CCE and "passes" etc - do I need to do more than 1?

[SquareEyes]

Hi

Backed up a few DVDs with the ReMPEG2 method but thought I'd have a crack at CCE. Followed the "get most from CCE" guide. I have a question though. In the guide it says
"For the first time you have to set Video encoding mode to One pass VBR."

I did this and it is merrily encoding away.

So the questions is why do you have to do "one pass VBR". Why would I have to do another pass? Will the quality be fine after the first pass and ready to burn (having been authored)? I see posts saying people are encoding in 2 hours or so. Are they doing just one pass as I am currently doing.

Hope this makes sense.

Square Eyes

BTW Machine is XP2000 and currently encoding at 1.5. File at 1.5GB and 67% complete.

[TomGR]

From what I ve seen around there are 2 schools of cce. The one pass Hi Q and filter school and the 4 passes school. I think all depends on the hi fidelity of your eyes.
Try one pass with a Q set to 5 or something and then try another with 4 passes and higher Q.
Its the only way to find out

[jdobbs]

To get a good quality to size ratio with VBR you need to do at least two passes. In single pass the view window for allocating bits is very small. Changing the Q just gives more priority to quality and makes the output file larger. If size doesn't matter -- that's fine. But when you are trying to limit your output size and get the best quality you can in that space, you need to do more than one pass.

In two or more passes the bit usage can be spread across the entire video. More bits can be allocated from low demand scenes to those that need more bandwidth. The more passes, the better the quality will be up till about 3-4. I recommend the Robshot method for doing a two pass encode.

[SquareEyes]

OK. Thanks for the replies. Perhaps I should have stated that I will be ultimately burning to a DVD-R. So, what I guess I am asking is that if after one pass, the file fits on a DVD-R, am I done? Is there any quality improvement to be made by doing more passes?

Cheers

[jdobbs]

Yes. Definitely. You will typically see the difference in high motion scenes like explosions, chases, rolling water, etc.

[TRILIGHT]

I agree with Jdobbs. Just because it will fit on the DVDR does not mean it is of the best quality. That being said, I've yet to find any source that has required any more than the 2 passes in the Robshot method to come out looking perfect!

[Sepen]

TriLight,

If you can answer this one then. I did Oceans 11 with Rempeg and was able to reduce it to around 4.1 gb. I then tried CCE and got it at 3.1 gb. How can I adjust the size so that it is around 4 to 4.3 gb as I assume the quality would be enhanced?

thanks.,...

[TRILIGHT]

Follow the "Robshot" method. It is explained in the guide on this site titled "Getting the best out of CCE". Basically, once you've gone through the first pass, the program is able to use a video information file that will help it set the bitrate in different areas. When you're asjusting these numbers, it will tell you what your overall final filesize will be.