CBR, CQ....

[BenzBen]

I was wondering what's the best option.... using CBR or CQ (or something else). If CQ, what % quality would give relatively good results?

When using CQ I am guessing that you won't know the exact file size until you are finish encoding.

[adam]

Unless your film is very short or the output size doesnt matter to you, cbr really shouldnt be an option.

CQ does 1 pass vbr allocation according to a % of degragation allowable. Any % setting above 60 or so and the quality generally doesnt get much better, while the filesize keeps getting larger so I wouldnt use anything above %65.

Correct it is impossible to predict the filesize with CQ. Also, since CQ works on a quality setting filesizes can vary drastically from one movie to another when using the same settings. CQ is good for speeding up your encoding process because it is only 1 pass. The best mode to encode in is 2-pass vbr. You can predict your filesize accurately meaning you can fill each disk. Also it allocates bitrate much better since its done in 2-passes. 2-pass vbr will take roughly twice as long as CQ mode however.

[poopyhead]

also, as an example...

if u use CBR at a bitrate of 2000, it would be the same as if you use CQ_VBR with a max bitrate of 2000 and CQ of 100. Thus, the point of CQ_VBR is to not set a CQ to a really, really high value, because then it'll basically be the same as if u used CBR at the max bitrate you set for CB_VBR.

[BenzBen]

Hmmm....
I'll give these different methods a try.