What Bitrate to choose?

[six13]

I can record a TV movie with my Media Center PC then convert and encode with DVD-RB and HCenc 22. I am wondering about compression. My 2 options are to record the movie at the best setting which is 9MBPS best rate about 2.7 GB per hour or the next setting which is 6MBPS better rate about 2.1 GB per hour. My movie is 3 hours so is it better to select the best rate for the source recording and then compress with HCenc 22 or use the lesser bitrate for the source and still compress with HCenc 22.

With BEST my movie would be 8.1 GB's
With BETTER it would be 6.3 GB's since the rate is less.

Bottomline do I want my source to be the best quality possible then compress more, or go with a lesser bitrate source and compress less with HCenc 22?

I could always go with a DL DVD but I want to use DVD5.

Thanks to everyone!

[Sharc]

I would always do the recording at the best possible quality.
What is lost in the first step (recording) cannot be regained in subsequent processing.
You may want to apply some filters for the re-emcode with DVD-RB though, depending on the result of the captured video.

[G_M_C]

You could also use the calculator on this site to find out what bitrates you need/require: http://dvd-hq.info/Calculator.html

Just enter the info and see what it gives you. Set those bitrates in HC (Max and average) and set use the "Best" for highest quality, or lower depending on your source material.

Also i would indeed advise to use AviSynth (see elsewhere on this forum) to do some pre-processing, and use that AVS-script as the input of HC.

[six13]

not sure what you mean by Also i would indeed advise to use AviSynth (see elsewhere on this forum) to do some pre-processing, and use that AVS-script as the input of HC.


I don't quite understand the preprocessing. I am using DVD-RB which uses avisynth so I assume it is doing the preprocessing and making the decisions for the best quality? I select best in HCenc's GUI or with RB.