[MEncoder-users] NTSC and Questions about quality

[Pete Davis]

The main thing I'm using mencoder for these days is encoding stuff I'm
capturing off of my DirectTV dish.

I'm generally using lavc a bitrate of 1100. The only non-default options in
regards to quality that I have are keyint=30 and mbd=2.

I've been messing around with some other options, such as nr=400, trell,
trell and cbp. But the truth is, I can't see any noticeable difference at
all from these options, even on my computer (which has a much better image
than the TV, of course). Except for some slight blocky pixilation with large
solid colors (especially darker colors), the encodings with mbd=2 are just
about as good as the original broadcast. I suppose that with DVDs, where the
original image quality is so high, these options probably have a bit more of
an impact, but for NTSC stuff, I just can't see it.

Are there options for handling the blocky pixilation? It's not noticeable
enough that I'm willing to sacrifice much in terms of encoding speed to get
rid of it.

I've tested the bitrates down as low as 600 and while that was noticeable,
at around 800, the image quality is almost the same as 1100. I'm trying to
decide if the difference in quality is worth the space savings.

Pete