I'm making a DVD from a marginal source hi8 capped in DV.
I believe the dc coefficient default is 9 but read to use 10.
What is the dc coefficient and should I use 8, 9, or 10 when dealing with hi8>DV>mpg?
Thx

I won't pretend to fully understand the complex technical explanations of how MPG compression works. Wikipedia, doom9 and videohelp.com should be great starting points if you want a deeper understanding.

The crude bottom line is that higher DC Precision = Higher quality of encoding, BUT it requires a higher bitrate. So if you use a high precision setting with too low a bitrate you may actually end up with worse quality.

The general consensus AFAIK is to use 10 for bitrates > 6000, 9 for bitrates 4000-6000, 8 for <4000.
Of course you should probably make your own tests...

Thanks for the explaination. I used 10 for mpgs at 8000 kbps and it's a bit clearer (no pun intended).