avi to mpeg or staight to mpeg

[hoola_loop]

hey all whats the difference in capturing to avi then converting to mpeg 1 at 1500 cbr than just capturing directly to mpeg1 1500 cbr ? would the quality be that much bettter capturing first to avi? thanks

[Tommyknocker]

I feel that capturing straight to mpeg will give you the best quality of the two. Every time you encode you will lose a little quality.

[tjdmobile]

Naturally, this is a very subjective subject. Again, it depends on the software used. PowerVCR II and ATI MMC 7.7.0.1 are my "real-time" options I have tested. PVCR 1500 CBR compared to TMPGenc... Forget about it. TMPGenc wins out. MMC vs. Tmpgenc - VERY CLOSE, though TMPGenc wins out.

Neither of the real-time capture applications I have give you enough control over the encoding process (whether CBR or VBR [only in the latter]) to give you the power of the offline encoders. This said, 90% of my daily recordings use MMC direct to MPEG. The other 10% I use VDUB and Huffy, as they are my precious Hi-8 videos that I want to archive perminantly.

If you watch your videos on a 5" - 19" TV, the method of encoding will be much less important to you. I have a big screen, so the quality of encoding is paramount on something I will be watching more than once.

TJD