[MEncoder-users] Encoding interlaced content: what am I doing wrong?

[RC]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:29:49 +0100
Martijn van Beurden <mvanb1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Because I try to keep as much quality as I can get, and as x264 is far
> superior to MPEG2, I capture to x264. Then I write an EDL file to cut 
> out snow and bad scenes and the like, and then convert it to MPEG-2 in
> 2  passes. 

This demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of video encoding.  

In short, going from one codec to another will lose more quality than
not, and the only benefit to newer codecs like x264 is in squeezing
slightly higher quality out of slightly smaller files, at the expense of
lots of CPU time.  At high bitrates, H.264 has nothing special to offer.

-- 
Ha. I'm the idiot.