CCE First Pass Settings

[quantum]

Following the "Getting the best out of CCE" guide, I'm wondering does it make any difference what settings are used in the first pass? It seems the reason for the first pass is to create the VAF (video information file). This is used in the second pass, where you specify the important settings, such as average bit rate.

Are there any settings for the first pass to get it done as quickly as possible and still create the required VAF file for the second pass?

[Justinus]

I'm wondering does it make any difference what settings are used in the first pass?1. What I know so far that whatever aspect ratio you set before creating a vaf file, you can't change it later even though you try to select different ratio later on.
2. Advance Setting will provide you slightly information (avg bitrate and q factor) when you set different min, max and avg bitrate in the first pass.
Are there any settings for the first pass to get it done as quickly as possible and still create the required VAF file for the second pass?IMHO...no :(

[ByronE]

The lower you set the Q, the better the initial quality will be, as well as it having a larger file size, and it may even take longer to encode. I usually skip past the 2 pass for longer movies to save time, and have come to a good point of being able to guess where to set the Q the first pass in order to get an acceptable size vs. quality.