QUALITY better w/standalone or Dtivo to capture card?

[ruckus1]

if the end result is to make the best quality dvd, would the quality be better recording a program (lets say the source is a Directv box) with a standalone unit(lets say that new pioneerDVR-5100H-S, not yet out), OR better with a Directivo Digital Video Recorder unit going S-video out to some high quality ATI capture card then burning to DVD?

would the capture method do alot of reencoding and degrade the signal?
(like if you wanted to split the recording with chapters or edit out commercials)

or would the standalone do its own compressions and the results would be about the same?


thanks guys!

[qpskfec]

The analog video out of a directivo or non-tivo directv box is the same.

So your question is whether you should use a set top dvdr or PC capture for best quality. I find recordings from directivo to my set top dvd recorder have excellent quality in the 1 or 2 hr recording modes.

If I didn't have a set top dvdr, I would use a DV camera with pass thru to capture on the PC. I don't see any real quality difference between the two. BTW, since DVD is capable of higher resolution that what directv usually broadcasts, the limiting factor on quality is the broadcast itself.

[LanEvo7]

The quality of the PC method would(should) be better than a standalone simply because you have MUCH more editing features. There are tons of filters out there that can touch up video and make it look better than the original. Of course this takes time and some people don't like using it.