Which JVC M10 transfer option is better?

[nathanaa]

My gf does yoga, and she taped a bunch of yoga shows off of PBS from years back (early 90s). I told her I would try to put them onto DVD for her. She has 3 tapes, each one about 75 to 90 minutes long. So, a single DVD would be about 4 hours long.

I want them to be as high a quality as possible, meaning very viewable. The tapes are first generation, very viewable yet, she has taken very good care of them even though they have been watched/used innumerable times.

My question is this - using my JVC M10, which would be the better way to transfer these (I hope I'm using the terminology correctly) -

Option #1) record each of the three tapes at the F90 setting (a high bitrate?) which would leave me with about 12 gigs of video, author them into one huge video file using TMPGEnc DVD Author, then use DVDRebuilder to shrink it to a DVD5. Reasoning - because the files were recorded at such a relatively high quality they can handle being compressed so much without losing too much quality.

Or

Option #2) record each of the three tapes at the F240 (or similar) setting, which would leave me with about 4-6 gigs of video, author them into one video file using TMPGEnc DVD Author, then (if necessary) use DVDRebuilder to shrink it to a DVD5. Reasoning - because the files were recorded at a lower quality, the small amount of compression that might be necessary will not affect the end quality very much.

Now, I am running on the assumption right now that the DVD end result won't be any worse than the tapes I am starting with. Am I being overly optimistic about this? Or should I really be planning on splitting up the project into multiple DVDs? She want one DVD so she doesn't have to stop in mid-workout to change tapes/discs, you get the idea.

Any advice or opinions appreciate, thanks all!

[Marvingj]

JVC is a good option but from what you are saying a 2 hour mode would give you the greatest benefit. When you go 5,6, & 8 hour no matter what DVD recorder you use it will be CRAPPY!!

[lordsmurf]

I would use 3-hour mode (FR mode, 180 minutes). It's a high bitrate at good res. Yes, even better than 2-hour or 4-hour. Do two discs for "best possible" quality.

But 4-hour mode will not look bad. In fact, still quite excellent. Especially if it's a typical workout video.

It sounds like she has already dictated it needs to be one disc. Just go with it.

[nathanaa]

Thanks Lordsmurf, for the tip about 3-hour mode, I didn't know that. I'll start using that for other tapes I transfer over.

So for this project, FR180/TMPGEncDVDA/DVDRB is the way to go, you would think? I just want to make sure I understand.

Yeah, she's pretty much dictates a lot of things, lol! Good thing I love 'er so much, hee hee.

[lordsmurf]

What is DVDRB for?

FR180. Period.

If you reauthor, rip files to hard drive and re-author with authoring software.

[nathanaa]

Ah, ok then. Thanks for the info, much appreciated! Happy Holidays all!