For what's its worth, I prefer VisualHub for when I'm converting avi files to iPod videos to watch on a TV when I'm away in hotels on business.

Don't get me wrong Handbrake is a great program, however the audio output is far too low for my liking. Watching on the iPod was Ok but on testing a conversion at home, I found myself having to turn up my amp practically to full. This improved the level but not exactly to home cinema standards with the sound not been entirely dynamic.

After trawling through the web and Handbrake's forum for a solution to the low audio output issue(and before you say it- no turning up the DRC doesn't work) I saw saw a couple of mentions for VH and its function that allows you increase the audio.

This function works a treat, allowing you to increase the volume up to three fold with no loss in quality i.e. distortion. The picture quality difference between VH and Handbrake is negligible (Handbrake shades it by a whisker) so until Handbrake rectifies it's audio issue I will be using VH for foreseeable future for all my iPod video needs. For the rest of my encoding needs I'll probably stick with Handbrake because, as I mentioned earlier, it possibly the best video encoder for the Mac (audio issue aside).