MPEG encoder?

[agentsteel53]

anyone know of a good free, or cheap MPEG encoder?  I'm looking for the highest possible quality, with size being only a minor consideration.  (i.e. I'll be happy with 2-3 gigabytes per hour, which is DVD quality) 

also, conversion time is not a problem - I can let it run all night, and I have a fast computer.

MPEG-1 is fine, since it can give similar quality just take up more space.  If someone suggests something MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 then that is fine by me, too.

right now I'm using a 2002 version of TMPGEnc, which seems quite adequate for the task, but I'm quite sure something better has come out in the last eight years.