CompuServe Messages

John: >>Theoretically, once you get the (video) data to a digital form, it can be converted from any format to any format.<< I think that is a dangerous statement to make. The current example of M-JPEG and MPEG is a good example of why. To go from M-JPEG to MPEG you will have to decompress then recompress, thus losing a "digital" generation. If there are any artifacts created by the M-JPEG compressor, they will be compressed as artifacts by MPEG. That means artifacts of artifacts. You've probably heard on XingCD. It does take those M-JPEG files and convert them as you say, and it can do a pretty good job if the original is fairly artifact free. The danger is in the implication that one can move back and forth freely between algorythms. Perhaps in theory one can, but there is likely to be a cost, similar to dubbing to another tape format.