Hmmmm? Having an additional intermediate encoding to avoid re-encoding artifacts???
By converting to very high quality MPEG2 you avoid issues with AVI, XVID, H.264 encoding and decoding which a lot of programs handle differently (you can get different results just by using different builds of FFMPEG).
For instance, it´s impossible to do frame-accurate cutting with a lot of AVI cutters, whereas on MPEG2 cuts are frame-perfect. Don´t ask me why, I´m not a codecs writer just an end user of many video cutting tools. And this is based on my personal experience.
MPEG2 is the codec used on broadcast HDTV, and while it´s much less efficient than H.264, it´s less CPU intensive for applications to work with.
FC
-- During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act
Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un Acto Revolucionario - George Orwell