which scenario gives a higher quality video?

[graysky]

Source is a DAR=16:9, 720x480 DVD and the movie aspect ratio is 2.40:1. Since it has a DAR of 16:9, when I play the original VOB in mplayer, it gets prescaled to 854x480 since 480x(16/9) = 854.

If I crop out the black bars which are a total of 124 pixels, I'm left with a 720x356 video. Which of the two scenarios will give me a higher quality encode:

1) Encode to 720x352 with a 12:5 AR in mkvmerge. Result is mplayer prescales the 720x352 video up to 846x352.
2) Encode to 656x272 with no forced AR. Result is mplayer displays the video with no prescaling at 656x272.


I will encode this to take up 1/3 of a DVDR (1433 Mb) so the bitrates will be different, but both Qf values are over 0.3. I think option 1 should be higher in quality, but what effect does the the 720 --> 846 prescaling in the player have on the quality?

[check]

Unless you have a monitor with a resolution of 656x272, mplayer will scale the second video as well.

[graysky]

Ah, good point. I suppose it then comes down to the number of pixels with more being better. Thanks for pointing that out. Guess I need to change my whole paradigm and start using the AR flag in mvkmerge.

[Seb.26]

Theoricaly, keeping more "real pixels" produce better quality ... "of course" ... but ... it depend on your bitrate ...

Personnaly, I take PAL DVD ( anamorphic 16/9 : 720*576 ), and like you : only crop top & bottom black borders, them encode directly ...

The problem is simple in fact :
How many pixels can you encode with a defined bitrate to obtain the best quality ?!