[mark D]

I have just upgraded to MyDVD Premier so I could edit commercials out of my recorded TV. It converts the DVD-MS file to MPG but I have noticed a definite quality issue with this conversion. The best way to describe it is that there are horizontal comb lines. Fine but most noticable when movement occurs. It is almost like an interlace problem but it is more subtle. I am not one to suggest that the DVD-MS is a better quality format because I do believe it has a lot to do with the conversion process rather than the format.

Has anyone noticed this? The converted file is nearly the same size so I can't see why it would lose quality.

I am using Media Center 2005 and for the most part I am happy with this does. I was however looking for the ability to pull commercials out to compress more than one show on disk and play it in the front room on our bigger TV. It was mainly for busy kids who do not get a chance to watch series like Survivor. That way they can sit down and watch two episodes and I don't have to keep them on the computer until they find the time.

[Kevin J]

DVR-MS files are mpeg2 format under the microsoft wrapper. You wonder why the quality decreases when the size doesn't change. To explain this, imagine taking a high resolution picture that contains information on every pixel. Now you compress the picture so that groups of four pixels are explained by the information so the file size is about 1/4 the size. Great. Now we need to change this picture a bit and describe the information of everyone of these pixels to a program so now the file size is back to its original size but decreased quality because the information is only describing roughly 1/4 the pixels as the original image. Now we compress this file back to its compressed state 1/4 the original but its been compressed twice each time losing 3/4 the information. This process results in a picture with the same file size but significantly lower quality. This isn't how picture compression actually works but it works as a good analogy describing roughly what happens when you convert a format to another. MPEG2 can be thought as the compressed picture and the higher quality video never really comes into play because you start off with MPEG2 because that's what you capture with.

The DVR-MS format is Microsoft's "format" which is basically an MPEG2 in a DVR-MS wrapper. MyDVD needs to convert it to a format it can use and it loses qualtiy.

So what can you do? Capture in the highest possible quality setting and keep it high quality until you go to burn and let MyDVD compress it.