question about resolution

[scrillah]

Can I use any resolution that is divisible by 16 and if I use a higher resolution with the same bitrate will it make a difference?

I currently use standard vcd res. with a 1800 VBR. THey look pretty good, but I want better. My GE 1101 doesn't seem to like 2000 VBR (slows down, speeds up) so what resolution do you recommend? 480x480 makes file too big. Oh yeah, I'm ripping from DVD. Thanks in advance for the help.

[adam]

You can use whatever resolution that your player will accept but if you go outside of a standard then your chances of it playing correctly decrease.
If you increase your resolution and keep the bitrate the same then you will have less bits per pixel which means the quality will be lower but with higher resolutions you get the appearance of a sharper picture. Its an age old debate, which tradeoff is better.

If your player only handles up to 1800kbits then simply encode a test clip in several resolutions and see which looks the best to you.

If your using mpeg1 I recommend using 352x240 and if your using mpeg2 I recommend using either 352x480 or 480x480. All of these resolutions will conform to a standard playable on all svcd compatible dvd players.

Btw, resolution has no effect on filesize. Filesize is determined solely by the # of bits per sec multiplied by the total number of seconds.