MainConcept MPEG Encoder - MPEG2 Settings for VHS to DVD?

[Offroad]

Total Newb so I would appreciate any/all help.

Getting setup to capture home movies on VCR to DVD.
Want to do a direct to MPEG2 capture since my editing will be just deleting unwanted scenes.

As recommended by LordSmurf.com I am trying capturing with MainConcept MPEG Encoder and then Authoring with TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Hardware is:

P4 3.0ghz, 512mb PC3500.
160gb-8mb and 40gb-2mb drives, (both 7200rpm)
Leadtek TV2000 Expert.
SB Live Value.

Experimented last night with MC captures and initial results look promising, but I want to make sure I have things optimized.

Basic Settings Are:

Frame Rate-29.970
ColorSpace-RGB24
Output Size-704x480
Deinterlace-Disabled
Bit Rate-5183kbps VBR
Encoder Quality-21

The onboard calculator says this will give (including audio) about 39mb per minute which should let me fit most of my tapes on one DVD.

Questions below.

1. Is 704x480 a good resolution for VHS to DVD or should I lower the res and raise the bitrate. If so what res should I use? (NTSC)

2. If 704x480 is ok, is 5183kbps enough or should I consider putting the tapes on more than one DVD. How much is acceptable?

3. Should I be using VBR or CBR?

4. Is colorspace of RGB24 correct or best? (I think there is a YUV setting)

5. I should leave Deinterlace off?

6. What other settings are important in MC?

7. Is there anywhere I can go for optimized settings for MPEG2 capture with MainConcept? The MC guides here seem to be about conversion from other formats to MPEG not about direct capture.

8. My 1st hardrive is the 160gb-8mb (NTFS) and its faster than the 40gb-2mb (Fat32). Should I capture to the 40gb since it doesn't have the OS on it even though its slower and Fat32?

I like leaving the 40gb as Fat32 since I have some Ghost images there and can boot with a floppy and access them for disaster recovery.


Sorry for so many questions, Thanks for all help.

[masterpug]

hardest part is using filters to reduce the "mosquito" grainy noice that results from vhs captures/conversions...even with a nice source. I don't know the technical reasons why source can look great played back on vhs deck but looks much worse after capturing even at 8000kbits or more which should be basically no visual loss in quality. I just know best way to improve quality is using avisynth filters (frameserving). As always with noise reduction filters, the trade off is crisp/sharpness to soft/blurriness, so you have to experiment and get a happy medium. Mainconcept is excellent, and I use it or CCE for all re-encodes. MC nice because it estimates output file size for you based on your setting, so easy to tweak project sizes. CCE doesn't have that built in, but you can use the simple "CCE Guesser" to do the same, and it's free.