Does DIVX gain any quality when transformed into MPEG2?

[oNikke]

I've worked with a bunch of MPEG files making a few home SVCDs, but I've never attempted to work with the DIVX codec before.

I understand (from reading around a bit) how the DIVX conversion should work in TMPGE (w/ compressed audio problems to be resolved using VDub or other audio-decompressing solution), but what I'm curious about is what the end result will look like.

DIVX seems to be a powerful compression codec, but if it's converted to MPEG-2 (CQ ~ 65-75) will it actually be able to gain any quality from its original state (divx), or will the quality I'm getting with the divx be the quality I'll get on the MPEG.

I'm pretty sure they'll be at least subtle differences just as a formality to encoding to MPEG2, but will the quality increase enough to be worth putting on an SVCD when compared to a set of original MPEG1's that were converted?

[homerpez]

To answer your question, NO.

You'll never ever ever improve on the SOURCE video, by re-encoding. Basically the best you cna hope for is that your SVCD will look AS GOOD as your DivX, but don't expect better. And it is possible that your DivX movie is of good enough quality to look decent on a TV, so this shouldn't be a big deal...

I do mostly (only) VBR VCD's (MPEG-1), and I do find that sometimes you can somewhat "clean up" video noise/debris, as a trade-off for some detail reduction (usually very little on a normal TV).

But in the end, the encode will never be better detail than the source it came from.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-08-20 07:51:22 ]</font>