Jeff -- Why the reluctance to try AviSynth? My guide should make things pretty simple (especially for a guy like you!). Just use my "4b" option and write an intermediary AVI file from VDub and plop it in Encore for transcoding.
Downloading and installing AviSynth + plugins may take about 5 mintutes, maximum... follow my steps and you should be up and running.
Once you've got the gist of it, download the advanced script functions I wrote and try that out.
http://invertedhorn.axspace.com/hd2sd.zip
That will probably require about an hour to download/install the required plugins and read the docs in included in the .zip file. This provides huge flexibility and even greater quality. There's room for improvement, of course, and I'll keep it updated as I find better ways.
On my to-do list for hd2sd() :
1.) Provide the option of "plugging in" different deinterlacers into the script. There are two user-created functions out there (MCBob, MVBob) that provide absolutely incredible results. Slow? Oh yeah, but for those who can afford the encoding time... Wow.
2.) Integrated 24p/25p telecine and IVTC conversions
3.) Better (faster?) noise reduction routines
4.) "Adaptive" sharpening (like Unsharp Mask)
5.) Scene change detection to reduce the possibility of deinterlacing artifacts
6.) Inegrated option for low-resolution, progressive, square pixel output (for use in online video, podcasts, etc.)
7.) Speed improvements, as possible (???)
So, you see it is a work in progress but already very useful. The speed is already quite good, unless you use the fancier noise reduction options, sharpening, etc.
... View more