Effect on Video Quality of using WMM

[Zorro_100]

I have a short 30-second MPeg2 video that I ran through SUPER to convert to AVI and pulled into WMM. The only video codec that I've been able to get WMM to recognize out of SUPER so far is huffyv (I couldn't get DIVx, H.264, or XVid to work -- Save As told me it was going to take 10+ hours to save, and the process was just stalling out). I want to play around with the video in WMM and then save as DV-AVI, then convert back to MPeg2 (using SUPER??? I haven't gotten that far yet) so I can ultimately put the video onto DVD.

My questions:

1. Is there an easier way to do what I am describing without purchasing additional software?
2. Given that I do it this way, am I going to start seeing video quality deterioration? Should I be tweaking my settings (choice of format, etc.)?

Let me know if additional info is needed.

I recognize the issues many people have with flip-flopping back and forth between these formats, but this route is going to be necessary for my old home movies that I am going to have to copy onto DVD before even thinking about editing them, and then put them back onto DVD so the family can view them. Right now I am experimenting with a short video to get a feel for what problems I am going to encounter.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Can't SUPER save as DV-AVI?

[guns1inger]

SUPER doesn't seem to save as DV-AVI, but you can load the mpeg2 into virtualdubmpeg2 and output as DV-AVI from there.

Be aware that any effects applied in WMM will be applied internally at a 640 x 480 and will soften the image, so even if you output as DV-avi you will most likely get a much reduced quality. If you just need to do simple editing then virtualdubmpeg2 might be the better option.

If you are going down the video->DVDR->PC->Edit->DVD then I would suggest you look at one of the low cost mpeg editors, such as videoredo or Womble. You won't have anywhere near the quality loss and no conversion issues.