converting dvd9 x264 to dvd5 x264, any recommendations?

[uncertainty]

I have archived all my blu-ray and HD-DVD's to DVD9 size using megui and the "HQ-slow" profile. I now need to reclaim some HD space and need to convert many of them to DVD5 size.

Should I just reencode them with megui using the HQ-slow profile or is there some faster way to lower the bitrate of the files from the normal 6000-7000kbit/sec to around 4000-5000kbit/sec?

I thought about using 1 pass mode but was not sure if that would degrade quality over using hq-slow again.

thanks

[[P]ako]

If you don't to lose quality encode them again.

[Adub]

No you will have to re-encode them. The best thing for you to do interms of quality is to starting from the original disks again, and then set the new target size to dvd5 instead of dvd9.

If you encode your current files, there will be a decrease in quality that can easily be avoided.

Oh, one last thing. Why not just buy a bigger harddrive? They are cheap as hell right now.

[bur]

You seem to be under the impression that the bitrate is just a flag or something that can be converted easily. But if you want to change the bitrate you have to start a whole new encode - every frame will have to be calculated new. So if you use 1-pass now it's like every 1-pass encode, inferior to multi-pass.

Also every encoding removes detail and introduces blocks. So keeping the number of encodes from source to target as low as possible is the key. That's why you should start from your DVDs again instead of going from your encodes.

Or just get a new HDD. I just saw a 500GB external for 99€. This will save you time and keep the quality high.