VHS to VCD or SVCD - What is different?

[Massa]

I'd like to know if there is any difference if I use VCD or SVCD to edit home made VHS tapes.
I imagine that being the source video worse than both VCD and SVCD , there would be no difference in using one or another.
Please, if anybody can help me....
Regards

[stanwebber]

vhs resolution is in the neighborhood of 200x480 or likely less for homemade stuff. do the math: vcd will throw out a single field or half your picture. try xsvcd at 352x480 to capture all the picture information while not squandering bitrate on redundant detail

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: stanwebber on 2001-11-05 12:23:12 ]</font>

[mmitchell_houston]

stanwebber is correct, if archiving and quality are your main concerns. However, you should also consider what your other considerations are. Do you plan to give these discs to friends and family? If so, then ask them what type of DVD players they have and check them out against the DVD Players Compatibility List (see menu to left) and see what formats they support. If you have 10 people on your list and VCD is the only common format they support, then you might want to consider authoring in VCD mode. Likewise, if you have 70 minutes of footage that you want to get onto one disc, VCD may be the best option. Or, if you only need 40 minutes and want higher quality, SVCD may be a better option.

Check things out before you commit. Remember, though, always work at the highest quality to begin with. You can always strip out the quality later if you have to.