DVD vs VCD/SVCD

[colt4523]

I am going to start putting some tv episodes I have on VHS to either DVD's or SVCD/VCD. Anyway, I was wondering if there is any point to putting these tv episodes onto dvd since there is no gain in video quality? Is the only advantage to putting my VHS tapes on DVD's is that they just hold more? Am I off base on this? Any insight would be appreciated.

[Abond]

Putting them onto standart DVD will preserve more quality then standart SVCD. This is the quality gain.

[disturbed1]

In most cases, VHS or TV ep. at full blown DVD resolution (720x480) 5500-6000 avg bitrate is pretty much a waste. The same quality can be had using 1/2 D1 (352x480) and 3000-4000 bitrate, with a high quality encoder. TV and VHS have a low resolution to begin with.

BUT if your using a hardware mpeg encoder, 720x480 may look better because of the scaler the encoder uses. Since it's hardware, there is little time used to try different resolutions and bitrates.

DVD allows for 352x240, 352x480, 704x480, and 720x480. Instead of 1 ep per CD, you could have 7-8 eps per DVD, that's one advantage.

[daamon]

DVD allows for 352x240, 352x480, 704x480, and 720x480. Instead of 1 ep per CD, you could have 7-8 eps per DVD, that's one advantage.

...in NTSC-land. If you're in a PAL region, 240 becomes 288 and 480 becomes 576.

My opinion on advantages:

1. A DVD can hold more, lots more.

2. Authoring DVD's with something like TMPGEnc DVD Author gives you menus and chapters, each with their own still or motion pictures - better looking end product - and is pretty easy to use (also popular so loads of guides / people who can help).

3. DVDs are newer technology, and VCD / SVCD may fade out of favour as DVD burners get ever cheaper - especially when the dual-layer fellas come in. Meaning that it may be the case that fewer players support (S)VCD in the future.


If you do go the DVD route, I'd second the burning at half D1 resolution - more is overkill and a waste. It then means you can get around 4 hours of video on one disc.

Hope that helps...

[colt4523]

I will probably put them on dvd's then. I think it makes a little more sense because I can a lot more episodes on the dvd. Thanks for the help guys.