Not As Good As the Original with TMPGEnc CQ

[aamir12345678]

I am converting a 576x432 23.976 fps 200 MB 20 min divx (I think it's a DVD rip). It's excellent quality. I'm trying to convert to mpeg2 and then burn to DVD-r and play on my DVD Player. I just want my encoder (TMPGEnc) to maintain the quality. I did a CQ 100 encode with a min bitrate of 2000 and a max bitrate of 9600. The average bitrate of the output came out to be about 6700. The mpeg2 doesn't look as good as the Divx. Why? I know Divx has better compression. My Divx had a bitrate of about 1500 and was a 200 MB .avi. My mpeg2 came out to be about 1 GB. My real question is why did TMPGEnc's CQ not give the required bitrate to make it look like the original. I even used Highest Quality Motion Search Precision. I could just jack up the bitrate to 9600 CBR, but that would not give me an automated solution. Also, with a VBR, I get better allocation of the bitrate; i.e. I can fit more on my DVD-r. There is quite a difference between 6700 and 9600. Any suggestions, explanations, tips, etc would be appreciated (especially in regards to TMPGEnc's CQ). Thanks.

[puertorican138]

The reason why the MPEG-2 doesn't look as good as the DivX file is because each time you encode, you lose quality some-what. Most of the time, a copy will never look as good as an original...

[aamir12345678]

I figured out my own problem. CQ, even at Highest Motion Search Precision, cannot compete with 2-Pass VBR at Highest Motion Search Precision. The results were better at the same exact file size. I gave the minimum bitrate 0 (automatic). I think with TMPGEnc, this is what you have to do unless you can make the minimum and maximum and even amount away from the average. Since I'm using a high average (6700 kbit/s), and DVD Players top out at about 9600-9800 kbit/s for the video, and I really don't want a minimum of about 3700 kbit/s (way too high), a minimum of 0 is best. It produced near flawless results. In some ways, the image looks better than the DIVX file.