Predicting file size with CCE 2.64 in VBR

[emistral]

I have been using CCE for the last 2 weeks in CBR mode since I thought that in CBR mode I could predict the file size.
What I was doing was using Rempeg to get the average bitrate and length of the movie and using on of the guide on this site, I could calculate the final bitrate in Rempeg which will give me a file that would fit on the DVD.
Then I use this new bitrate in CCE in CBR mode to reencode the movie
Reading all these threads about CCE, it looks like that multipass VBR gives much better results.
So I'd like to give it a try but my only concern is the final size of the m2v file when using multipass vbr
Does anybody know how to predict the final size and then what parameters to adjust to modify this size ?

Any help is welcome

[fasttimes]

What you need is a bitrate calculator. I happen to like mine the best (grin) because of a few nice features, like being able to take into account multi vidoe and audio tracks at different bitrates, and it takes into account muxing and file system overhead.

It comes in both an Excel 95, and OpenOffice 1.0 formats. You can get it by downloading from
http://www.fasttimesatridgemonthigh.org/vidcap/files/BitrateCalc.zip
If you don't have Excel, you can download the FREE OpenOffice Suite,
from http://www.openoffice.org which includes the Excel-compatible
"Calc" spreadsheet program.

Now. Just enter the the length and audio bitrates for all your different tracks (if more than one.) Then you can play around with different video bitrates, and see how high you can go, without going over.

Once you find the bitrates(s) you want to use, just do a CBR encode at that bitrate.

Once you have done that, then switch to multi-pass VBR mode, click on the "bit alocation" button, and adjust the average bitrate utill the filsize <= to what the bitrate calculator says it sould be.

Then run the multi-pass encode, and check the final file size (it should never go over.)