[MEncoder-users] to bitrate or not to bitrate

[Uzu Maki]

hello all,

I'm trying to encode a movie 1H40 long right now...
I tried bitrate=850 at first... got a resulting file = 511Mo...
good quality but can do better...

so why not try 1300?
here goes...
nice -n 3 mencoder -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=128 -ovc xvid
-xvidencopts bitrate=1300:pass=2 -vf
pp=lb,crop=708:546:5:14,scale=608:330 dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/hdc
-sid 8 -o "1300.avi"
resulting file? = 511Mo...

bitrate=9000 ???? -> I didn't go the whole way but it looked like 511 too...
what's wrong?

(I know... i don't use proper scale numbers / 16 and everything...
but this can't be the problem... can it?)

thx +++ for your advice.
François