Hi all,

All the below questions regard encoding capped avi to VCD,XVCD (regular resolution, 2x standard bitrate),SVCD, & CVD:

I've read that closing GOPs can reduce quality, it that true, and if so, is it noticeable? Does it cause problems with fast forwarding/rewinding?

I also read that 18 frames/GOP (NTSC) should be set for the most DVD compliance... does this setting affect quality at all? Also, does this affect FF/RW?

Detect Scene Change vs. Force I Frames.. any diff there? I've read that I-frames should be introduced where scenes change and I've been using force frames for the past few days, but it's tedious having to scan, then double-check TMPGEnc and dump frames mistakenly marked to be I-frames.

I've been capping for a few months now, over the past week I've been taking a crash-course in TMPGEnc, the main benefit of which is finding out that my DVD player CAN play SVCD's (with the header trick, of course)!!!

If any of my assumptions are wrong, please correct me.

The amount of trial-and-error encoding I've done thus far has justified my desire to get a new comp

Thanks,

K