Re: an easier way with Encore & Avid?

That is exactly the process I use with very nice results. It's a very simple process once you get used to it. There is no bypasing Squeeze or some other compressor; you can't do this directly out of AVID.

Before you make the QT refs, if the timeline has many layers and/or effects, you should do a video mixdown. It will speed the entire process considerably. This is not really necessary if your timeline is very simple.

I have tested Procoder, TMPGEnc and Squeeze for MPEG-2 compression and for me, Squeeze not only gave the best looking video but also was the fastest. This is in direct contrast to some tests I did a few years ago. I use the default "Large NTSC" setting, specifying "lower field first" and "unconstrained" image. Before changing to "unconstrained" the 16x9 image displayed incorrectly on my plasma screen.