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With Windows Media Encoder, you can do one- or two-pass encoding, either with CBR or VBR encoding. (The quality-based VBR encoding mode is one-pass; the bit rate-based and peak bit rate-based VBR encoding modes are two-pass.)
With one-pass encoding, the content passes through the encoder once, and compression is applied as the content is encountered. With two-pass encoding, the content is analyzed during the first pass, and then encoded in the second pass based on the data gathered in the first pass. Two-pass encoding can result in better quality content because the encoder takes its time to find the optimal combination of bit rate, frame rate, buffer size, and image quality based on the scene composition. However, two-pass encoding takes longer because the encoder goes through all of the content twice.
Two-pass encoding is not available in the following situations:
In addition, two-pass encoding is only available with certain codecs. For a list of the codecs that support two-pass encoding, see Feature requirements.
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