FFmpegX newbie questions mostly about VCD

[pdv1956]

In my Windows past I did a lot of TV recordings, saved as AVI (DivX or XviD) 4:3 and 16:9. All of this I now want to convert to VCD PAL 352x288 with Black Borders. (no actual VCD on cd, but keep the files on hard disk for viewing with Hauppauge MediaMVP).

Then I found FFmpegX, this stunning program, seems to do almost what I need, and much faster on a dual G5 than any windows system

AVI 4:3 dropped on FFmpegX,
preset: VCD ffmpeg,
video: framerate PAL, autosize VCD, videosize 352x288, video bitrate 1150,
audio: audio bitrate 192, sampling 48000, stereo, normalize,
filters: none,
options: high quality, decode with QT, (unchangeable) set letterbox, encoding profile VCD, Qmin 8, Qmax 20.
this gives me a perfect MPEG1 file.

Now do the same for 16:9, and the file size is way too big, around 180%.
sounds to me like video bit rate too high.
when opened in a windows mpeg editor, it tells me bit rate is 1150, but when saved from this editor, file size shrinks to normal.

Out of curiosity, I took a MPEG recording from EyeTV, passed it thru FFmpegX, same problem: file size too large.

I read almost the entire forum, did a lot of experimenting, but i seem to keep missing The Point.

Now my questions:

* what parameters should i use for AVI 4:3 and 16:9 to VCD conversion?

* it seems possible to cal FFmpegX from shell scripts, but where can i find the parameters?

* when used interactively, it would be nice to be able to save and restore the work queue, to stop or pause the work in progress, to free resources for other work.

[Case]

what parameters should i use for AVI 4:3 and 16:9 to VCD conversion?

VCD mpeg2enc preset, much better bitrate control.