MPEG-1 to MPEG-2 to DVD Advantages/Disadvantages?

[louv68]

I searched, but did not quite get the answer I was looking for.

I have some MPEG-1 (352x240 / 44,100 kHz) files I'd like to put on DVD.

Is there be any advantage/disadvantage to converting it to MPEG-2 (720x480)?
Will keeping the MPEG-1 "as-is" still create DVD Compliant discs?

The software I use (ShowBiz) converts the audio to 48,000 kHz when converting files to DVD, so audio should not be an issue.

Thanks

[thecoalman]

Leave them as is except the audio. The pnly thing you'll do converting them is create larger files and in most cases degrde the quality especially if you scale them up.

VCD video is DVD compliant.

[louv68]

Thanks for the quick reply thecoalman

[Marvingj]

Officially, the MPEG2 standard adds a number of features over the older MPEG1, including Variable quantization and VBR. What you really need to bear in mind is the fact that MPEG1 may well be superior to MPEG2 with low bitrates if you are using CBR in both instances, but you may still get a superior result from MPEG2 if you use it in VBR mode, for obvious reasons. If it were me, I'd generally use MPEG2 VBR rather than equivalent filesize MPEG1 CBR.

[lordsmurf]

While that might all be true marvinj, his files are already MPEG-1. Whatever benefits might have existed from using MPEG-2 are long lost due to the destructive MPEG-1 process (assuming this was any traditional interlaced source).

The only time I would convert 352x240 to higher res would be during restoration encodes, where 352x480 will yield better quality output. Using 352x240 again would have incurred more video quality loss while 352x480 does not.