Fighting Macroblocks

[dykesc]

I'm still experimenting with the various tools and would appreciate some advice. I'm capturing DV from a JVC GR-DV500 with WinDV at a native resolution of 720x480. My first attempts at creating an SVCD while maintaining this resolution in the final run resulted in very noticeable macroblocking in fast motion scenes. I tried uping the bitrate to some fairly high levels which did help a lot, but, I could still see macroblocks. I then started dropping resolution; first to 480x480, then 352x480, and finally I was satisfied with the results at 320x240 at a CBR of 2250. Does this sound about right for eliminating macroblocks in fast motion scenes? While the 320x240 video is somewhat soft I am very pleased that all the macroblocks are gone. I tried filters in Virtualdub at the higher resolutions,but frankly, they were not very effective.

I am resizing to 320x240 in Virtualdub before I pass the file to TMPGEnc. Is there any advantage to letting Virtualdub resize vs letting TMPGEnc do it during the mpeg creation?

Thanks for any recommendations or insights.

[jimmalenko]

When using the larger frame size, up the bitrate also