diff --git a/cfg-mencoder.h b/cfg-mencoder.h
index b0fad6ade6..891da64a88 100644
--- a/cfg-mencoder.h
+++ b/cfg-mencoder.h
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ struct config lavcopts_conf[]={
 	{"vcodec", &lavc_param_vcodec, CONF_TYPE_STRING, 0, 0, 0, NULL},
 	{"vbitrate", &lavc_param_vbitrate, CONF_TYPE_INT, CONF_RANGE, 4, 24000000, NULL},
 	{"vhq", &lavc_param_vhq, CONF_TYPE_FLAG, 0, 0, 1, NULL},
+	{"vme", &lavc_param_vme, CONF_TYPE_FLAG, CONF_RANGE, 0, 3, NULL},
 	{"keyint", &lavc_param_keyint, CONF_TYPE_INT, 0, 0, 0, NULL},
 	{NULL, NULL, 0, 0, 0, 0, NULL}
 };
diff --git a/mencoder.c b/mencoder.c
index c989af5f4e..508143cf01 100644
--- a/mencoder.c
+++ b/mencoder.c
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ extern int avcodec_inited;
 char *lavc_param_vcodec = NULL;
 int lavc_param_vbitrate = -1;
 int lavc_param_vhq = 0; /* default is realtime encoding */
+int lavc_param_vme = 3;
 int lavc_param_keyint = -1;
 #endif
 
@@ -905,6 +906,11 @@ case VCODEC_LIBAVCODEC:
     else
 	lavc_venc_context.flags = 0;
 
+    /* motion estimation (0 = none ... 3 = high quality but slow) */
+    /* this is just an extern from libavcodec but it should be in the
+       encoder context - FIXME */
+    motion_estimation_method = lavc_param_vme;
+
 #if 0
     /* fixed qscale :p */
     lavc_venc_context.flags |= CODEC_FLAG_QSCALE;