Quick and hopefully easy TMPG question

[mikef07]

I am using TMPGEnc to rip and encode DVD. I notice that when I rip and encode to backup a movie the final product is about 2.7GB. I would like it to end up around 4.0GB. When I go to settings under TMPG and then under the Video tab I set my "Rate Control Mode" to "Automatic VBR(CQ_VBR). once i do this it greys out the "BItrate" underneath it, but I can still see the number 1150kbits/sec. Here is the question.

Should I change it to around 3000 kbits/sec before I change the "Rate Control Mode" so that when it is greyed out it reads 3000? Will this make my movies a little larger and therefore better quality?

One other thing. I noticed that I can click "Setting" button after changing it to "Automatic VBR" It has a maximum bitrate and minimum bitrate and a check box for "Enable Padding to not go lower than minimum bitrate" Should I change these settings what should I change them to?

Let's say the Bitrate calculator says my AVG. Bitrate can be 4700.

[Donny661]

that number that is greyed out isn't used anymore and changing it before you switch to anything other than cbr will make no difference.

If you want to get the most out of your encodes use a bitrate calculator to calculate your average bitrate for 2pass vbr. That will give you the best filesize predition.

When you are encoding with cq_vbr make sure you set up the max/min/quality by pressing the settings button by rate control mode. for a dvd set your max to around 9000 because the max bitrate allowed for a dvd is 9800 (audio/video/subs/etc. all added together). If your filesizes are coming out too small you should move the slider closer to 100 and vice-versa if they're too big.

[mikef07]

Ok so that slider starts out at 50.

Now when I use ReMpeg I notice that slider usually ends up being anywhere from 75-85%. Would you recommend about the same settings when it comes to that slider??

[hwoodwar]

The Bitrate is greyed out because it does not apply when you use CQ_VBR. That bitrate field is for a constant bitrate. If you want to use CQ_VBR set the quality setting to highest (100 percent) and then since your bitrate calculator came up with 4700 then set min and max bitrate the same increment lower and higher than the average. Maybe something like min 3200, max 5900. I'm guessing on these numbers as I don't encode DVD (I encode, VCD, CVD and SVCD.) Someone else, may have some better, more specific numbers for you.

If you have "Enable Padding to not go lower than minimum bitrate" then every scene, even if it doesn't need it will encode at, at least the minimum bitrate. I would suggest you uncheck this. If you do not uncheck enable padding, then if you have a lot of "dark" or "fast-action" scenes in a movie lower the min. This allows for the "lighter", "slower" scenes that don't need it, to use even a lower bitrate and will allow for some extra room for the "dark" or "fast-action" scenes (which need higher bitrates to maintain quality.)

[Bondiablo]

Use the Project Wizard and VBR, uncheck the auto setting, set the average bitrate to whatever it needs to be to give the size you want then set the 2 pass VBR to 8000 maximum, 0 or 1 minimum and uncheck the box for padding.