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Rip DVD to 720×480 or 640×480 ?
Really, I should have this one figured out but I’m having issues, and want to know a solution that will yield the highest quality for the edit and maintain aesthetic results.
I have a stack of DVDs, from NASA to be exact, to rip and convert to ProRes for the edit. These are film transfers (I assume film was transferred to a master tape and DVDs get made form that, etc.) The film frame size is 4×3. We’re editing in 1920×1080 @ 23.976, but the editor doesn’t want frame sizes of archive to be changed to HD, native is fine.
We’re editing with FCP. I’m using MPEG Streamclip, as usual, to rip DVDs.
When I look at the DVDs, some of the circles look a little squeezed to begin with in the image (I assume this was something the earlier filmmakers did as some circles look squeezed and some do not throughout the image). MPEG Streamclip is defaulted to 640×480 for export, which maintains the image – but the DVDs are going to be our master! When I export as 720×480 (or even 720×486), in hopes to maintain as many pixels as possible, the image is squeezed in reverse.
Obviously 640×480 exports the most correct image frame size – but it’s lacking pixels!
Please let me know what the most preferable frame size would be (Ripping to HD is not preferred).
Thank you.
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6 Replies
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DVDs MPEG-2s are 720×480 NTSC pixels.
640×480 is the display size on computers (Square pixels).
Convert it at 720×480.
rafael -
That makes sense. But when it goes into FCP in an HD frame it looks distorted ever so slightly. Is it okay to fix that distortion in FCP without degrading the quality of the image?
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1920×1080 is square pixels.
640×480 is square pixels.
720×480 is rectangular pixels.Look at the 720 & 640 export from Streamclip.
Which one looks less distorted out of Streamclip?
Is there a difference in FC?
In my experience the 640 should look correct in the 1920 sequence. -
640×480 looks more correct, but isn’t that less pixels? Don’t you want as many pixels as you can help?
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SD is SD.
You are losing some horizontal real estate(80 pixels) but that is the difference between rectangular and square pixels.
The Height isn’t changing just the width(square to rectangular).
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[Rosie Walunas] “That makes sense. But when it goes into FCP in an HD frame it looks distorted ever so slightly. Is it okay to fix that distortion in FCP without degrading the quality of the image?”
That might be because the picture is Anamorphic.
Is the DVD 16×9?
If so when you import to FC, you must check the Anamorphic column on Browser.[Rosie Walunas] “640×480 looks more correct, but isn’t that less pixels? Don’t you want as many pixels as you can help?”
That’s right.
If you go 640×480, you will be be changing the geometry twice: One in MPEGStreamclip, another one in FC.
Avoid this because this will degrade your already very compressed picture.
Convert to 720×480 and fix the aspect/size at once in FC. Keep all the original pixels, and save one generation.
rafael
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