[mythtv-users] Slightly OT? MPEG-2 Encoding Quality

[Willy Boyd]

On 3/9/07, Greg Kettmann <greg at kettmann.com> wrote:
> One of the side functions of the MythTV box will be to take my old tapes
> (family / camcorder stuff) and convert them to DVD.  There was a thread,
> a week or so ago, discussing software codecs for better quality.  As a
> general rule, are there differences in the MPEG-2 encoders in the cards
> (IE a more premium card gives better output = the 350 over the 150 or
> 250)?  Are there noticeable differences?  How about using a software
> codec versus hardware?
>
> I don't know if it matters but input will be either composite, through a
> VCR (for a few) or S-Video from a Sony DV camcorder (both Hi-8 and DV).

As to your side functions...  Do you know if this DV camcorder of
yours can act as a DV bridge?  My Sony can, and that's what you really
want for importing even the VHS tapes.  I found some quality issues
doing straight mpeg2 encoding...  unless you are positive you'll never
do any editing, I think you'll find much better results importing the
tapes over DV, and then re-encoding in software later.  You'll get a
better picture that way, which is what you want because you're coming
from an already low-quality source.  Of course if the camera won't
take an input and output the DV, I guess this is all a moot point :)

Actually... now that I think about it, maybe your ARE planning to
bridge with the DV camera, and still use the pvr card to encode.
Which probably would be fine... I just put the emphasis on sending the
low quality VHS to the DV capture bridge first because you'll probably
get a better result, but YMMV as always.