[MPlayer-users] suggestion

[Adam Nielsen]

> Yes but the first (audio) pass is about 15 mn long for a 2 hours files.
> If you try your 2-pass method (more than 3 hours four a 2 hours files) 3 
> times you save about 5h45 (3*3h -1*3h -0h45).

Oh yes, it certainly takes a long time this way, but I have plenty of time ;-)  
I leave them going overnight so they've finished in the morning.  It's not 
the time I'm worried about so much, I just don't like the fact that basically 
I have to guess the bitrate.

> What matroska has so special, and why do you use Vorbis ?

I use Vorbis because it's *much* better quality than MP3, it has a smaller 
file size (so you can use a higher video bitrate) and of course it's open 
source.  For example, a Vorbis file averaging at 128kbps sounds identical to 
a 320kbps MP3 (and it's less than half the size!)

Matroska is good because it's a lot more versatile than AVI, and because 
Vorbis is variable bitrate it doesn't work quite as well with AVI.  Matroska 
is designed to hold MPEG-4 and Vorbis (as well as many other codecs) so the 
MPEG-4+Vorbis combination works very nicely with it.  The tools are also very 
mature, so it's no trouble doing things like joining/splitting files, 
adjusting A/V sync, etc.  You can also include subtitles along with the audio 
and video tracks, just like DVD subtitles.

Unless you have a compelling reason to stay with AVI, you should really look 
at an alternative and Matroska is definitely worth trying.

Cheers,
Adam.