MPEG-1 vs MPEG-2 quality

[valli]

I'm evaluating VCD Easy (1.1.7.2 Trial) to create my photo album on (S)VCD.
I'm intersting more on quality than on special effects (transition, sound background).
For this reason I have compared some sample made using MPEG-1 (VCD 2.0) and MPEG-2 (SVCD) both on PAL standard.
Although my camera+DVD player+TV should be a good system (SONY 5.1 MPixels with Zeiss Lens, Loewe Xemix DVD and Loewe 32" 100Hz TV), I get these strange results:
MPEG-1: quite good definition but a lot of flickering although 0.6 filter rate (with higher rates the image has a 'blur' aspect)
MPEG-2: worse quality (pixels seems bigger, sloping edges between bright and dark zones appear jagged or 'saw-edgeg') but no flickering
P.S. I used always spline resize filter as suggest on article I have read

Yet some other question:
-does anybody suggest me a simple, free, file/directory browser (similar to Win Explorer) than gives the thumbnail for images files (like Explorer does on 2k or XP, unfortunally I'm using Win98)
-is it possible to set the default wait time to -1 (infinite) as default
Thanks

[mikesbytes]

The spec for Mpeg1 (VCD) still and Mpeg2 (SVCD) still is almost identical. It could be some sort of compatibility issue. Try your disks out on some other equipment, especially with a standard definition TV.