Best interlaced export formats for TV (VHS digitizing)
 

Hello,

I've started to digitize VHS. I am from Central Europe (PAL).

Reading many posts I found out that it is a bad idea to export interlaced source as deinterlaced footage. At least when watching on TV. I have some questions to this theme.

1. I wonder if MPEG2 interlaced export (.mpg) has the same quality as MPEG2 DVD format. If .mpg video saved on USB stick and played on TV will have the same quality as video encoded for DVD, burned and played on DVD player.

2. If there is no difference, isn't better choice to export to interlaced (less space demanding) h264?


Thanks for advice.

No difference. The same encoded MPEG can be copied to other storage media (USB stick, external drives, etc.), or authored into a DVD folder structure for burning to DVD disc.

2. If there is no difference, isn't better choice to export to interlaced (less space demanding) h264?[/quote]I don't know what you mean by "better". MPEG handles interlace and telecine more cleanly than h264, and many say that h264 looks too "digital', too over-filtered, over-compressed, and less film-like than MPEG. Your impressions could differ. Both MPEG and h264 are used commercially for BluRay. MPEG is still the worldwide broadcast standard. You can't make a DVD from h264 encodes, and you can't play h264 video on a DVD-only player.

Your choice.

Most would advise that USB sticks are less reliable than external hard drives. I've had two sticks that went bad. Good thing I kept backups on USB hard drives.

More input:

H.264 supports interlace, but many players do not. So you run into issues. Many expect progressive sources (Youtube, even torrents).

Never archive onto flash memory. Use a good ol' spinning disk. Only use flash for temp storage of videos you want to watch. Not all of us like dragging hard drives to the TV. Some networks are not fast enough for MPEG (DLNA situations).