Ok to add chapters to MPEG-2 in DVDMF2?

[BowlPacker]

I am converting some analog home videos to DVD. I've experimented and have decided that I get acceptable quality by capturing to AVI with VDub with PicVideo MJPEG, converting to MPEG-2 with TMPGEnc and authoring with Ulead DVD MF2.

I understand that once I have the MPEG-2, it is a non-no to edit the video because it will decompress the video back to AVI then compress back to MPEG, resulting in quality loss.

My question is, does this apply to adding chapter points to the MPEG-2 in DVD MF2? Does adding chapter points in the authoring software require the decompress/recompress process?

[k5oz]

Bowlpacker,

As long as your mpeg2 files are DVD compliant, it will not re-encode them by adding chapter points. Make sure you enable "do not encode mpeg compliant files" in the setup portion of the program.

BTW, I use Studio 8 to edit and encode to mpeg2, import to DMF2 and add chapter points with no problems.

Good luck,
Dave

PS Triming/shortening a mpeg file is considered editing.