3 hour Video to 1 DVD - Best way for quality?

[WoB]

Hi
I've recently been archiving off a load of video's to various DVD's. I use my DVD set top recorder (connected to the video via scart). I usually record to DVD-RW and then edit on my PC (remove ad's etc.) and author to DVD-R. Up to now most of the stuff I have transferred has been quite short so they've been fine for SP quality which is around 2 hours worth of footage. Now, I believe to have wide-screen recording SP is the minimum quality? I've got a Sony-GX3 recorder if that makes any difference?
I haven't tried the LP setting for 3 hours which I believe will be good enough for video transfer anyway (but not sure what it loses - i.e. widescreen?). I don't know technically what video is recorded at (is there widescreen in video recording?).

Right the dilemma/questions I have is... If I want to record 3 hours of video onto 1 DVD-R and have the best results which of these is recommended:

1) Transfer 3 hours of video over to the DVD-RW but set the DVD settings to LP - so the footage is captured at LP resolution etc.

2) Transfer 3 hours of video split over 2 DVD-RW's. Do the editing etc. but then use something like DVD Shrink to transcode the footage down to fit onto 1 DVD-R?

This is not a technical question on how to do it. Just what, in your opinion, would yield the best results quality wise?

Thanks
WoB

[yoda313]

Hello,

Well use the way your're more comfortable with.

Using LP will lower the quality on its own obviously but so will compressing with dvdshrink.

If the LP mode will fit it all one disc that would be probably the best because you wouldn't have to convert it anymore. The more times you mess with video you introduce more compression. The less you touch it the better

Kevin

[WoB]

Hi Kevin

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I realise it's best to avoid re-encoding etc. but I'm thinking mainly more on the loss of widescreen. Maybe I should have phrased the question(s) differently:

If I record in LP play mode will I be losing the widescreen whereas if I record in SP and transcode the size down I will have widescreen still. And will the quality be comparable?

I just don't know enough about the Sony GX3 or video recording to know.

Thanks
WoB