Best way to convert MPEG 720x480 to 480x480

[johnmeyer]

I recorded many music videos from VH1 Classic channel onto DV tape. I transferred these to my computer and then converted the DV AVI files to MPEG-2 SVCD files using TMPGEnc. Unfortunately, I found out too late that each time you load a new file into TMPGENc, it sets the resolution of the output file to match the input file (i.e., it overrides the setting in the template). As a result, I created a number of "SVCD" files that have 720x480 resolution instead of the normal SVCD 480x480 resolution. I have long since erased the original AVI files on my computer hard disk, as well as the original footage on the DV tapes.

I have tried using TMPGEnc tools to demux then remux (using the MPEG-2 SVCD setting), but the file isn't accepted by either VCDEasy or Nero for burning. I have successfully created a 480x480 SVCD file simply by using the 720x480 MPEG-2 file as the input to TMPGEnc and the re-encoding. However, the result contains far more artifacts than the original.

Question: Is there a simpler way to convert these files that will minimize or eliminate the quality degredation of re-encoding?

Thanks!

John