Encoding a VHS tape twice to mpeg-2 - what's the damage?

[treplev]

Here's my question: I have a "VideoHome GrabbeeX" usb-device. It gives a lot of formats to encode to, but not uncompressed avi. The best it can do is Mpeg-2, 720 x 576, 9000 kbs.

I would first like to have the material on my computer in as good quality as possible, and then start doing the necessary encoding. I have a lot of hard drive space, so that's not a problem.

If I first capture a tape at the settings mentioned above, and then, once I have the material on my computer, encode it again to Mpeg-2 (but with a lower bitrate to make the file smaller), how much does the final quality suffer compared to a situation where I had first captured the tape uncompressed?

I have been looking for a pci-e card that could capture uncompressed avi, but they are very hard to find. They all seem to have Mpeg-2 hardware encoding.

[treplev]

I just found out that "Hauppauge WINTV HVR-1100" can capture uncompressed avi. I can get it for 50 euros, which is not very much.

Does anyone have any experience about this card, and do you think it's worth buying? I wonder if the video and audio will stay in sync, since they will be captured with different devices?

Thanks!

[2Bdecided]

The "damage" depends on the content itself, the noise level, and the encoders used.

IME it varies between no visible difference, and a bit blocky/soft.


The compromise between 9Mbps MPEG-2 and lossless (100Mbps+) is to use DV (25Mbps).

Cheers,
David.