Will I loose any picture quality when transfering film from my camcorder on Hi-8 Tape to DVD?

Question

I want to put Hi-8 analog tape onto DVD.I was thinking of purchasing a DVD recorder and connecting my camcorder via a super VHS lead to the inputs on a DVD recorder.The picture quality I get when watching playback through my TV is really sharp, will I loose this excellent quality when I record it onto a DVD via a DVD recorder. Can anyone recommend a good DVD recorder with S-Video input?

Answer 1

Do you mean 'lose' or 'loose' - whatever you don't don't loosen the film, it can get scratched and bunched...

Answer 2

Yes, you will lose some picture quality, no matter how you do it.  Whether or not you notice is another matter.

DVDs use MPEG-2 encoding, which works by throwing away most of the frames and keeping a few "real" frames, called i-frames.  The missing frames are made up from information about what's changed since the last i-frame and what's going to change at the next i-frame - the more movement and lighting changes there are the more room you need to describe them.  To get the best possible quality an MPEG-2 encoder needs to read the video, work out the best way of doing it and then do the encoding.   DVD recorders have to do all their encoding on the fly, so they'll never produce the quality you can get by using a computer.   It's worth trying though - lots of people have got DVD recorders so you could probably use a friend's.

btw, S-Video doesn't support audio.