[MEncoder-users] The best quality OSS mpeg2 encoder?

[Joe Friedrichsen]

I've started to make films recently using linux and I've been trying to
find the best mpeg2 encoder for making DVD compliant video. After
reading the news groups for a while, I realized this is one of those
never-fully-answered, and always-asked questions. I decided to at least
do some looking around beforehand to help alleviate the eye-rolling.

First, to find the possible encoder candidates. A few months ago, I
thought the main encoding utilities were mjpegtools, ffmpeg, transcode,
and mencoder (please tell me if I missed any leading ones). But reading
more deeply into the matter has raised a few questions for me. Please
clarify things for me if you can.

Transcode
(http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?Building_Transcode) and
more importantly the ffmpeg home page
(http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php) suggest that ffmpeg is built
off of (and I suspect develops...?) libavcodec. libavcodec is also used
by mplayer/mencoder. Given that ffmpeg has been said to have bitrate
problems with mpeg-2 (by transcode:
http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?FFmpeg_Vs._Mpeg2enc), does
that hold true for mencoder? The mplayer docs
(http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html#ffmpeg) say that
mplayer uses ffmpeg's libavcodec (which version?). How intertwined are
these tools?

I found a basic comparison between ffmpeg and mpeg2enc here:
http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?FFmpeg_Vs._Mpeg2enc (and a
more brief description in the newsgroups:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.user/481). Both pages
also suggest that transcode can use either ffmpeg/libavcodec or mpeg2enc
when encoding. Yet, transcode lists neither as a dependency (from what
I've seen)... Does it include its own libraries from these utilities? If
so, which versions?

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the truly 'base' utilities/libraries
are ffmpeg and mpeg2enc, while transcode and mencoder are
front-ends/re-branders/wrappers of sorts. Is this accurate?

Second, evaluate the encoders. The first step here would be research -
look for others' work to avoid rehashing known facts. I've done some
googling and haven't found much quantitative information comparing the
stream quality of streams encoded by mpeg2enc and libavcodec (the
FFmpeg_Vs._Mpeg2enc page offers some good starting information, but I
fear that it's a little old - last edited over a half ago). I found
another site that compares many other encoders, but libavcodec and
mpeg2enc aren't included: http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm .
Do you know any sites that have done any comparisons? What are your
personal experiences with the two?

If comparisons haven't been made, then I should do some. Which are good
video types to test? What content do I want? I like tecoltd.com's choice
of fast motion, edges, and details. What types of video will show how
encoders differ?

Joe