Problems increasing VCD bitrate

Hey all, I've been lurking here for a while and I want to first thank everyone who participates here. Also a huge thanks to DVD2SVCD. The problem. When I increase the bitrate from the standard 1150kbps to something higher (eg. 1500kbps) everything goes fine until bbmpeg does the multiplexing and then I get a whole spew of errors. When I play the file back it plays all choppy. I am using the VCD-Settings.ini provided with DVD2SVCD and then just tweaking the bitrate to 1500kbps. Now I am smart enough to figure out that bbmpeg is not expecting 1500kbps, but what do I have to do to end up with a file that is VCD compliant in every way except the bitrate is out of spec? I know this is easy to do in TMPGEnc, but I just don't have the patience to wait for that app. Any pointers would be appreciated. And any tips on how to acheive best VCD quality with DVD2SVCD would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks in advance, Paul

Hi luap, in this case you have to raise the "Forced mux rate" or set it to "0" to let bbMPEG automatically decide which one to choose. And you have to first load the "VCD-settings.ini" under "Misc." tab to get a VCD that is completely to the specs. You'll find it in the DVD2SVCD directory on your hard drive. Hope this helps, Gerti

Hey Gerti, Thanks for your reply. I knew about the VCD-Settings.ini but the mux rate was a mystery to me. I tried what you said and it worked. Thanks again. P.S. Oh, and thanks for your great coverage here on resizing and converting aspect ratios for SVCD from avi source files. I have made a spreadsheet from your formula that automatically calculates the correct target SVCD resolution (nearest multiple of 4) from the avi resolution and also provides border sizes and a TV overscan option. I wonder if anyone would be interested in it? Thanks again, Cheers, Paul