I have a .m2v demuxed transport stream, interlaced and 23.976 fps (i applied 3:2 pulldown to it).

I want to encode it to x264, but with the "h.264 x264" option the resulting file stutters like every other second.

If I try with the "h.264 mencoder" option, there is no stutter, but the image is very smooth compared to the other option.

Why does it stutter with first option?
Is it possible to sharpen image with option 2?

Thanks.