BitRate? or not to BitRate?

[gilamran2]

Hi,
A noob around...
I've started capturing some videos from my old VHS, and I want to convert them to DVD...
Now, DVD has many types of videos... there are videos of only 60min. in one DVD and others that can fit 240Min. into one DVD!!!
I know that it has something to do with the BitRate...

When I capture the video I have these options:
DVD HQ (High Quality) -> 1027 Kb/s -> 60Min.
DVD GQ (Good Quality) -> 839 Kb/s -> 90Min.
DVD SP (Standard Play) -> 589 Kb/s -> 120Min.
DVD LP (Long Play) -> 402 Kb/s -> 180Min.
DVD EP (Extended Play) -> 277 Kb/s -> 240Min.

My questions are these:
* Are there any videos online that I can see the difference of these Bit-Rates?
* Can one burn a DVD with many types of Bit-Rates? (I want to see it on the TV)
* After capturing the video I have a file, why do I have to encode it? what is it really doing to the video? (and it takes hours!)


Thanks

[jagabo]

Each video is different. The bitrate required will vary from one to another. Noisy VHS captures don't compress well. Note the bitrates you listed are in K Bytes per second, not the more commonly used K bits per second (1 K Byte = 8 K bits).

Yes, you can use different bitrate videos on a DVD.

If you are not capturing your video as MPEG with DVD compatible settings you have to encode to MPEG with DVD compatible settings.

If you are capturing with DVD compatible MPEG and DVD compatible bitrates you don't need to re-encode the video. Most DVD authoring software will let you burn it to DVD without re-encoding it.

[yoda313]

Do a test run at each quality level to see for yourself. Use the same videotape and rerecord it at the various levels.

You should find that the longest recording time offers the lowest quality. In actuality that is only ideal for recording things like news or the weather channel, stuff you don't plan on archiving. The upper middle levels should be considered the "sweet spot" for recording length and quality.

A rule of thumb - you probably should keep movies at the 2-3 hour mode and not put more than one movie on a disc. That way you keep the quality up. For tv shows you could dial it down a bit. It depends on how comfortable you are with that recording mode.

Again this all a bit subjective. Everyones tolerance threshold is different. My only advise is to avoid the lowest recording quality altogther. It just isn't worth it. From there you'll need more experimenting.

[jagabo]

Unless you have a high end S-VHS deck with a time base corrector and noise filters you probably should stick with HQ or GQ. All the noise inherent in VHS tape and timing errors of inexpensive VHS decks make it hard for the MPEG encoder to compress.

If you need to put more than that on a DVD consider dropping the resolution to 352x576 instead of 720x576. VHS doesn't have much more resolution than that so you won't lose much sharpness. But you'll get a lot less macroblocking.