What is better for backing up movies: SVCD, DivX, VCD, Mpeg-2 (DVD) etc?
Check out my quality and comparison guides of a detailed analysis of the formats. Basically SVCD and VCD are the only ones that can be played back on standalone DVD player’s or (s)VCD player! BUT most DVD players don’t play SVCD’s so be careful. DivX can only be played back on an PC with good a VGA card and at least 300Mhz CPU! DivX do best as lowest bitrates, SVCD do best at medium bitrates (i.e: 3 CD’s or more) and Mpeg-2 does best at highest bitrates. There is a lot of crap going around saying DivX is going to replace DVD Mpeg-2, but this is not true! DivX (Mpeg-4) was designed for very low bitrates. It was designed by the same people who made Mpeg-2. The average bitrate of a DVD is something like 4000kbps and will go up to about 6-9000kbps on action scenes when its Variable Bitrate. The Low Motion codec even set at 6000kbps doesn’t equel the Mpeg-2 quality picture. Perhaps there will be an Mpeg-8 or something like that that improves on Mpeg-2 but it will not be Mpeg-4. Ah, I’ve cha
