Alcorn McBride Knowledge Base

There are many packages available that can be used to encode MPEG-2 video. The simple answer is that you need a package capable of creating an MPEG-2 Program Stream from whatever source you can provide.  Some examples of sources might be an uncompressed AVI or Quicktime video. 

A Program Stream contains an Elementary Video Stream and an Elementary Audio Stream. 

We recommend using Main Concept Reference. It is an extremely versatile and inexpensive encoding software package. This software is capable of encoding video using various Standard-Definition(SD) and High-Definition(HD) video formats, including the popular MPEG-2 and H.264 codecs used by Alcorn McBride's video products.

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More Information on Main Concept:
http://www.alcorn.com/library/appnotes/EncodingWithMCReference/index.html

TMPG is also a fairly inexpensive tool to encode video. An application note on using this software can be found on our website here:
http://www.alcorn.com/library/appnotes/TMPGEncoding/index.html

Please note that some versions of Final Cut Pro do not have the ability to generate program streams. In this case, additional software (such as Main Concept) may be required to produce the final stream.

More specific encoding parameters can be found here:
http://www.alcorn.com/kb/questions/187/