CCE - How many passes for excellent quality

If I remember correctly, a while ago was a debate on the Videohelp forums about this same topic. It was agreed that actually 4 passes would be the most reasonable for encoding. Actually the more passes the better quality but after 4 you really can't tell the improvement. I don't use CCE anymore so can't give you a more educated answer. The programs I use are set at 2 pass and that quality is ok with me on my 46inch Mitsubishi HDTV.

 

dr_no

What encoder do you use? I seem to use them all for one reason or another. I use CCE SP 2.67 (didn't see any benefit to 2.70), Procoder2 for interlaced movies, and HC enocoder if I want to encode and surf the net at the same time. No science, no sense, just preferences. LOL

 

dr_no
I guess we all figure where we want to set the encoders by personal experience and preference. My advice to the novice just starting is to start at 2 passes and work their way up with CCE till there is no difference in quality. Retail Basic is limited to 2 and the SP is the one that will do multiple passes. Work with new releases so that picture quality on the source isn't an issue. The ideal test is to use the same settings and the same source files and only change the number of passes. As you pointed out from VideoHelp's conclusions, it won't take more than one or 2 more encodes to make a decision.

At least VideoHelp isn't suggesting some of those big numbers. As I mentioned before, I'm viewing on a 60 inch screen. I see little to no difference between 2 and 3 passes and see none between 3 and 4. If there is some feature I should be looking for, cue me in as I'd like to know what I'm not seeing.

 

brobear,
That wasn't my opinion, I was just pointing to a debate from Videohelp.

sophocles,
Call me lazy or whatever but these days I just run my files through Nero. Maybe just because of convenience. The quality it gives me is adequate for my needs. I tried before CCE, TMPGEnc, AVS, VSO, Intervideo, WinAvi. I guess it all comes down to personal preference.