TMPGEnc: Optimal Minimum and Maximum bitrate settings ?
 

I think that this is the reason that I'm getting pops and some strange happenings in the audio track of my movies...but I'm not sure. I've got a Pioneer DVD player and I'm wondering if anyone else is having an issue with the audio track while playing their KVCDs. it's not really noticeable unless you're listening for it (thank god), but there are alot of places where the audio kinda disappears for a fraction of a second, or maybe it just gets quiter, it's not like a literal snap or pop, but i don't know a better word for it. it happened alot more when i had the max bitrate at 2500 and 300. now i'm encoding at 2000 and 600 but i'm still hearing the pops...just not as many. anyone have any ideas? it's happening with my player, because they're not noticeable in the final mpg file when played on the computer, just in the player...

Do the pops happen at random places, or are they on the same spot of the movie everytime? if yes, what kind of scenes are those? Action Scenes or low motion?

random places...random types of scenes i think. i know if i rewind and watch the same scene over again, it normally doesn't pop in the same place again. it's really kinda strange...

My Pioneer DV-343 doesn't like MPEG-1 files unless they're strictly standard VCDs. The audio starts crackling almost immediately.

I simply multiplex as SVCD in bbMPEG and burn as SVCD and everything works fine. The lowest bitrate I've tried is 150, could be that even 64 might work.