Encoding Problems

[Yaemish]

I have been re-encoding some of my 600+ MB divx movies only to find that I can't get them much smaller than 124 mb. I have been using 320x176 and rotating it so it fits the full screen. I have also been using a bitrate of 175kbps. The quality still isn't that great and the file size is large. If I did "precise" instead of "bicubic" and are there any other filters I should use to make the image quality better? How low should I got with the bitrate? Thanks

[James S]

What bitrate are you using for the audio? Make sure it's below 96kbps, I usually use 64kbps. That will make the movie play smoother and lower the file size, with little reduction in sound quality.

[Yaemish]

My audio is down at 31kbps, I switched it to 8 bit mono, any other suggestions as to shrinking the size? And how do I make it clearer?

[James S]

raise the bitrate, use the sharpen filter.