DVD Quality Compression

[zakattak3]

First off I want to say that this site has helped me tremendously over the many years I have been visiting and now I signed up and just have a pretty simplistic question...

I just bought an ADS DVDXpress USB device to transfer over VHS and even my Digital Cable to the computer (via Composite -> USB). Anyways, my question is when I record the file in "DVD Best Quality Mode (4mb/9mb per/sec)" my output file looks better than my live feed on TV. It's capturing at 720x480 and everything just runs so smoothly. Of course when I compress using the Xvid codec, it gives it a little break of lesser quality. I'm just wondering if there is anyway to compress the file while still keeping that life like/smooth quality image?

Hope you guys understand what I'm talking about and I don't sound like a disgusting n00b. I've been into editing for a while, but never seen my capture cards get this good quality...possibly because they don't capture in 720x480? Maybe because I was capturing in with Coax instead of Composite? Well thanks for your time and and feedback would be great.

[harley2ride]

The more you compress it, the more quality you will lose. Do a little searching within the forums, and you will find all kinds of information about compression, file sizes, etc... You will get better quality saving it to dvd as an MPEG2 with a high bitrate of between 8 and 9 thousand, because you are compressing the data less than you would be with XVID. People use XVID and DIVX for the savings of space, not for the quality. That said, you can still get pretty good quality with XVID and DIVX, if you do things correctly, and start with high quality coming in.

[zakattak3]

Thank you very much, what program would you recommend for editing the source video (cutting commercials) without compressing it? I've heard good things about the latest Nero.