Encoding .m2t to .avi with quality loss

[Millwood]

I have a few .m2t or .ts files that I export to .avi using mpegstreamclip. However, once the export is done, the resulting picture is noticeably grainy and there is considerable picture quality loss. Does anyone know exactly what settings to use or how to go about converting these files to .avi with no quality loss? I've used a couple codecs - Xvid, H.264, etc, but all the resulting files are not as good of quality as the original m2t file.
Here is the window that mpeg streamclip gives me:
http://img31.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=52658_Picture_1_123_425lo.jpg
Is there any settings that I should put it to that could help me? I put the quality ticker all the way up to 100% and that doesn't seem to help either.
Thanks for the help!

 

[-DH]

To start with, you're converting footage that's already highly compressed (MPEG-2). Add to that the deinterlacing that's selected in the image you posted and you're reducing the resolution by half. With those two things working against you, you're NOT going to get great quality.

You'd be better off working from the original source footage instead of the compressed MPEG-2 files.

-DH

 

[Millwood]

Thanks for the advice DH. Would it be prudent to do a 2-pass and up the quality on the ticker?
I'm trying to convert them into .avi format because the original files are so large.

 

[-DH]

Thanks for the advice DH. Would it be prudent to do a 2-pass and up the quality on the ticker?
I'm trying to convert them into .avi format because the original files are so large.

Well .... AVI really isn't a format or a codec. Like the QT Movie moniker, AVI is just a "wrapper" for many different codecs/formats. So the file size isn't really dependent on having an AVI designation - it IS dependent on the specific codec and settings you use.

The best way to proceed is to determine what the delivery and viewing method will be for the end user, then work back from there to determine your workflow and which codec/settings to use.

-DH