mpeg2mpeg via avisynthamp;cce gives strangely low bitrates project, original, version, average, between

andy

Situation:

encoding a DVD-compliant (720x480) mpeg2 from an SVCD source using avisynth (resize to 720x640, crop 80 from top and bottom to get correct aspect for anamorphic playback). Avisynth sources a DVD2AVI project file, CCE sources avisynth. CCE doing one-pass VBR with bitrate of 0 to 9800 (as suggested by the guide).

Avisynth version: 2.08 (using mpeg2dec dll)
CCE version: 2.66 trial

Problem:

Bitrate in original mpeg vares between ~1500 and ~3000 Mbps, average approx. 2500. While reencoding to mpeg2 the average bitrate becomes 1700Mbps, with a great loss of image quality obviously. If encoding using default settings in CCE (CBR etc) the file grows huge, so at a guess I'd say that avisynth is not stripping anything out.

Question:

Does anyone have a suggestion why this would be so? I am new to CCE so there is probably an option I've overlooked or set incorrectly, but in my mind the bitrate range I set while reencoding ought to ensure that I get at least as high bitrate as the original, and I am certainly not interested in reducing the movie size any further than it already is since I'm encoding for DVDR and not CDR.