Main concept Encoder - Bit Rate

[robomonkey]

I've been using TMPGEnc for all my avi to SVCD conversions but read on here that MCE encodes at 1:1, (man what a god send) with that in mind I thought I'd try the demo out.

Sure enough it's quick, the only thing I'm unsure of is the file size, TMPGEnc allowed you to adjust your average VBR rate to suit the file size you want. I typically want a size of 915Mb.

How do I achieve this and also get the highest average bitrate possible.

[sodium]

MC have also a VBR option with maximum, minimun and average bitrate. i tried yesterday to encode an avi file and it ended with the desirable file size. it have also an option to split the encoded file directly, only typing how many Mbytes you want per split file.
the only cons is that it not keep aspect ratio of input file. it always encode at fullscreen, and frameserving from virtualdub to add black borders to keep the aspect, it results in a green image encoded file.

[SaSi]

Regarding aspect ratio, I just found out how MCE handles that.

If you have a DVD movie that has a 16:9 aspect ratio, go to "Details" --> "Advanced" and choose 16:9. Most DVD authoring programs respect this and so do DVD players.

[sodium]

i have no tried a dvd movie yet with MC, but with divx files no luck. always full screen with 4:3, 16:9 and 2.21:1.
in tmpgenc i have no problems with aspect ratios, "keep aspect ratio" does the trick perfectly. tmpgenc add 2 black borders to top and bottom and voila!