Quality/sharpness loss when converting .avi to .mpg

[roh]

Hello,

I am using Pinnacle PCTV to capture from my Hi8 Video camera, using VirtualDub. I am not dropping any frames and am capturing at 352 x 288 PAL format.

The resulting .avi looks very good but when I convert it to .mpg in tmpgenc, using the VCD/PAL template, the resuling .mpg is loosing some sharpness. I have compared the frames and there is some loss of quality. In tmpgenc, I have selected 'Motion Search Precision' as Highest quality.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rohit

[azali]

Hopefully you are using huffy compression. Try capturing at 352x576. This should make a significant increase in sharpness.

[roh]

Yes, I am using huffy compression.

I tried at 352 x 576, but the picutre then appears long. Is it correct.

Regards,
Rohit

[azali]

well the thing is that it is usually best to capture at a higher resolution than your final output (352x288). The encoder should automatically resize the video.

[Anonymous65]

Yes, you should capture at 352x576. It doesn't matter if the video looks long, it will be converted to 352x288 in encoding. I usually don't see a lot of difference between the AVI and mpeg file, unless there is a lot of action. The Tmpeg encoder does a good job, and on static images, the sharpness should be pretty much the same between the AVI and the mpeg (VCD) file. If yuo see a big difference, then you might have a poor mpeg decoder installed, or you are viewing the files at 2X or 3X real size. When blowing up files, there will often be a big difference depending on what algorithm is used for the resizing. So, compare the files at 1X size.