[MEncoder-users] B-frames and GOP with MPEG-2 for DVD

[Nico Sabbi]

Nicolas Hesler wrote:
> Nico Sabbi wrote:
> 
>>Nicolas Hesler wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>>Really??? Good to know.
>>>
>>>So, get rid of the vb_strategy thing too? This doesn't affect the GOP on 
>>>2pass without B frames right?
>>>
>>>    
>>
>>vb_strategy affects only the placement of b-frames, and it's damn slow too
>>_______________________________________________
>>  
> 
> So why have a b frames option in the first place, if it only degrades 
> the quality?  For smaller encodes? 

supposedly for encodes targeting a low bitrate, but even in cases like 
that I've only seen overall image degradation with b-frames, both with 
lavc and with xvid, at any bitrate

> So as a rule, never use B-Frames unless you're concerned with space?

I never use b-frames _at_all_ , although with x264 b-frames maybe 
aren't so harmful (or maybe they are even beneficial, but I never 
tested the encoder extensively to say for sure)