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SD DVD to Blu-Ray? or not.
I know the basic questions have been asked about capturing old DVD’s and answered, but I can’t find this one.
I’m trying to save my old family DVD’s that are degrading. I ran through MPEG Streamclip, captured as DV footage and imported in FCP7. No problem. When I scrub, the quality is vastly better than the original DVD, when I burn it back to a DVD, it looks slightly out of focus and there are some motion problems with a SD DVD5. I changed up and burned a ProRes DVD9 and it was better and for giggles, I sent the project into compressor and burned a blu-ray that is even a bit better as far as motion issues. This isn’t HD video. When I ran it through MPEG Streamclip to decompress it, the file size went to nearly 20 gig from a DVD5. My hopes were that the blu-ray format wasn’t compressing it so much that it would lose quality. I’m close to having it superior to the original that I hated because of Adobe’s resolution issues. Any ideas how I can improve the quality to what I see in my timeline? It’s 2 hrs and 11 minutes long, originally shot with a JVC Everio and a Canon Digital Rebel XT.
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16 Replies
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You can’t get it ‘superior’ to what was shot. How exactly are your family DVD’s degrading? DVDs are digital media – they last for quite a bit. They ‘fail’ not degraid.
The DVD9 (not prores, MPEG-2, the DVD Spec only permits MPEG-2 video) look better than the DVD-5 because they’re less compressed. Bonus – you worked in a ProRes original timeline, which did less damage to the footage than the DV timeline did.
So:
DVD > MPEG Streamclip> DV > MPEG-2> DVD-5 will look worse than
DVD > MPEG Streamclip > DV in a prores timeline> LARGER MPEG-2> DVD-9Making it blu ray will only blow it up.
Best,
Jeff G
Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com -
Hi Jeff, I thought they would last for many years. I have a thread further down the page “DVD Degradation” and I gathered I’m not alone. All the DVD’s I had authored from 06/07 using HP Lightscribe DVD5 media have all gone blank. I didn’t think that could happen. They all worked and were tested. All my family members across the country are this year having the same result with my DVD’s. Check out the thread, there were some surprising results. Fail or degrade or whatever the terminology, they are gone.
I did put the same project on a blu-ray hoping that it wouldn’t over compress and lose quality. It’s only better in scenes with motion. I know I can’t make the camera’s better, but when uncompressed in my canvas, the shots looked so good. Just wanted to see if someone had a better way to keep it that way.
In a nut shell, are you approving this workflow as my best option?: DVD > MPEG Streamclip > DV in a prores timeline> LARGER MPEG-2> DVD-9
Regards.
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Almost.
Best option?
DVD > MPEG Streamclip (either Uncompressed or ProRes)> FCP (either uncompressed or prores> then out to DVD-9 (although if it’s under 2 hrs, a DVD-5 should be fine.)An uncompressed (or nearly uncompressed ProRes) workflow will do the least damage to your footage.
Best,
Jeff G
Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com -
Thanks again!!
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I understand that your disks are going bad, but the way you are going about it is actually degrading the quality of your footage a little.
Your video was already compressed once when you originally put it on DVD, you are then pulling it from a DVD, and then compressing it again when putting it onto another DVD or blue ray.
So basically you are adding extra layers of compression that will lower the quality of the video.
The way to loose the least amount of quality would be to simply copy the disk onto a new one. Im betting one of the reasons they are going out is that they are light-scribe, if I remember correctly light-scribe disks are more problematic, but I could be wrong.
Now if you are planing to edit the footage then you have no choice but to put another level of compression on the footage after you rip them when they are compressed again to make the DVD after the edit.
**Hindsight is always 1080p**
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Zane is correct. Ripping the DVD is only good if you’re re-editing. Copying the DVD is a straight 1 to 1 digital duplication without recompression.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Does anyone here have an opinion on the utility of “archive quality” DVD media to prevent this happening?
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Ripping the DVD’s was my first choice. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be done. Thankfully, MPEG Streamclip seems to be my best option unless there is some other way. The discs that do work, barely work. They stall every few minutes and are ejected and the Video-TS files won’t work either. Can’t get a complete one without corrupted files. In MPEG Streamclip, I have had to make up to 30 attempts of obtaining full capture, cutting and splicing it back together. One 2 hour video took all weekend of playing with it on 3 different computers. I’m thrilled at this point to have recovered this stuff.
My first priority is to go back and archive and back up and backup up again since this media can fade away so quickly. I have a whole box full of DVD’s that could be at risk. Future projects won’t be handled the same. Video-TS files on 3 different drives stored in 2 locations.
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I wanted to point out that maybe exporting the mpeg2 from streamclip into Final cut as DV is not doing you any favors in image quality either. DV workflow is fast and all, but I think I would want to edit this stuff in a better quality codec, myself.
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Hi Mark, What workflow would you use to improve the quality?
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