[lordsmurf]

Originally Posted by sabkisscrue

Let me just say without showing proof, that there does indeed seem to be some quality differences between a vhs dub and an 8mm dub. Maybe its because you said it best that 8mm/hi8 tapes dont really need to be tracked. But I have seen both vhs and 8mm dubs from the same masters and the 8mm dubs appear to contain more detail than the vhs dubs, in other words they looked closer to what the master would look like but not exactly what the master would look like. I can only suggest that maybe 8mm is a better and more reliable format than vhs for dubbing purposes.

What you've observed mostly comes down to the quality of the tape in use, as well as the quality of the recorders/players in use. You'll come across far more inferior VHS tapes/players/recorders/cameras than you will in the 8mm format --- but that's mostly because it was a near-monopoly by Sony. It was their format, after all. And we all know how much a death-grip Sony keeps on its products.

Originally Posted by retired

...and other than "your response is absurd", you never addressed why you do the exact opposite of what your link says:

avoid capturing with MPEG2.

Depending on about a half-dozen factors (between source and encoding specs), capturing to MPEG-2 can be anywhere from brilliant to bone-headed. All the following considerations have to be made:

• Program streams, transport streams?
• Bit-rate?
• MP@ML, MP@HL, H-12@MP, 422@ML, another one?
• What's the temporal compression like? IBP GOP? IP GOP? I-only GOP? If IBP or IP, what's the length? (i.e., Long or Short?)
• Closed or open?
• Which specs? DVD-Video, pre-defined editing spec or something else? None?
• What's the SNR of the source? (#/% not required, descriptions okay)
• What's the encoding chipset or software encoding engine?
• What about the matrix or discreet cosine values?
• CBR, VBR or CVBR?

In general, amateur devices make poor choices or are very limited, therefore you should avoid MPEG-2. However there are many high-end devices that allow for excellent MPEG capturing/recording.