SVCD encoding better than DVD - why?

[zx80]

Hello,
I've been experimenting with a variety of different formats... I'm lucky that my DVD player will play VCD, SVCD, DVD, and even mini-DVD. It's a SAMPO 611, I recommend it. At $109 it's a deal. Plays NTSC and PAL too.
Now... I've encoded the same home movie (from Hi8->iMovie->MOV->TMPEnc v2.5), once for SVCD (strict compliance), the other for DVD.
Each is at 720x480, with some cropping (16 pixels on all borders). As I say, same source material.
My results are that the mini-DVD is *much* worse quality than the SVCD... at least IMHO. On the DVD, edges near any kind of motion (whether the camera or subject) exhibit lots of artifacts, blockiness, etc.
Very disappointing. I would have thought with 3x bandwith the "DVD" would be far superior.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
ZX80

[lightsaber]

TMPGenc is not exactly "state of the art". It is very good, surely, but there is no magic solution for encoding: processor power and time. So you must use a better encoder (like CinemaCraft) and if space is a problem, use variable bitrate with no less than 3 passes. 4 is best, 5 is an exageration. Also, the edges have artifacts almost everytime. Take a closer look at a DVD movie edges...

[zx80]

Well.... I have discovered that the problem lies not with TMPGEnc, but rather with iMovie.
If I take my original captured file and export from iMovie, it introduces blockiness.
If I import the DV clip file from iMovie into QT Pro, the blockiness is not present.
Saving that clip as a DV format AVI gives MUCH better results from MPEG encoding...