I'm copying a bunch of old VHS tapes to DVD. I can capture the tapes as uncompressed AVI or DV Type 1 or 2 before encoding them. Is there a significant quality difference for the final product between converting the raw AVI file versus DV Type 1 or 2? I realize the uncompressed AVI files will be very large for the uncompressed AVI (160 GB + for a 2 hour tape), but I have a 500GB hard drive and I delete the files after the DVD is burned, so space is not a problem. I'm going for maximum quality and using 1 Dual Layer DVD per 2 hour tape. I would prefer using the DV format unless the AVI will generate noticably better result, since I can put several of tapes worth of material on the computer before encoding. Thanks!
Uncompressed AVI captures are the best for quality, so if you're aiming for every possible quality advantage then that would be the way to go. To be honest, I can't see the difference between an uncompressed AVI capture vs. a DV-AVI capture with good hardware like a Canopus box. I know that technically there is a difference, it's just that as a practical matter, my eyes can't spot the difference. For convenience, I use my Canopus and capture to DV-AVI when I want a high quality capture. I know I"m getting 99% of the video quality and I can't see the missing 1% anyway. So, for your question of "significant quality difference" between uncompressed AVI and DV-AVI captures, I'd say no. Just my opinion.
.....So, for your question of "significant quality difference" between uncompressed AVI and DV-AVI captures, I'd say no. Just my opinion.[/quote] Thanks for your quick reply. If it is that close a difference I will stay with the DV-AVI captures. I seem to get more dropped frames when I try to to a straight AVI capture anyhow. Thanks Again!
Just another suggestion. I captured my old vhs tapes using the "huffyuv" codec with virtualdub. The filesize was about 5x less than the raw avi and the quality was lossless. I didn't drop any frames on my 550MHZ pentium II, but I only captured at 320 x 240 resolution. I used Nero to encode them to dvd format and burn them all in one step. The dvds ended up looking better than the original vhs tapes.
Realistically speaking there is no difference because you are using old and probably degraded tapes. Making double sided DVDs also won't make much of a difference either. Try encoding 2 hours to make 4.3GB and I doubt you will notice any difference at all.
