Still trying to get this one pass vs multipass understanding

[_SPaRX_]

Ok, as i posted before, i used dvd2svcd to backup wifes sex and the city dvds. i used cce one pass vbr with file size set to 710 megs so that i could get all 6 episodes on one dvdr like original. I had max avg at 6000 and min at 300 and max at 6000. well when it was done doign the first 6 episodes, the were all like 450megs. A far cry from my 710. Someone posted saying that was all cce deemed it needed for that particular video. Well if that is the case, if i do a multipass x2 and if fills to 700megs, then isnt it allocating bits where they really arnt needed? i watched the 450 meg files and they looked good to me. Is the added encoding time to do a multipass really going to improve it that much? to encode 30 minute episode in one pass its taking me 40 minutes, 2 pass multi is taking 2 hours. So if its really not going to improve it that much i would rather stick to the faster encoding times.

Also, how will this effect other titles. Like say i wanna back up When We Were soldiers when i get it. If i keep the current settings that i have , 6000 avg max, 300 min, 6000 max and the file comes out to 3.5 gigs, is that all cce deemed it needed. will doing a 2x multipass to get teh extra .7 gigs be really worth the added encoding time?

I hope this all makes sense and that i am getting my point across. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance

sparx

[UltimateDBZ]

The reason that you didn't get the full 700+ mb was because you used 1-pass, and it is very hard to determine the proper bitrates if you only use a 1-pass. It wasn't because CCE "thought" you didn't need bits in certain spaces.

When you are using DVD-Rs, and able to set the bitrate up as high as 6000, there will be little or no gain from doing multipass, other than filling the filesizes to your wishes. Multipass quality gains are found when using more SVCD-common bitrates of 2800-ish.

Personally, since I only have a P4 1.6, I stick with 1-pass as well, and use other things such as Temporal Smooth and Bicubic Resize to get my quality.

Also of note: I believe I remember reading in your previous thread that you set the Q. Factor to 60. It is recommended that you set this value to 5 in order to obtain near-proper filesizes.