More screwing around. Using the converter to make a 288x160 file, I get a lower framerate file that looks choppy. Using mencoder to make a 288x160, I get a high framerate file (same as original) that looks great, even fullscreen. I thought the converter was only supposed to step down framerate ABOVE 288x160. I'll be using mencoder for now. I'm using 288x160 and a video bitrate of 384. Looks pretty good. Would probably look better with 2-pass, but I have yet to figure an easy way to do 2-pass with one command and mencoder. I'm sure it's there, I'm just too lazy to figre it out.