Don't recompress the content. MPEG is lossy encoding. Every time you re-compress, you lose something. If you take that content, AS-IS then that will be as good as it every will be.
Bob
Is it better to archive in Mpeg1 or Mpeg2? After reading through alot of information I'm no clearer on this than when i first started.
There are some Vintage Cartoons on Archive.org that i want. I'm not certain which format would be better for archiving these files. I'm not concerned with which format is more campatible with players. Just which format is better for archiving.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic