This topic is not about HD and as I am not working HD yet, I have not looked into it... but a Google search brings up several of them.

For SD, reading this and other websites, Cinema Craft comes up as the winner (and an "ouch" on the pricetag, $2000), I personally tested Sorenson Squeeze and was pleased with the results (also excellent for encoding for the web - WinMedia, QT, Real, Flash).

That depends. Lars Siden did a test of several MPEG-2 encoders, including Cinema Craft. MainConcept - the encoder used in Premiere Pro and Encore DVD - came out on top.

I have tried Canopus encoder straight out of Premiere and the problem is still there. To answer a previous question I do encode in 5.1 Dolby as I have bought the Surcode rights. Just to clarify, the size of the file doesn’t matter to me as long as my problem is corrected and I receive good quality video. Thanks

Daniel

Yes, it depends
 

Yes Christopher - to quote you - it depends... the test Lars did lacks too many key "ingredients", so it might have brought out MainConcept on top on a certain type of footage, at a certain bitrate. Check out these pages for more complex tests with difficult to encode footage:

http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=235665
http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm

As Lars admits himself, he used default settings... apples to oranges...