what I'm saying is nero recode is incapable of superior quality to gknot because it is a closed source program that doesn't utilise the very best possible steps, but rather compromises into an acceptable method of encoding in comparison to the best.
However, its not entirely true its all about quality. Best quality by itself is wrong, best compromise is the best definition of what your aiming for, particularly for releasing.
Firstly, the DVD format source is incapable of best quality because it in itself is inferior to HDTV content which is far superior in terms of visual quality. Likewise, MPEG4 is a superior codec to MPEG2 (on a DVD), however DVD is the predominant format because its standardised and endorsed and widely used.
However, your aiming for compressability
and best quality with a rip. So its not necessary the best quality (which requires more space, bitrate and resources), but best quality to a level of compromise.
And as it stands the nero digital codec aka. x264 is the best quality codec. And gknot is the best quality encoder I have yet seen (providing you know how to use it).
Nero Recode as a program does not contain enough options to come close as an encoder, as said its strength purely lay in its Nero Digital codec which is available now as the open source x264
Back to releasing, I don't want to waste quality or importantly space in terms of bandwidth, filesize or bloat. Therefore I have to choose the codec which is most compatible to get it the best spread, and also in the best quality. There's the first compromise and that's Xvid atm. The next compromise is on bandwidth and filesize, which limits filesize. I therefore am reduced to a 1 or 2cd release, and you always aim to get the best out of the technical caps imposed by ripping circumstance.
Taken into account ANY encode step is lossy (okay lets exclude lossless [which is already lost some in the capture]), we have to work with the human visual system and luckily that's pretty shit. Therefore you can acheive perfectly great looking rips by compromising.
So yes and no, its about best quality, but its best quality as a compromise that's the factor in releasing. Even dvd makers have to compromise with the cap on max bitrate (~8mb/s), max resolution (720x) and max filesize(typically 8.5GB) available. That is in essence what ripping and encoding is about.
Anyway, my advise is to use Gknot and read a guide written by some really intelligent people over @
www.doom9.org . No point settling for a worse method. If you want to use nero digital codecs, use the x264, if you plan on releasing, you'll fair better with xvid for the time being
ps transcoding is an inferior method to encoding
by egov on Sun Mar 06, 2005 10:19 am 
hahaha
