basically, that is my question. I imagine tmpgenc for encoding. I unfortunately can`t do any tests for a while, so I figured I`d just ask around for now. thanks!
TMPGenc is extremaly good for movie --> mpeg-1 (too slow, for movie -> mpeg-2). I never tested WinAVI, instead. For movie -> mpeg-2 , CCE (+ VirtualDub in frameserving mode to resize + DGPulldown for NTSC <-> PAL) is among the best ones, but CCE extremaly expensive, I don't know if you want to try some free softwre, only. But if you cannot do tests for a while, wait a while before learning/buying anything.