Is this conversion worth it

[perfection]

I did not know much when i started out and used to capture all video at 320 x 240/288 at 4000 kbitrate as mpeg 2.

I now thanks to this forum realise the finer points of capturing and various elements such as frame rates etc

I wish to convert all to SVCD from the above standards

will it be worth it?

Is this merely an updsizing exercise (and downsizing the bitrate) or would i have got better quality had i to capture in std SVCD format originally

I also want to jnow iof i convert a VCD std to SVCD standard will there actually be a quality upgradation or merely a format compatibility conversion?

How do conversions really work in terms of quality upgrades and downgrades - i am only interested in mpg right now

[guns1inger]

You will loose quality on two fronts. First, in resizing up to compliant VCD specs, and secondly in reducing the bitrate. You would be better off converting to VCD on DVD. This has the advantage that the resize is smaller than to VCD, but you can use a higher bitrate than standard VCD.

[mats.hogberg]

Every reencoding to mpg will lower the quality. So, no matter what standard you reencode to, it wil look worse than what you started with, regardless if the target format as such has a potential for higher quality. "Quality upgradation" doesn't exist for digital video - it's all down hill.
Since you've captured @ VCD resolution, I suggest you settle for VCD, and reencode to VCD (mpg1 @ 1150 kbps) instead of SVCD.
If you'd like to do SVCD, capture @ SVCD res @ SVCD bitrate to start with to avoid unnecessary reencoding (or at highest possible res and bitrate, the reencode down to specs).

/Mats