DVD ->convert to XviD on CD or back up to SVCD?

[marcusmac]

Hi
Whats the general opinion on difference in quality, between backing up a DVD movie to an XviD AVI for eventual playback on PC (and maybe later backing up to SVCD for the kids to watch), or backing up straight to an SVCD compliant MPEG stream and get the best of both worlds??

Im still learning so I apologise if this sounds like a stupid question

Cheers
Marcus

[bond]

svcd = mpeg-2
xvid, divx5 = mpeg-4

mpeg-4 should beat mpeg-2 qualitywise, therefore xvid should bring you better quality than svcd on 2cds or so

now if you want to play your backup on a standalone player, which is able to play svcd but not mpeg-4, you should create a svcd
if you own a standalone player, which is able to decode mpeg-4, or if you only want to play the file on pc, i would recommend you to back up with xvid

[marcusmac]

A follow on thought:

How much quality is lost when you create an SVCD from an XviD backup as opposed to creating an SVCD from a DVD?

Is it "noticeable" within the quality contraints of SVCD?

Thanks
Marcus

[Teegedeck]

To a good extent it depends on the quality of the XviD file, of course. A 3-CD XviD video can look undistinguishable from the DVD whereas a 1-CD video won't. Also any re-encoding means a quality-loss. Better make both an SVCD and an XviD straight from the DVD-source and spare yourself trouble and doubt.