Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

What's better for archiving?

Mar 9, 2006 1:34AM PST

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.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
In short. DO NOT ALTER.
Mar 9, 2006 1:37AM PST

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

- Collapse -
Would this be a better idea?
Mar 9, 2006 4:16AM PST

So would i be better off just choosing the mpeg4 option they have instead?

- Collapse -
Yes. AS-IS.
Mar 9, 2006 4:51AM PST

If they hand you a file. Store it. Re-compressing or transcoding will result in bit loss.

Bob

- Collapse -
I've decided both is better
Mar 9, 2006 5:25AM PST

I'm going to download both the Mpeg2 and Mpeg4 videos.

The Mpeg2 is better suited for viewing on my television, while the Mpeg4 is better suited for a PVP. No need to transcode.

Thanks for the advice.