MPEG2 to MPEG4 to MPEG2 Quality?

[consultant]

I've seen some comparisons between filesizes of 480P video stored in DVD VOB files and 1080P video re-encoded in X264 with higher compression than the original source. In many cases they are close to the same size, typically ending up in the 3-5GB for around 2 hrs of video. Yet of course the 1080P video looks WAY better since VOBs are only MPEG2, and inferior compression compared to X264 and MPEG4.

So when storing 480P video, I would assume you could encoded into x264 (MPEG4) instead of VOB MPEG2 and I would guess resulting in a filesize of about 25% or less than the original?

Here's what I'm wondering though. If you ever had to burn the video to a DVD, you need to encode it back to MPEG2. I'm wondering if there would be any noticeable loss in the 480P video quality considering it went from MPEG2 to MPEG4 then back to MPEG2.

[Guest]

Here's what I'm wondering though. If you ever had to burn the video to a DVD, you need to encode it back to MPEG2. Since you have the original 480 source that you used to make the AVC version, it would be silly not to use that to author the DVD, thereby avoiding any loss due to the intermediate AVC format.

If you do encode from the AVC version, as long as that encode was effectively transparent viz-a-viz the original source, then you wouldn't encounter a perceptible loss in reencoding it to MPEG2 at an appropriate bitrate.

[consultant]

Gee, why didn't I think of that? Duh.

Oh, I know why. I've got all my DVDs in a folder and take them with me to my vacation home. A lot of times of forget them there and it is 3 hours away so there can be months when I don't have the DVDs but need to burn one to play in the car. I suppose in that case I can just live with whatever degradation there is?

Bottom line it seems like such a waste of space to keep DVDs in MPEG2 format for HDD storage.

[setarip_old]

@consultant/jayzeeI've got all my DVDs in a folder and take them with me to my vacation home. A lot of times of forget them there and it is 3 hours away so there can be months when I don't have the DVDs but need to burn one to play in the car.But in this other post

http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1363398&postcount=1

you've also said:I've backed up my DVD collection to my media server.
...sometimes I'm going to want to burn a DVD disc to take in the car (I won't use the original as my kids destroy them.)Sounds like you already have several resources for playing and/or copying your DVDs...

[MilesAhead]

setarip, it sounds like he had to hide them a 3 hour drive away so the kids couldn't get at them.

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-laughing025.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)

[setarip_old]

@MilesAhead

I simply find the postings by "consultant" to be confusing - not humorous...