no. of passes

[tpham]

Dumb question, but, how does the no. of passes in DVD2VCD improve the quality of the result. I've used Gordian Knot and the no. of passes improves the result because with each pass you change the bit rate etc. to get a better output. I am just curious as to how DVD2VCD will automatically improve my result with each pass. I am asking this question because I am ripping Gladiator at the moment and I've set the no. of passes to 6 (very high) I now know...since it will take more than 40 hours to complete. I am thinking of using just 3 passes next time....your reply / insight / suggestion will be much appreciated....

[markrb]

A search would have revealed the answer in seconds.
You could also have tried to read the CCE manual, easily downloaded from the CCE homepage.

In short VBR gets better with each pass until it reaches it's limit. According to the people at CCE this is somewhere between 3 and 4 passes.
Personally I do 5 passes, but this is only because it doesn't change the impact of encoding to me, since it is done when I wake up regardless of whether it's 3, 4 or 5 passes.
In reality anymore then 4 passes is just wasting time. Some with a critical eye can see a difference between 3 and 4, but I really can't.

Mark