Newbie encoding questions

[DaveKlassix]

Sorry for the lame newbie type questions, but im new to this whole dvd movie "backup" scene. I recently bought myself a Sony DRU500a, and tried to backup some of my disks with DVD2SVCD, This is mainly for use with dvd9 disks so that they will fit on standard 4.7gig disks. The questions I Had are what is the difference between variable bit rates and constant, and what is better? Also, what is the differnce between single pass and multi pass encoding? I assume multi is better since it takes like 4 times as long. ANd finally, what is the best/easiest authoring app to use>? The only success i;'ve had is with SpruceUP. FVor whatever reason, I can't drag my AC3 audio files into Maestro;s timeline. Im pry doing something wrong.


Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ghoster]

well i have tried both cbr and multi pass vbr. the quality seems just about the same to me except multi pass vbr takes forever and i don't see much if any impovement in quality. really the only time i see multi pass vbr being useful is when you are trying to stick like 120 minute video onto a 80 min cd. then is is much better than cbr. the easiest authoring app in my opinion is ifoedit.

[Tommyknocker]

Okay, since you are a newbie, I would suggest you read the Newbie Guides. I saw the answer to practically all your questions under the article TMPGEnc Explained there. As for which application is best, it is more of a personal preference. I also suggest you download a demo program of each you think you may be interested in (see the Tools section at left), and see which one suits you.