Does capturing with a DVD player mean lower quality?

Hydroc · Post by **Hydroc** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 4:24 am

It says in the guide that capturing always results in lower quality than ripping. Is it really true, and if so, why?

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 5:28 am

The quality of captured footage will depend on the quality of the capture device, the settings of said device and/or the capture software, and the quality of the output of the DVD player and the type of connection used to the capture device. With so many variables, it's better to just rip the DVD to minimize possible sources of quality loss. Not to mention that using a capture device means you are converting digital to analog and then analog to digital, which means generational losses.

Hydroc · Post by **Hydroc** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:35 pm

Well I already know I'll outputing using S-Video and using a breakout box that's part of the computer's hardware. I also already know that I'll be capturing right into the editing program(DPSVelocity). I was told I'll be capturing at a high bitrate since harddrive space apparently isn't an issue. Given those facts, should I be at all concerned?

Dr. Derpface, J.D. · Post by **Dr. Derpface, J.D.** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:21 pm

Yes, yes you should. S-Video is about the worst possible way you could output something. As Willen said, if you capture from the DVD player, you are going from a digital source to an analog signal, then re-capturing in digital. This will always lead to loss. As far as analog signals go, s-video is pretty much at the bottom of the barrel. So you get losses from several different avenues.

What Willen didn't mention was that you are also going to incur frame-loss as well. Unless you have an insanely fast computer, if you want to keep the highest possible image quality, you will have to capture to a lossless format. Since you will have no control over playback from the computer, you run the very real possibility of the capture device dropping frames left and right because your hard drive will not be able to write the data fast enough to keep up with the playback.

All in all, there's no reason to capture from a DVD player. Find a copy of DVD Decrypter, DVD2AVI, AVISynth, and do it the right way. It's a pain at first, but trust me, the results will be more than worth it if you don't shortcut the process.

Hydroc · Post by **Hydroc** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:24 am

Fisrt off, why is S-Video the worst possible way to output something? The computer is plenty fast(even though I haven't used it yet, I'm sure there won't be any problems). I was told it'll capture in realtime. I realize that there will always be loss, but will it be noticeable in the video?

I won't be able to download stuff onto the computer, as it's not mine, so I can either use what is there or try to do it on my laptop using a worse editing program and very limited space.

My mom says that the system is really good and that I'll have no noticeable reduction in visual quality, and she's experienced enough to know her stuff, but I keep having doubts as I haven't used the system yet.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:53 am

S-video has even been replaced on things like video game consoles, because the image quality leaves something to be desired. On an old tv set, you probably can't tell the difference, but on a crystal clear pc monitor, it will be visibly apparent.

Let me put it another way. Until a few years back, a fairly large portion of anime dvds released in America looked like crap. They had all sorts of visible quality problems, like rainbows, dot crawl, blurriness, and pretty bad noise. This was largely because a lot of the companies that were producing this stuff were running it through analog equipment. Even the best equipment used by studios like these resulted in video looking like complete horse manure. These days, since anime is produced completely digitally for the most part, dvds typically look very nice and clean.

The system you were planning to edit on sounds like one of those professional systems designed exclusively for editing. While I don't have much experience with anything like that, I do think that they aren't designed with a lot of things AMV creators do in mind. It's also probably pretty difficult to learn and use.

Ripping a dvd to your computer will typically take less than 5gb per disc. If you are selective about it and only rip pieces you need, it can be much less than that.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:01 am

Hydroc wrote:Fisrt off, why is S-Video the worst possible way to output something? The computer is plenty fast(even though I haven't used it yet, I'm sure there won't be any problems). I was told it'll capture in realtime. I realize that there will always be loss, but will it be noticeable in the video?

You won't get any loss in ripping a DVD. A digital copy of a digital source that doesn't pass through analog at any point won't have that problem.

Hydroc · Post by **Hydroc** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:15 am

Zarxrax wrote: The system you were planning to edit on sounds like one of those professional systems designed exclusively for editing. While I don't have much experience with anything like that, I do think that they aren't designed with a lot of things AMV creators do in mind. It's also probably pretty difficult to learn and use.

I was told it will take me all of half an hour to learn to use it. It actually is designed exclusively for editing, but I don't know where it falls on the scale of systems designed exclusively for editing(I was told it's a $20,000 system but it's more than 5 years old so I don't know, and that includes the entire suite).

What type of things would I be doing that it wouldn't be designed to do optimally? I don't see how it could be worse for this type of project than WMM, which is me only other option unless I want to learn how to use a mac and get on the system with Final Cut.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 4:36 pm

Well, I'm not familiar with it so I really can't comment. Just about all you (probably) would need to do is be able to cut up clips on specific frames, line them up how you want with the audio, and maybe fade between some clips. Unfortunately, WMM doesn't have all of that functionality :p
A lot of editing software actually makes it pretty hard to sync stuff up with audio. Adobe Premiere 6.5 and older was the best software I know of in this regard, because as you click and drag across the timeline (this is called scrubbing), it plays the audio for you, so you can very easily find the exact spots to lay down certain clips. It's pretty surprising, but most software I have tried does not offer this functionality, and those that do often implement it very poorly (in Adobe Premiere Pro for instance, the audio is much more "choppy" when you scrub it, so its more difficult to hear exactly whats going on).

Also, professional tools aren't really designed for the kind of workflow that an amv creator typically follows, such as using footage ripped from dvds, for instance (as you have already found out.)