Hi jorel,
The Gold standard for the best picture quality for mpeg-2 is CCE.
The test results from your links are comparing Transcoders with
Encoders and only ShrinkDVD and Tmpgenc. If quality is what
they are comparing, CCE should be in their comparisons. I
like Tmpgenc for low bitrate, low resolution (352X240) encoding.
It's great for mpeg-1, but author is not updating very much.
Until MEncoder becomes more user-friendly with GUI that works, I'll
stick with Tmpgenc. It's slow, but picture is the best. I just wish
CQ file size prediction was more predictable. Some smart KVCD
member will figure out Tmpgenc's CQ encoder and bring it back to
life. I hope this happens soon
-BP