hello,

i have a question. under the motion search percision in the mpeg settings window, they have number options. such as high quality and low quality. my question is what is motion estimate search? the wizard automaticaly used that when i was testing it out but i've done high quality usually. which would be better for movies?

The higher the quality setting the further ahead in the file the encoder will search before allocating the bitrate. This lets the encoder decide better where to use the bitrate in the next frame.

If you choose Motion estimate search the encoder will predict what the next scene will be like in the next frame by using the information from previous frames and will allocate the bitate accordingly.
This is used to speed things up, but depending on the type of movie could either give you a worse or better result regarding the speed.
It all depends on how the scenes change from one frame to the next.

In my experience Normal has always been better than Motion estimate.
Higher is slightly better than Normal, but hardly worth it considering the extra time involved.
Highest doesn't give any marked increase ,if any, in quality and regarding the time it would take to encode a movie there really isn't any point.

ASHY