I am new to MPEG encoding, but I am trying to figure out the basics and what will work best for a given situation. I encoded the same AVI file using the default VCD settings on both TMPGENC (ver 2.53) and Main Concept's MPEG encoder (ver 1.2).

The resulting files were almost identical in size, but the bit rate viewer shows different average quantization levels and bit rates.

TMPGENC:
avg bit rate = 1086
peak bit rate = 1234
avg quantization = 3.14
peak quantization = 8.21

MC:
avg bit rate = 1087
peak bit rate = 1200
avg quantization = 4.21
peak quantization = 11.11

Do the average/peak quantization numbers imply that TMPGENC had lower compression, therefore better quality?

Is the difference small enough to ignore? If so, how much difference in value would make a noticable difference in video quality?

Visually I cannot really see any difference in the resulting MPEG files. Should I be satisfied with either result? Is there anything else I can do to improve quality while staying within the standard VCD parameters?

I appreciate your comments!

-Jeff