MPEG2 Encoding Speed with G4 and G5

[Fred]

I'm thinking of switching to Mac and FCP for various reasons. One thing that scares me though is that I hear stories how it takes 15 hours to encode a 15 minute clip with a single G4. How does a G5 compare (single and dual)? Even though it causes me grief in other areas, the fact that I can encode in realtime with my Matrox RTX100 makes me wonder: How come Macs are so slow in that regard, yet they shine elsewhere.

[David]

CBR single pass is roughly 1x on G5 dual.

[MitchJi]

Hi,

If you are happy with the MPEG encoding on your PC why not do your editing and DVD authoring on the Mac and continue to do your MPEG2 compression on the PC?

Mitch

[Fred]

Too keep a PC just for MPEG2 encoding seems a bit odd. Besides, I was thinking of selling my PC to help fund the new Mac.