AVI to MPEG Conversion Questions

[facialcrunch]

Hi guys. I've been reading posts for a while, but I can't seem to find an answer to a few questions. Perhaps you can help...

I have a Sony DCR-TRV11 DV camera with which I capture the video to AVI via firewire. I want to convert to MPEG for DVD creation of my home movies. I have Procoder, TMPGEnc and CCE.

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Procoder gives options of either a video + audio *.m2v + *.wav file output, or a program stream *.m2p file.

CCE gives a *.mpv + *. mpa + *.vaf file for the CBR or VBR options (all ES?), or a *.mpg file for the video + audio option (PS? I presume is program stream?)

TMPGEnc gives either *.m2v +*.m2p output files for the video and audio, or a *.mpg file for both.

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What type of stream is best to use for my purposes, and are there quality differences for the different types posted above? I understand that a 2-pass VBR is better than CBR, but how does this relate to the program stream output option?

The reason I ask is that I have been using the Sony/Sonic Foundry DVD Architect to make some sweet motion menus, but it doesn't allow me to use files like the *.m2v, *.m2p and *.mpv, *.mpa output files. I have to encode to the program stream *.mpg output file to import the video into the menus for the DVD creation. I really like the DVD Architect program, but will use another if the program stream files aren't good. If they are, it's nice because it makes working with the audio and video easier as one file.

Thanks for the help. I can really use some explanation as to the above file type differences.

[rhegedus]

If DVD Architect only allows mpg then that's what you must have. Just use TMPGEnc to make mpg file for all your needs.

I've tried various mpeg encoders - whilst some might be quicker, I always come back to TMPGEnc for it's ease of use and it's numerous settings that allow fine tuning.