Does converting a DivX movie to SVCD increase its quality?

[joedotcom]

Was just wondering if anyone could answer this.

If I take a movie that I've originally encoded at a CBR using DivX to fit two 740MB CDs, and re-encode it using CCE at 4 VBR to fit on two 800MB CDs, will that increase the final quality of the new movie? Or does it retain the maximum bitrate used when it was compressed with DivX? A theoretical question, but I'd be interested to know if anyone has the answer....

TIA

JDC

[Conquest10]

you can't really gain quality that's not there. the best you can do is similar quality to the source.

[ZippyP.]

Or does it retain the maximum bitrate used when it was compressed with DivX?

Bitrates in a Divx and bitrates in an mpeg are only relative, they are not exactly the same. The compression schemes are different and that's why Divx can be much smaller than a similar quality mpeg.


BTW, I agree with Conquest10 regarding quality. You can't create something from nothing; Or the often used "Crap in = crap out."

[Skynet107]

The best you can hope to do is get the exact same quality, but in practice the re-coded video will almost always look worse unless you filter a really bad video file.

[tgpo]

You can't add quality back to a video, once it's gone through compression, you're getting it back. Many people will tell you that you can add a little quality back, but it typically involves bluring your video to hide compression. Just remember garbage in, garbage out. There is no way to add quality back to a video once it's gone.

[negon]

In order to achieve a higher bitrate you'd have to re-encode from the original source. Otherwise, it's just wasted space making it bigger.

[thayne]

The only reason I would concider encoding a divx to svcd is so that I could watch it on my DVD player. I have encoded divx to dvd and they look pretty good, no where near as good as a true dvd though.

[joedotcom]

Ok - thanks to everyone, I guessed as much. I just thought that maybe since I'm giving the movie more space and doing a VBR, higher bitrates would result, but I get your point. Thanks again.

JDC