[saltman]

It is acceptable for small portions of video to be filled in with lossy material (if it's the only source) as a general rule. I think you will be unhappy if you mix an entire multi-angle show with lossless and lossy media. I know I have tried in the past and it was incredibly obvious to me. And the lossy source came from pro cameras to begin with.

I can see a big difference in mepg4 that has been re-rendered to mpeg2. The livephish series for instance is put out in mpeg4 and many people have put it onto dvd. It is very blocky and sub standard. even before being rendered back to mpeg2. I have also made DVDs from my buds early HDD cam that recorded to mpeg4 and it looks crappy IMO.

I would appreciate you digging up what you could about the rendering technique you describe.