[MEncoder-users] cat /dev/video0 | mencoder - ...

[Bob Tennent]

 >| You don't even specify a bitrate or quality here. The man page lists
 >| the options available.

The man page is virtually incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't already
understand the technical issues. For example: I can see that there is an
x264 option for bitrate. So what should I use? 10, 100, 10000, 10000000?
How should I know? The default is *off*, whatever that means. By looking
at the output, I can see that 1548.19 kb/s is what I get for a test
run. Can I set it lower? How low would be right? Should I spend a week
experimenting with all of the options?

 >| At a bare minimum, you'll want to specify rate control options.

And which options would those be? 

I came here for help, not to be referred to the man page. I've looked
for a comprehensible tutorial but there doesn't seem to be one.