Is there a big difference between CBR and VBR?

[Dance4Me]

I know what they are and that VBR would probably result in better quality when compared to a CBR video of the exact same filesize. Question is, how much of a difference would there be? I will be capturing and buring SVCD's but I cannot decide with which capture product to go with. What does that have to do with my CBR/VBR question you ask, well let me explain? If VBR is the way to go, I will have to convert the video entirely after being captured. So it would not make any difference whether I would get a DV-bridge or a real-time mpeg2 capture card, I would still have to re-convert it. Since I would have to reconvert it, the DV-bridge would probably give better quality. If CBR is the way to go, then a real-time mpeg2 capture card would be the best choice as all I would have to do is capture, cut out commercials and burn, absolutely no re-converting necessary. So you see whether I go with a DV capture device or a real-time capture device depends on this question, so please give your opinions. Many thanks.

[bugster]

Personally, I think you are asking the wrong question! It is not really a matter of CBR vs VBR when it comes to quality, it is a matter of the encoder. Many people will tell you that unless you have many thousands of $$'s to spend on proffessional kit, the quality of a software encoded mpeg (using CBR or VBR) will always be better than a hardware encoded mpeg (tho some will probably disagree). TmpGenc or CCE, using 2 (or more) pass VBR encoding will produce better quality encodes than a consumer level mpeg-2 encoder card. The main downside is time. It really depends how patient you are.

If it is quality you want, go for the DV solution.

just my opinion remember!

[tjdmobile]

Another thought to consider. Real time VBR is not very effecient, because there is only a very short segment that is used to calculate the bitrate for any given series of frames.

Using TMPGenc or other encoders with multiple passes of VBR (like 2-pass) yields superior results for small filesize / quality.

In my experience, if you are real-time encoding MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or Divx, it's best to capture in CBR. That's what I do with my ATI RADEON. When I rip a DVD, I always use the 2-pass VBR.

tjd