Hey, I have a quick, simple questoin

[ajaybird64]

Which is better, variable or constant bit rate conversion? I'm not too sure as to what the difference is, nor the rate which I can set and encode/capture at an optimum quality/rate/size.

[DVO]

It depends of what you will use your final video for. I don't think VCD DVD support variable bitrate. Variable make use of that still images and little movment is low bitrate and that and a lot of movment requiers more bitrate and sort of optmize the use of memory. Does it make any sense? LOL!

[Malcom]

If you are not worried about how big the file size is, CBR is always better. For example if even at the max CBR setting you can still fit your movie on your target media (cd, dvd, whatever).

If, on the otherhand, you are concerend with fitting the video on the target media, VBR is always better.

VBR works just like CBR except the bitrate changes according to the demands of the video. This way you can encode with the same maximum bitrate, and the demanding scenes will look just as good as they would with max setting CBR, but the credits and other simple scenes will not eat up file size unnecessarily.

For VBR multi-pass is essential, and FYI TMPGENC doesn't do VBR very well compared to CCE.

Make sense?

If you are doing a standard format other than DVD, I think you're stuck w/ CBR anyway. However, with the X-formats, you have your pick just like w/ DVD. I always use 4-pass VBR for DVD.. I figure, why waste space when it does not buy me any extra quality?

[ajaybird64]

So how exactly would I go around doing Multipass VBR? (I'm somewhat of a newbie, so far I can convert most things to Mpeg and burn, lol, that's pretty much it. I'll rip things too)