Thanks for the reply Ukki, I know you didn't owe an explanation to the board. I understand now, that you primarily use the N8 series and not the N9 series.

That might explain, then, why the encoder labeled N800 is so much more powerful and robust than the one labeled N900? %^) Really, if I had a question or problem, it would be to ask, why does the N900 encoder leave big black bars on the side of the video (i.e. not use all the screen's available space) and make such an inferior encode as compared to the N800 encoder?

Other than that, I will say that the quality of the encode has gotten much better. It's been a while since I used Knots for actual extended viewing, and I do believe that there is a lot less macroblocking going on. That might be because I've been watching relatively static films, though. I'l have to check out an action movie to see how it handles lots of movement, too.