I've been encoding my dvds to kvcd (704x576) and i just wondering if it is better to increase the bitrate rather than the cq, eg increasing the bitrate max to 3000kps. The cq value would then have to decrease so would this affect the quality.

And....just say that my player can play the normal kvcds (704x576, which it can), and i do increase the bitrate, would this mean my player might not be guranteed to play this modified kvcd?

Hight bitrate enhance quality of action and complex scenes only. Low CQ affects the overall quality of ALL the movie. CQ stands for "Constant Quality". SO a low CQ means a contstant low quality.

Do you prefer to have a picture not perfect in some scenes or to have a uggly picture during all the movie

Other think : 704x576 is too much for a KVCD. Th purpose of KVCD is to put a movie on one CD and with this resolution (and the audio at 224 like you use !) you need 2 or 3 CD for the movie. No benefits.

I usually convert my dvds to kvcd (704x576) onto 2cds as converting to 1 cd, i find that the quality is pretty crappy (2cds - the quality is excellent). If i want them on 1 cd, i usually use the 352-288 template from kwag and also the lbr one if i want to fit a longer movie.

The result are very great on one CD if you use audio at 128Kbs and :

544*576 for a 1h30 movie
480*576 for a 1h45 movie
352*576 for a 2h00 movie
352*288 for a 2h15 movie
352*288lbr for movie longer than 2h15.
(I'm talking about widescreen movies, not fullscreen).

By decent I mean that encoding are done with CQ near or above 70 !