How to tell video quality?

[btiger]

What's the Bit rate for DVD quality movie? and does video size plays any part?

I downloaded a few IMAX movies and they are of different bit rates,1376,1053,1833......how does one tell if any of these files is of DVD quality?

If I have a file with original bit rate of 1376, video size of 352X288 and I use Nero to "Transcode" it to aspect ratio 4:3, resolution 704X480, quality standard play (5073kbps), would it then make this movie of DVD quality? What are the specs of DVD quality anyways? (assuming std 2 hr on a 4.7 disc).

Thanks for help out a newb

[burninfool]

DVD specs(NTSC):
Resolution=352x240/352x480/704x480/720x480
Video Bitrate=0-9800KB/s
Video Format=MPEG-2(better quality) but some players support MPEG-1(average quality).
Audio Samplerate=48KHz
Audio Format=AC3,LPCM,DTS but most players will support MP2.

I would encode at 352x240,MPEG-2,1500KB/s.
DVD movies that you buy are always 720x480,MPEG-2 with a variable bitrate of ~6000KB/s.

BTW...You are also confusing "transcode" for "encode".Transcoding is for reducing the bitrate,encoding is for changing formats and resolution.

[btiger]

Thanks burninfool, so by "encoding" I can increase the quality of the picture? or is there anyway to improve the image quality of a film/file? (if the original file I downloaded from the web is of so so only quality)

Oh, one more thing, if I am to use Nero's default settings, most of the time the file is set to super long play instead of standard play, and the pass is set to 1 pass instead of 2 passes, are these default setting make any differences and should I change them or leave them alone? Thanks.

[burninfool]

There's an old saying"crap in...crap out",if the source video is awful then there's little you can do to fix it.Enlarging the resolution will only make the picture quality worse(eg 352x240->720x480).
I would set it to standard play/2 pass for better quality.

[btiger]

Thanks again, nice "Frog"