I am converting some old VHS movies to MPEG2, and then to DVD.

It occures to me that the quality on the tapes are just ok. Clearly 8+ years has lessen the quality of these tapes on playback.

I am trying to preserve if not enhance the current state of these videos. And I was wondering, is there a general statement that can be made about the maxium bit rate needed for VHS NTSC tape conversion?
Anyone help on any of this would be helpful.

Thanks!