[mythtv-users] HD3000 and Myth. Please help me understand

[Steve Adeff]

On Thursday 17 November 2005 20:44, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> Donavan Stanley wrote:
> > On 11/17/05, *Chris Trown* <ctrown at safe-mail.net
> > <mailto:ctrown at safe-mail.net>> wrote:
> >
> >           I've read that some people transcode to MPEG4 format.  The
> >     reasons
> >     I've read are better picture and less disk usage.  True?
> >
> >
> > If you're transcoding you're transcoding to MPEG4.  The reason for
> > doing so is space that's it.
>
> Right.  Basically, better picture for any given bitrate (size).
> However, if you transcode a digital broadcast, you will be losing
> quality.  The MPEG-2 used to encode the original is a lossy format, and
> when you decode it and re-encode in MPEG-4, another lossy format, you've
> reduced the quality.  Better than re-encoding to MPEG-4 is buying more
> disks...
>
> Mike

for absolute quality yes, but for basic archival purpose (you know, until 
HD-DVD's finally come out....), transcoding to mpeg4 is quite good, you can 
get a 1hr show onto a CDR if you do it right and get maybe a 5% discernable 
quality loss.

Steve