Compatibility with next gen. storage formats

[mg262]

Hi,

I'm busy backing up old cartoons from VHS to DVD, but I would also like to store them as AVIs in a format that is likely to be supported by Blu-ray/HD-DVD so I don't have to recapture everything in the future. (I don't want to use HDTV res., just to fit more cartoons on a single disc at 720x576.)

I've tried to read around, but I'm not sure what format(s) it would be sensible to encode in -- I would really appreciate some advice. And in particular, if XviD is a sensible choice, advice on which of the options (QPel, GMC, etc.) I could risk using.

regards,
Mohan

[bond]

no chance to encode today a stream that will surely be supported by hd-dvd/bluray, the specs are simply not known till now
the used codecs are known (mpeg-4 asp as followed by xvid is not supported), still thats not enough by far

[mg262]

bond,

Thank you for the information. I was just about to edit my post after reading through your comprehensive MP4 FAQ, and especially the link to this:
Provisional approval of MPEG2, WM9 (VC-9) and MPEG4 AVC(H.264) Video CODECs as mandatory for the HD DVD Video specification for playback devices, subject to ...
That made me think that perhaps playing around with Nero's AVC encoding (+AAC audio) was the way forward but from what you say it sounds like even that might not be a safe bet...

Edit:

Just found this on http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#1.8:
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is still in the process of finalizing the BD-ROM specification, but they have stated that MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (previously called FRExt) and Microsoft's VC-1 video codec (the proposed SMPTE standard based on WMV9) will be mandatory.

[bond]

i think its sure that avc and vc-1 will be used, but you simply dont know now what settings are allowed/necessary (eg if you look at today's dvd (which uses mpeg-2 for video) also doesnt allow any mpeg-2 video stream. in contrary there are very strict limitations and specifications on how the stream has to look like)