-ray rips (if I choose to re-compress the blu-ray...server isn't full yet, so should not be a problem for a while).
Digression: tsMuxerGUI atop AnyDVD-HD seems to be by far the easiest way to rip BRD...not that I want to start a fight.
