MPEG Ripping
 

Hey just wondered if anyone in here is ripping MPEGs from other formats like AVI or MOV and what software you are using to compress. I'm just starting to get a bunch of vid work in and I'm not getting the things crunched near enough.

Try TMPGenc. Gives you the best quality and it is free for MPG 1 and cheap for MPG 2

Thanks. Just picked it up. Any special settings for optimum compression/quality balance or should I just play?

It all depends how much movement and light you got in the movie. If you have good lighting (little noise) and the movement is not all over the movie frame try to decrease the bit rate to 500 and see how you like it. I have done MPG1 as low as 300 constant bit rate and got decent and very small MPG's.