We here at Broadband Tech Group are often asked to advise on, or actually encode large quantities of video, and audio materials for a variety of purposes. Now that web video has become common we are being asked to re-encode video which was previously compressed for some other purpose such as DVD video and the like.
Be careful; garbage-in usually results in garbage-out, when discussing quality video and audio.
What can be done to ensure higher quality video and audio, when encoding video from tape or disk?
The question is complex - there are many areas and issues related to "quality". We will not attempt to answer the question of quality in one posting, of this forum but rather, in a series of postings over time.
First let's look at the issues which are a part of "quality". Quality is partly determined by the type and grade of the source material(s). Souce materials can be broken down to include
a) media format
b) recording device quality
c) micing and lighting techniques
d) transfer issues etc.
There are some general rules of thumb which can be applied to video and audio quality including
1) high quality recordings will generate in higher quality results
2) late stage encoding is better
3) employ high quality codecs
4) determin and follow best practice techniques for multiple format conversions
5) eliminate compression before encoding whenever possible
6) cause minimal transcoding or encoding of encoded materials.