What are the best settings for DV to MPEG2 conversion?

[arrosen]

I am converting old VHS tapes to DVD. I am running them through my digital camcorder to my PC via firewire, then converting them through Procoder.

I am using the standard settings of CBR with a 6000 bitrate. Should i be using 1 or 2 pass VBR instead? Should i increase the CBR bitrate? What will changing any of those settings do to the conversion time (right now it takes about 7 hours to convert an hour of source video)

Thanks!

[KetchSumAir]

Typically, it's not advisable to use CBR mode. VBR mode will effictively give you higer compression. CQ mode is generally best in terms of quality. Your bitrate is about right for a high-quality source (I usually go 6500).

For high quality, 7 hours seems in the ball park, but here's some things to look at:

Are you using filters?
Are you using TMPG?

If you are using TMPG's noise filter, and highest quality setting, that can really slow things down.

Generally, TMPG's high quality setting is sufficient, and AVISynth's filters are much better (argueably) and faster than TMPG's.