Any downside to re-encoding MPEG-2 to MPEG-2?

[SwornEnemy]

I take a lot of content off my PVR via composite cables into the ATI USB2.0 capture box. I have it set to capture in MPEG-2, VBR with the max bitrate set to 9.75/Bps. In order to fit more content on to DVDs I would like to encode with TMPGEnc (which is the encoder I have always used), set to DVD, which sort of auto sized the files to ensure they fit on a blank DVD.

I guess it's considered a second generation copy, because it is shrinking the size, but is there a bigger downside to doing this. Should I maybe capture in another format? I used to capture through my camera's firewire and the AVI files are just to big. 12gigs for 1 hour, and then all the encoding time that follows. It's a lot of work for one episode of Deadwood.

[lordsmurf]

It's not optimal, but it'll work fine and stil look quite decent. After all, many of your satellite and cable channels are from an MPEG-2 source anyway (DVB).

[non-linear]

MPEG is a lossy format, meaning every time you encode you're reducing the quality. That said, with the high bitrate you're encoding at, the quality loss is minimal (you probably wouldn't see any difference). I do this with video recorded in my DVD recorder (after transferring the .vro file from a DVD-RAM disc), and I get very good results.

[yoda313]

The only way to prevent that would be to hack your pvr and digitally transfer the files to your compture. That way you'd have the original quality without converting it. BUT not all pvr's have been hacked and it would mostly involve opening the unit which would void your warranty.

But as the others have mentioned you should still get decent enough results doing it the way you plan to. Good luck.

[Barnabas]

I used to do exactly what you are going, capping from Dishnetwork via a Hauppauge PVR. Then I learned how to remove the logos from the programs, so started to encode at maxbitrate so I could remove the logos and reencode. I eventually went to a Canopus DV converter and cap to an AVI file, but while that does indeed look better and gives me much more control over the output, the difference is not night and day at all.