Recompressing mpg files for dvd

[Nastynorman]

I'm curious if you folks can shed some light on something for me. Most of the time I end up backing up my shows to DVD. Here is the process I generally use.

1) Record show from sat with BTV on my Hauppauge PVR 250 with high bitrate@ 720x480
2) If necessary edit out commercials with Womble (excellent, easy to use tool)
3) Resize (compress) mpg file(s) to fit single dvd using TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress (slow) or TMPGEnc Plus 2.5
4) Author Using TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6
4) Burn with Nero 6

This isn't very different from what most people are doing except maybe using TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress to compress the video. I used to use TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 but I find Xpress does a good job and is a bit simpler, especially is you you are burning a dvd with several files on it.

While am am pretty happy doing things this way, it takes a lot of time (typically 6-9 hours to reencode a mpg with TMPGEnc Plus). Is it worth it or is authoring an oversize dvd and then shrinking it with DVDSHRINK, Nero Recode or another prog. a better way? I've always thought that it would degrade my quality too much. Maybe there is another process that would speed things up. Over the years I've tried a LOT of programs but have settled on this.

Any opinions? Thanks in advance!

[stephenm]

Why not record using the mpg settings that your are compressing the videos to with TmpGENC? You can play around with the VBR or CBR in the recording profile settings.

So you won't have to transcode your recordings.

[Terminal]

It usually takes me about 1 hour to get a BTV movie to DVD. I don't generally put anything on DVD that requires much editing, usually just trimming the ends. I do that with the free editor that you can get from Hauppauge, NanoPegEditor. I record using a VBR quality from 3.5 to 9 MB and I use MyDVD to burn it. In the past I used a three step process, first de-multiplex, then author, then burn. MyDVD does all this for me. It's processing time is actually a bit slower but it takes less of my time. Once I load the video, I simply start it and walk away.

[Cal]

dvd shrink is in my method.

I record at (best) dvd rate in BTV with the pvr250. (my default)
use mpeg wizard to edit.
create an oversise dvd on my HD. (still ocationally looking at various software)
use dvd shrink to put it down to single dvd size.
burn with nero.

I find quality to be great. dvd shrink does a good job with this.

[Nastynorman]

I thought that vbr wasn't recommended because it can't switch bitrates fast enough when going to sudden ly fast action scenes?