multiAVCHD trying to get max-quality MPEG-2 encode

[beardness]

I've authored plenty of DVDs in the past, but no blu-rays before. I have been learning multiAVCHD and its associated tools for a few days now, and I have a few questions I am having trouble answering and I grow weary from too much trial and e3rror. I'm hoping some kind soul can share some of his wisdom with me

What will yield higher quality when authoring blu-ray in M-PEG 2 format, HcEnc 2-pass, or lavc 2-pass? lavc 2-pass has been failing for me, and I am not sure if it is even a codec I can use for blu-ray.

Is there a bitrate beyond which my encode will just add noise? When I encode to 40,000bps there is noise in the picture that isn't present in the original mkv video stream. am i using too high a bitrate? Is that even possible? Should, and can I push it higher than 40,000bps? I see that adobe encore and sony dvd architect won't encode MPEG-2 beyond 40Mbps - if I try it with multiAVCHD will that be a waste of processor time?

Would I get higher quality encoding to MPEG-4?

Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

[Pirum]

If I understand correctly, 40Mbps is the recommended limit of bluray video, including audio 48Mbps is the limit. Most (all?) pro studios these days don't do mpeg2 anymore unless their original data is in mpeg2 and they can transfer it straight to BD.

I've been using multiAVCHD for years for home videos, and archiving DVDs and BDs, and as it's no longer updated I try to do most video processing using more updated programs such as AVCHDCoder, Ripbot (adding --bluray-compat to AVC encoder settings), or MeGUI for more control (using pal speedup/slowdown or avisynth stuff). Then I use multiAVCHD to load the prepared files and add menus.

I've been thinking of updating the tools in the multiAVCHD folder, but the workaround using other programs first seems less of a hassle.

[beardness]

Thanks for your response!

multiAVCHD no longer being updated has proven a bit of an extra challenge, but so far I have managed to figure most things out.

I used virtualdub, beSweet, and aviDemux to perform a successful PAL slowdown for the PAL files I have.
I've used mkvToolnix for muxing extra audio streams into my mkv source files
and I have successfully authored Blu-ray discs with those files in multiAVCHD with menus and all the bells and whistles.

So I think I am making good headway!

My question about Mpeg-2 was because I will be giving these away to friends and family, and some of them have older blu-ray players. I am of the understanding that MPEG-2 blu-rays will be read by a wider range of players (particularly older ones which haven't ever had their firmware updated). Am I misinformed about this?

Thanks for your answer regarding the 40Mbps bitrate, and thanks for the links to those tools - I will check them out!