very newbie question about converting video.

[br9541]

I hope I do not get booted from the forum for asking such a newbie question but, I have a few downloaded movies that I want to make DVD quality if at all possible. I have hear that using a video converter, like "Pazera" can increase the bit rate of a video. If the resolution and audio settings are kept constant and I increase the video bit rate from 500Kbits/s to 2Mbits/s, then would I have a better quality video? Secondly, would the increase in bit rate even be noticeable by the average Joe? Lastly, if the increase in bit rate is noticeable, then is there a way to realistically force the bit rate of a video to say 9Mbits/s or even higher? Like I stated before, this may be the most basic of newbie questions, but it has just been puzzling me for the longest time. Thank you for at least taking the time to read this post.

[redwudz]

You can't improve the quality of the video you have by re-encoding. You might be able to filter it and make it look a bit better, but what you have is what you will get, at best, most times. More often the quality will decrease when you re-encode.

And welcome to our forums.

[br9541]

So basically increasing the bit rate of a video does not help with the quality, but only increase the size of the file. good to know. so what is this "filtering" I can do to make a video look better?

[fritzi93]

Depends on what's wrong with it. You can sharpen, smooth, degrain, change levels, contrast, saturation, and whatnot. Usually there's a trade-off to be made though.

Most veterans here are familiar with VirtualDub or Avisynth, or both. But there's some time involved in learning how to use them. Perhaps you could make available a short clip for us to have a look at. But please, no copyrighted material unless you own a legal copy of it.

[EDIT] If the video already suffers from low-bitrate artifacting (or digi-boogers, in the immortal phrase), then best not to go to any trouble with it.