dvd recorder bitrate vs. Dvdshrink

[spiritgumm]

I'm sure this has been asked alot before, but I didn't see it recently.
When recording from vhs-to-dvd (vcr-to-dvd recorder), is it better to use the best mode (like XP 1-hour mode), and then edit out commercials and shrink on the computer? Or is it better to do most of the editing with the dvd recorder set to the closest mode (like SP for a 90 min. movie)? Fyi I'm using a dvd recorder without a harddrive.

[lordsmurf]

Shrinking is not encoding. Capturing high and shrinking will yield much lower quality. "Shrinking" is a quick transcoding, where data is fairly arbitrarily eliminated without total analysis of the source. It will never look as good as properly encoding from the start.

[smitbret]

I'm sure this has been asked alot before, but I didn't see it recently.
When recording from vhs-to-dvd (vcr-to-dvd recorder), is it better to use the best mode (like XP 1-hour mode), and then edit out commercials and shrink on the computer? Or is it better to do most of the editing with the dvd recorder set to the closest mode (like SP for a 90 min. movie)? Fyi I'm using a dvd recorder without a harddrive.

I don't think I understand, but it seems like what you are asking is whether or not it is better to remove the commecials and unnecessary material in the dubbing process or is it better to remove it on your PC? For that, I don't think you can get a straight answer unless we know just how much we are putting on a DVD before you edit on the computer. If it is just 60 or 90 minutes, the easiest thing to do would be just dub it straight across and edit entirely on the PC. How much bitrate are we talking about from the untouched footage? How long is it? More information would be helpful..... that is unless I am completely misunderstanding the question.
-Brett

[Cornucopia]

The goal of quality preservation expects you to encode as little generations as possible. If you can "edit" out commercials, cutting on I-frames, then it makes sense to have the bitrate already match what it should have been had you encoded only the desired length of video. Then you won't have to re-encode at all.
However, do you know how much commercials are going to be in your capture?

For example, if you know you want a 2Hour-long TV show burned to a disc:

120 min. on 4.37GB = ~5000kbps V+A average bitrate

If your commercials are 20 minutes of that capture, your actual desired length is going to be 100min., which would fit on a 4.37GB disc at ~6100kbps avg. bitrate.

If you captured at that rate, but found your commercials to be only 12 minutes total, you'd have to SHRINK (transcode) or Re-encode to be able to fit on the disc. (Try to avoid this).

Scott

[edDV]

In the USA, a good estimate for program length after commercial removal is

half hour show ~ 20-22min
hour show ~ 40-44 min

[bendixG15]

And then there is PBS .... during the "money raising" period.

(you never know how long the program time is going to be
.... at least the way they do it in Boston)

[edDV]

And then there is PBS .... during the "money raising" period.

(you never know how long the program time is going to be
.... at least the way they do it in Boston)

The 2 hour PBS fund raiser concerts often narrow down to about 55 min.

[spiritgumm]

I wanted to get general knowledge about this. I'm currently using a Panny in Flex mode but that only uses up 4 gigs, so I was thinking of recording in hour blocks in XP, and editing/joining/shrinking in the PC.
Specifically I'm planning on recording some MST3K tapes (each about 2 hours with advts, or 95 minutes without ads). Was going record some individually (95 min dvd), but most will be 2 shows per dvd (@ 3 hours).

[lordsmurf]

Don't put more than 2 hours on DVD, from a Panasonic.

I would use DVD+R DL media.

Failing that, record your XP mode off the Panasonic, dump to computer. Edit and author 3 hours of material. Open DVD Rebuilder, and then use either HCEncoder, CCE Basic or Procoder 2, and then under the AVS options, resize to HALF D1. Then let it re-encode your large DVD to DVD5 size. This will take forever plus a day, but it will work.

DVD+R DL media is easier. Or just do less time per disc. Or buy a better recorder.