Burning DVD Videos

[Tim]

On Thu, 2010-05-20 at 09:21 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> Besides, many .avi files are already highly compressed and have lower
> video and audio quality than the originals (while still being
> acceptable to the average viewer). Converting them to MPEG doesn't
> change the quality, just the size

I'd argue that the last statement isn't true.  MPEG is a lossy system,
so there will be a loss in quality, as well as size, and that can be
compounded by the original compression in the AVI, particularly if it
were a lossy scheme, even more so if the lossy techniques are very
different.  You don't just change a format, you are compressing video
when you MPEG it.

Whether that will be significantly noticeable, or not, is another
matter.  That will depend on the amount of MPEG compression, the
observer, as well as the equipment.

A good MPEG encoder can manage a surprising amount of compression
without being objectionable.  I was quite surprised to see that a 50%
re-compression on one of my dual layer DVDs to a single layer disc was
barely noticeable, and I'm quite particular about maintaining quality.
Though, typically, I think you want to stay well above 70% compression.
It's more luck, than anything else, when you get away with such a
radical amount of re-compression.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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