Why would anyone want to convert MPEG2 to AVCHD???

[Alphamale1956]

Well, I might have a reason. I usually use DVD Shrink to take a normal DVD-9 movie and convert it to DVD-5. Don't know what compression DVD Shrink uses but wouldn't H.264 be better? Wouldn't it make sense to use an AVCHD transcoder to take an uncompressed DVD-9 (MPEG2) and convert it to AVCHD so it would fit on a DVD-5 disk? I'm aware that I'd need to play it thru an AVCHD capable player(Blu-ray), but wouldn't the quality be better than compressing MPEG2 to MPEG2? Especially considering that I would want to keep any multichannel sound track intact rather than have DVDShrink convert to AC-3 stereo. Any thoughts on this?

AM

[jagabo]

DVD Shrink doesn't recompress the video, it requantizes it. The process is fast but if you shrink by much the quality suffers compared to recompressing with a good MPEG 2 encoder. So yes, converting DVD9 to ~4GB AVCHD will give better quality than requantizing or recompressing to MPEG 2. But it will take longer.

[manono]

Any thoughts on this?

Especially considering that I would want to keep any multichannel sound track intact rather than have DVDShrink convert to AC-3 stereo

Shrink doesn't convert to stereo. Whatever original audio there is you'll get back untouched.

Wouldn't it make sense to use an AVCHD transcoder to take an uncompressed DVD-9 (MPEG2) and convert it to AVCHD so it would fit on a DVD-5 disk?

What makes sense is to use anything other than Shrink since it's only a transcoder. You'll get better quality MPEG-2 video by using a real MPEG-2 encoder (HCEnc, CCE, etc.). And yes, you'll also get better video quality by reencoding the video to x264/H.264, as long as you have a player that can play it.

[Alphamale1956]

Ok that makes sense. So as far as commercial encoders go, why is CCE so expensive? Would it be THAT much faster and better quality than say HCEnc or QuEnc? I have DVD Rebuilder but when I tried that it seemed like an eternity to convert from MPEG to AVCHD. I would think it would take that kind of time going the other direction. Is there a decent commercial encoder that doesn't cost a grand?

[manono]

There's a basic version of CCE for only $50. It's faster than HCEnc. HCEnc produces very good quality, though, if you know how to use it. DVD Rebuilder doesn't convert to AVCHD so I have no idea what you're talking about there. Maybe you meant to say BD Rebuilder?

[Alphamale1956]

How about multiAVCHD for this sort of thing? Is this a good tool?

[guns1inger]

It is a very good tool for what it does.

[wulf109]

Ripbot will convert DVD to BR/AVCHD also. Any program that converts to AVCHD is going to be very slow compared to DVD Shrink or even DVD Rebuilder.

[guns1inger]

For most standard movies the gain between DVD Rebuilder and converting to AVCHD will be minimal. Maybe it is worth the time it will take to re-encode to AVC, maybe it won't. You won't be getting HD out of it, only SD. Where it might be worthwhile it if you are going to put two or three movies on a single disc.

[Alphamale1956]

I see your point. So is the consensus here that the amount of quality gained by converting DVD to AVCHD simply is not worth the extra time it takes compared to just using Shrink or DVD RB or Nero Recode? Especially considering that it is SD anyway? I guess I thought that the upconverter in my AV Receiver would do a better job with AVC than with DVD and the end result would give me a product that was closer to HD (noticeably) than what I currently used. Well, thank you gentlemen for your input. I really like this forum. G'day.

[dwero]

I am late to be here. Sounds you got the answer.

[jagabo]

I see your point. So is the consensus here that the amount of quality gained by converting DVD to AVCHD simply is not worth the extra time it takes compared to just using Shrink or DVD RB or Nero Recode?

That's a matter of personal preference. Shrinking by 50 percent will cause a noticeable loss of quality. Reencoding to 50 percent with h.264 won't cause much quality loss but will take much longer.

Of course, there's also the matter of portability. A shrunken DVD will play on any DVD player. An AVCHD disc will require a Blu-ray player.

I guess I thought that the upconverter in my AV Receiver would do a better job with AVC than with DVD and the end result would give me a product that was closer to HD (noticeably) than what I currently used.

You're receiver will be receiving uncompressed video frames. The better those frames are the better they will look when upscaled.