What's the best encoding method to preserve the quality of the video?

[MrAccident]

I used to use something with the option - "Two pass - average bitrate"; probably MPEG-2; now it seems that the quality really drops.
What is important to me: the quality has to be the closest to the original; Preferably the smallest file size.
Thanks.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

some more info: Guide to encoding types

[nobody:nobody]

I used to use something with the option - "Two pass - average bitrate"; probably MPEG-2; now it seems that the quality really drops.
What is important to me: the quality has to be the closest to the original; Preferably the smallest file size.
Thanks.

i think 2pass needed for streaming only.

[styrol]

i think 2pass needed for streaming only.

Certainly not.

[nobody:nobody]

2pass is good for constant bitrate. Do you know any reson why needed constant bitrate for reading the file locally?

[macduke]

2pass is good for constant bitrate. Do you know any reson why needed constant bitrate for reading the file locally?

2pass is useless for constant bitrate: why need it?
2pass is necessary for average bitrate.

[Requiem]

MPEG4(xvid4) with Constant Quantiser at 2. That's what I'd do.

[MrAccident]

Alright thank you.

[WishIKnewMore]

First post. Hopefully, I'm contributing something before asking for help with my issue...

Are you using Mpeg-2 because you want to create a file playable on most DVD players? If you are NOT constrained by DVD player use, there are much better formats and codecs for encoding video files. If you want to play files on a specific DVD player, some of them will support Div-X, which will yield better quality with much smaller file size than mpeg-2.

Normally, usage or application drives the solution. I don't mean to sound nit picky. If we assume you have a constraint you do not have, there are a whole host of better solutions not being discussed.

[MrAccident]

Well, you've resurrected this thread; which I guess is good. I mean - Jesus use to do things like that. ;-)

The question is - what is\are the best method in Avidemuxe?
I took Requiem's advice - "MPEG4(xvid4) with Constant Quantiser at 2". Do you know something better?

Thanks.

[AQUAR]

I think you need to provide some information on the capabilities of your media player.
Eg if it plays AVC then encode with an advanced video compressor.
H264 (MPEG-4 AVC) will give better quality per unit file size than H263 (MPEG-4 XVID).

[MrAccident]

OK, thanks.