I'm sorry for this nub question but really would like to know which is the best of the following:

Mainconcept
Lingos
CCE

Quality takes precedence over speed. I'd do VCD's mostly. Some times SVCD but never DVD. Sometimes I need to do high quality clips for PC that would be projected onto a 6 feet screen.

Sorry again for the thread prolifiration but I do feel many nub's would benefit.

Cindy, of the ones you mention, Mainconcept (mce) is the one I would choose. Its very fast, and makes good quality vcd.

I don't know anything about your source, but hopefully its very high bitrate MPEG2 or AVI source.

Procoder does as good as mce, but no better according to my eyes, and its slower and much more expensive.

TMPGEnc is one you didn't mention, and it does a fair job as long as the source is good, and its not very expensive...still free for vcd work I think.

CCE I don't use much, but it doesn't have a good rep with VCD. It seems to be consider among the best with MPEG2 though. MCE is my vote.

mark