[JPSiemer]

Yes, that's a good idea. I have been guilty of mixing posts on both threads as well.

So then, as I mentioned earlier on this thread, MeGUI never worked for me. VideoFab is easy to use for someone like me. Here are my approximate settings : For a 2 hour movie, bitrate of 2000 yields a file of size 2GB, with 192 kbps for MP3 with 720 x 480 resolution.

VideoFab does not do AC3. It does AAC which my Xbox will not play (why?). Anyways, I looked at the thread on XBMC which suggests not to go over 832 on the width of the resolution. Needless to say if my resolution is larger, I have to drop my bitrate. I have found my settings for resolution and bitrate work best with VideoFab.

I have tried MeGUI and have simply given up. It either stutters, or I get no sound or I get awful picture or it takes gazillion hours!!! Video fab never gets more than 4 hours total on a Dual Core with 1GB of RAM running in Virtual PC, approximately 2 hours per each of the two passes.

Just my 2 cents. Especially if your TV is like 40 inches, maybe people wanna give VideoFab a shot - if you are tech challenged like me and cannot MeGUI to work right.

I think you are mistaken. The Xbox has never been able to handle a 720x480 H.264 video encoded at 2000 Kbps. Open your video in MediaInfo and tell us what it says. Since your encodes only take 4 hours, I am going to assume you are encoding XviD and not H.264. If so, why not use VirtualDubMod or XviD4PSP for your XviD encodes.

Also, I've said this before... you can run into a bunch of problems if your encoding software is running on a virtual machine. The most obvious problem is that virtual machines are essentially emulators, and virtual machine software does not fully emulate every single SSE4 / SSE3 / SSE2 instruction. Also, I don't think VirtualPC emulates more than one core on a Guest OS, so you are technically cutting your encode speeds in half... If you need multi-core support use VMWare. And last, while virtual machines can be used for a wide variety of operations, gaming and video encoding are two that are just not recommended.

If you are looking for a MeGUI replacement that is user friendly, there is always RipBot264 or Handbrake. These programs have been mentioned here several times and provide great video quality. I would recommend RipBot264 as a permanent MeGUI replacement, but it doesn't do OGG or AC3 encoding yet (it does have pass-thru though, so you can keep your original AC3 tracks). And if you are a Mac user, then Handbrake is the way to go. Bottom Line: Stay away from closed-source video encoding programs that you have to pay for such as VideoFab -- they are updated less frequently and are less superior.

Also, the Xbox supports AAC natively, so I'm not sure why you would be having that problem -- make sure you are using T3CH builds. He just released a new build today. Anyways, I actually wouldn't suggest using AAC due to the higher processing power it requires. Instead, stick with AC3, OGG, or MP3 (in that order).