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  1. I have a straight forward, but important question:

    Let's say my camcorder outputs to mpg 2 at 8mb bitrate.

    I capture the footage, add transitions and tweak colors
    and then render right back to mpg 2 with the same bit rate.

    Have I lost any quality?

    Thank you for your answers.
    Last edited by R Man; 17th Nov 2011 at 13:26. Reason: Typo
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  2. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    Yes. You would have to encode at a higher bitrate to have close to the same quality. Most all codecs are lossy and the quality deteriorates when re-encoding. Some codecs are lossless, like HuffyUV or Lagarith. But the files are huge.

    But try a short encode with representative clip from your video. Use the same bitrate and judge for yourself. The quality loss may not be that noticeable.

    And welcome to our forums.
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  3. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Excellent response redwudz

    My add is if this MPeg2 video is 8 bit standard def, then the recode loss may be worth it if the levels were way off. Save the original file for future technology.
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  4. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by R Man View Post
    I have a straight forward, but important question:
    I would say any loss would be theoretical, not visible. Mpeg2 has very light compression, and is not considered a compressed format like WMV or H.264.

    But the policy wonks are going to bang me over the head anyway.

    So like RedBudz said, make a copy and try to judge for yourself.

    Oops, I guess "RedBudz" was a freudian slip. I meant RedWudz,sorry.
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  5. Member edDV's Avatar
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    MPeg2 is light to heavy compressed. Re-encode has loss. Judge for yourself.
    Last edited by edDV; 17th Nov 2011 at 23:21.
    Recommends: Kiva.org - Loans that change lives.
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  6. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by edDV View Post
    MPeg2 is light to heavy compressed. Re-encode has loss. Judge for yourself.
    Whew, you're strict tonight.
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  7. Thank you for your responses!
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  8. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by R Man View Post
    Thank you for your responses!
    The export format depends mainly on how the video will be distributed. Typical is DVD. With 8000 Kbps SD in, I'd rather go to 9500-9800 Kbps out (aka DVD one hour mode) for less re-encode loss.
    Recommends: Kiva.org - Loans that change lives.
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  9. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    You know, the thing is, the color editing you did could have caused a loss in quality too. Are you an expert colorist? Hahaha, no doubt you're broken all the rules there too.

    So if you do a no-no, but nobody notices, did it really happen? Or was that your "intent"? Nobody knows.
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