Superguy

I've been dinking around with encoding video using Sracer's tutorial. However, it seems that unless I use anything other than CBR (constant bit rate) the thing skips frames.

Of course, when trying to watch a movie like the Matrix, VBR Peak seems to have its advantages as the screen doesn't get all blocky when an action scene comes. That happens at CBR.

Here's my settings when I encode:

Res is at 320x240 (widescreen)
Avg vid rate: 120K
Peak vid rate: 400K
frames per sec: 24
Audio: 48K mono
Key frame interval: 2 sec
Decoder complexity: simple
Peak buffer size: 30 sec

Windows Media 9 codecs for both audio and video.

Now with these settings, I get about 140MB-160MB for the Matrix, depending on how I tweak the settings. Not bad for a 2 hour movie.

I use 48K sound as anything less seems too "man in the cannish." I've tweaked the buffer thinking that having more of the movie at a time in memory might help. I've also tried ranges in the fps from 20 to 30 and that didn't seem to help either.

Is there a way to see how many fps are actually being displayed while the movie is playing? What could I do to smooth it out.

Also worth noting is that I'm playing this from a 512MB CF card as well.

Another question is if I drop down to 15 fps, will the motion still appear smooth?

Thanks for any help,

Super