Real Video 1/4 the size of Nero Digital? (mpeg4) (68 MB vs 300!) how???

[slugbug]

I record a lot of shows in mpeg-2 format from my tv tuner card.
Usually, I end up compressing them further using Nero Digital (mpeg-4
variant) I can compress down to about 300 megabytes per hour and still
have very clear video on playback. If I go down to 250, it starts to get
a bit grainy.

Recently, I downloaded a "Smallville Season 5" batch of video files, so
that I could catch the half dozen or so episodes that I had missed.
The size for the entire season was small, only about 1.3 Gigabytes. I
expected these files to be very pixellated, so that I would need to
watch them in a small window.

Instead, I got a huge surprise. Despite each 43 minute episode being
under 70 Megabytes in size, I was able to watch them full screen, and
the image was sharp! I was flabbergasted, to put it mildly.

The files were encoded in realplayer format. I know that realplayer
was designed for small streaming video files, but I didn't think that a
real video file could beat out Nero Digital. (Mpeg 4)

Since this, I have downloaded RealProducer Basic 11. I have been able
to create good quality RealVideo files from avi source, but my tv tuner
card just doesn't do a good job at all of recording avi files. It
seems to do best at mpeg 2. (in fact, because of some strange
phenomenon that I haven't been able to figure out, the timed recording
feature will only work when mpeg 2 is selected, not when avi is
selected)

Anyway, I was wondering how in the world Real can get clear video
compressed down to 1/4 the size of a video file with comparable clarity
in Nero Digital? Anyone have any ideas on this?

Also, I am running into a roadblock on using RealProducer Basic 11 to
convert my mpeg 2 files to Real Video files. The FAQ says it is
possible in this version, but every time I try it, the two windows tell
me that the file is audio only, and it won't convert. Funny thing is,
I CAN take the exact same mpeg 2 file, convert it to AVI, and then
RealProducer will work on it fine. Unfortunately, I can only do this
to a small file, because changing an hour program to avi ends up taking
up most of my HDD. This route is also extremely time consuming, so if
anyone has any idea what I might be doing wrong, I would really
appreciate a hint.

[canadateck]

Might want to Watch what you talk about in regards to Downloading, It's not allowed on This Site.

[celtic_druid]

RV9EHQ tends to blur/remove detail instead of blocking. Perhaps you should try ND AVC instead of MPEG-4? That way you get inloop filtering.

[choirislife923]

you might want to check the frame rate too...using the same codec with the same bitrate, a lower frame rate will often result in clearer files since theres less video to process.