Best quality settings for Xvid Encoding

[Shibblet]

What are the best quality settings for Xvid Encoding? I am backing up DVD's to Xvid for use on a Media Server.

Now, I do know that Xvid aspect ratio has to be 16:9 accurate in order to play back without adjustment. So I am encoding at the best resolution that I can, which is 712x400.

Size is not usually a problem, so I could throw down quantizer of 1 and go from there. But there are some other settings in Xvid that I am not quite sure about... i.e. the difference between H.263 and MPEG.

What do you usually use to get the best image quality for playback? (Aside from the quantizer and file size)

[jagabo]

Now, I do know that Xvid aspect ratio has to be 16:9 accurate in order to play back without adjustment. So I am encoding at the best resolution that I can, which is 712x400.

Xvid has a Display Aspect Ratio setting. If your player supports it you can leave your frame size at 720x480 or 720x576 and use the Xvid DAR setting.

Size is not usually a problem, so I could throw down quantizer of 1 and go from there. But there are some other settings in Xvid that I am not quite sure about... i.e. the difference between H.263 and MPEG.

The MPEG matrix is a little sharper, h.263 a little softer.

There wouldn't be much point in a contant quantizer encoding with a quantizer of 1. Yes, that would be the highest quality but the file size will be about the same size as the DVD source. Might as well just leave them as MPG or VOB.

What do you usually use to get the best image quality for playback? (Aside from the quantizer and file size)

I find target quantizer mode with a quantizer of 3 to be a good comprimise of quality and file size. If you examine enlarge still frames you'll see a little macroblocking but it won't be noticable at normal playback speeds. Disable b frames to improve quality a little further (and make bigger files). The main reason b frames are smaller is because they use a larger quantizer.