I would still be favoring MPEG2 if using s-video with Standard VHS "just in case" and for the convenience of a dedicated capture platform like a DVR, especially one that you could directly off load the video from in MPEG-TS format.. which is more tolerant of dropouts
A full conversion to MPEG-PS for burning DVDs would be likely to introduce more compromises to maintain the stream rate required by those playback formats.
Again, MPEG4 would be preferred to that.. if available.. in a dedicated device, native operating system players will not be encumbered by long expired licensing deals for MPEG2 playback codecs and more likely to be supported by minimally featured playback devices and programs going forwards.
However, MPEG2 capture devices like DVRs are more likely to have dedicated Time Base Correction and Frame Stabilization which is now no longer features included in a purely digital age.
I am biased.. since stumbling on to the ability to offload MPEG2 TS data directly from some of the most premium DVR capture devices ever made.. shortly before they were abandoned and shelved or consigned to the dump.. but their convenience and usage demonstrated by their popularity for about ten years says a lot about their overall effectiveness.
If an MPEG2 capture device like a DVR were used as a pass-thru device to feed an MPEG4 capture device for digitization, that might be the most effective combo and future proof.. but the odds of acquiring and combining them without introducing impedance mismatches or other signal glitches and coordinating them over a long period of time would seem cumbersome.. if only theoretical.
