COnverting from DIVX to svcd;higher divx resolution better?

[Mocha]

I've noticed that when tmpgenc converts divx to mpeg2, the resulting resolution is 480 by 480. Will the resolution of the source divx matter as to the quality of the resulting conversion?

I have 2 episodes of the X-Files I downloaded from the net, from 2 different posters. Both look to be the same quality during playback, but when I examine the resolutiuons in virtualdub, one's resolution is 704x384, and the other is 576x320. Same fps of 23.976.

My question is, if I have a choice, should I always look for a higher resolution divx source when converting to mpeg2? Since 480 looks to be the upper limit of an mpeg, is it not worthwhile searching for higher resolutions? However, the other axis of the divx resolution is smaller than 480, so does the difference of 64 make a difference?

Thanks

[bugster]

Its not really resolution thats important, its bitrate. You need to find the number of 'bits per pixel' used by each episode. To do this, open them in vdub, check the resolution and bitrate of each one. To calculate the 'bits per pixel', multiply the horizonatl res by the vertical and divide this into the bitrate. The movie with the higher result should have the better quality.

Of course this is only a theory, many other capture and encoding parameters affect quality, so it won't always work.