Is 2-Pass Encoding better?

[Mark Madness]

This was my first time using 2 pass encoding because I heard it improves the quality. Well I used my Aliens DVD to test this. I ripped the ifo and vob files with no problem. I ran a first pass using DivX 5.0.2 in FlaskMPEG. No problems there either. However, after I completed the second pass, I watched the movie and saw that the opening credits were extremely blocky. I assumed this was because the opening credits occur on a black background and so it was assumed that less bits were to be used with that part of the movie because the rest looked ok. Am I doing this wrong or is there some way to fix this?

[khp]

Did you encoding the same movie using the same settings in one pass mode ?, if you didn't you haven't really done a fair comparison.

[xviddivxoggmp3]

psychovisual enhancement

psychovisual enhancement will reduce the amount of blockage.

[Mark Madness]

yes I used the same settings

[Mark Madness]

hmmm interesting, I tried again using the XviD codec with same bitrate and quantizer settings and the problem is gone. I guess I will use XviD from now on.