[MPlayer-users] Looking for a FAQ on using mencoder to create high quality mpeg files

[John Dickinson]

Thanks for the link to the docs but I am still struggling to get a
high-quality mpeg and rotated avi that works in older windows media
players (v7-8).

I have two principal concerns: 
1) can it play on older dvdplayers (default standard was mpeg2 wasn't it?)
2) Quality of result.  

Currently I want to convert about ~50MB of what looks like good
quality 30fps 640x480 motion jpeg avi movies to mpeg for the
grandparents (no computer but they have an older dvd player).  Size is
obviously not the issue here.  It could double and not matter.

For the other relatives with the computers (mostly older - not XP)
I'll give them the avi files direct but I do need to rotate a couple
90 degrees and would like to do it without much loss of quality.

If I can't play the converted file on my machine using windows media
player 8 then they are unlikely to be able to either.

I have found the place for the mencoder mailing list so I will join it
and move this question there.

Thanks for the help
John