Are AVI files useful after MPEG conversion?

[Winky]

I'm capturing my analog video stored on VHS tapes. I first save it to AVI files and then convert it to MPEG files and burn a DVD. I plan to save the MPEG files for long term on a dedicated hard drive in case the DVDs get scratched or corrupted in future.

Is there any purpose to save the AVI files for long term too?

[bb]

If you are not going to edit your sources any more, and if you are not planning to convert to different formats, then the answer is no.

bb

[Winky]

Originally posted by bb
If you are not going to edit your sources any more, and if you are not planning to convert to different formats, then the answer is no.
bb
Is there a recommended compressed format that I can save the AVI files to, so that I can convert to different formats from that compressed format in case I need it in future?

[bb]

There are several options, but all of them require much space:
1. Huffyuv (lossless, low compression ~2.5:1)
2. DV (lossy, low compression 5:1)
3. MJPEG (lossy, different compression levels possible)

I would not recommend to save to MPEG-4 formats, because a recompression to other formats won't yield good results.

bb

[Winky]

I do not see Huffyuv or DV or MJPEG in MainConcpet MPEG Encoder. The best that I see is DVD: 720x480 pixel, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 16 bit. Will I be able to convert from this format to any other compressed format?

[bb]

The MainConcept MPEG Encoder, as its name implies, converts to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 only. You need a different application to encode to AVI formats, e.g. VirtualDub.

You can transcode from MPEG-2 to other formats like DivX, e.g. using VirtualDubMod or DVD2AVI/AviSynth/VirtualDub. But keep in mind that the quality will be lower compared to a direct conversion from your original source, or compared to a conversion from a Huffyuv/DV/MJPEG source.

So you may either:

Original source -> Huffyuv / DV / MJPEG (for later editing / conversion)
Original source -> MPEG-2 (for immediate use)
At some later time: Huffyuv / DV / MJPEG -> target format

or

Original source -> MPEG-2
At some later time: MPEG-2 -> target format

The latter alternative yields worse results, but needs less storage space, of course.

bb