Quick question about CCE

[s0cmbark]

CCE has been working great so far. The method I use is setting up a avs file and notepad and loading it into CCE. I encode the video 1 time thru the "One pass VBR" function and then pass a second time thru the "Multipass VBR" function with all the appropriate settings making sure that my avg. bitrate is high enough to show all green on the Q scale. The results are perfect DVD quality. My question is that it takes about 2.5 hours each pass, so can I skip the first pass and still maintain the quality?

[SLK001]

With CCE, and using VBR, the first pass is the most important, because all it does is create the .VAF file. You can actually make the entire thing a 3 pass VBR setting, then come back to the finished product. To get the correct settings, I always encode about 1 minute of video (fast movement area) and check the results to see if I like the encode settings. Once satisfied, I run the entire encode at night (so that it is done in the morning). With a .VAF file, you can make additional passes that build on the previous as long as you don't change any settings in the Video, GOP or Quality settings (ie, only change the bitrates), so if the resulting file is too big at 4.5Mbps AVG, then re-encode at 4.4Mbps and it is the same as if you made the multiple passes at 4.4Mbps.