The SD-DVD & HD Comparisons thread

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Jan 2007, 19:12

Right. The HK Video was said to be a downmix.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 28 Jan 2007, 21:22

hey,

it was indeed so even HKV can get fucked by Fortune Star. Not the most obvious of downmixes but nonethless it was.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Jan 2007, 00:44

bradavon wrote:[Does anyone have the Happy Together R4 DVD?

R4 has been confirmed to be a hunk of shit, same dreadful transfer as R2UK Artificial Eye release.

I'm not surprised that you've forgotten, even though we discussed these WKW movies to death some months ago.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 30 Jan 2007, 00:19

It's not a case of forgetting I tried to find the relevant thread to know exactly what was said but Bullets search is useless to find specific posts.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 30 Jan 2007, 01:08

bradavon wrote:It's not a case of forgetting I tried to find the relevant thread to know exactly what was said but Bullets search is useless to find specific posts.

It was mentioned in the WKW thread and/or the Madman thread.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 30 Jan 2007, 21:04

Going through 41 pages one by one is not my idea of fun

RickyTheDragonSteamboat · Post by **RickyTheDragonSteamboat** » 02 Feb 2007, 18:32

Can anyone post screen caps for Sony's R1 FULL CONTACT and ONCE A THIEF dvds? I had Full Contact but I sold it so I can upgrade for Mei Ah's remaster. That one kinda sucked. I swear Sony's looked much better.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 07 Feb 2007, 00:22

There are 161 comparisons in the database.
Wow !

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 07 Feb 2007, 00:37

That's quite a few.

starschwar · Post by **starschwar** » 01 Mar 2007, 02:00

Hey, since all the proper Bond films have been compared, why not the "Bond film that wasn't", Never Say Never Again, the R1 and R2 dvds?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 01 Mar 2007, 20:54

RickyTheDragonSteamboat wrote:Can anyone post screen caps for Sony's R1 FULL CONTACT and ONCE A THIEF dvds? I had Full Contact but I sold it so I can upgrade for Mei Ah's remaster. That one kinda sucked. I swear Sony's looked much better.

No offence, but it's a bit redundant since both Sony R1's of those films are OOP.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 01 Mar 2007, 23:03

Anyone possibly have the 1998 R1 release of The Fugitive (1993)? I have the 2001 version and would be interested in seeing a comparison.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 11 Apr 2007, 22:22

I propose replacing the cap taking parts of the sticky with this.

Download and install DVD43 unless you already use software such as AnyDVD or CSS Free.

Download and extract This File anywhere.

Run "VirtualDubMod.exe" and open a .vob file from the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD. It may take some trial and error to find the VOB you want but generally the fist 1GB file on the disc should be the first part of a film.

Find whatever you want to cap using the slider and then the << >> buttons or arrow keys on your keyboard for frame-by-frame movement. It's advisable to use the first or last frame of a shot to make it easier to match caps up.

Go to "Video > Snapshot source frame" or hit "Shift+1" to save the cap. It doesn't matter what filetype you use but save the caps as 1-10 or 01-10 in the directory you extracted.

Now if the DVD is anamorphic run "16x9.bat" or if it is fullscreen/letterboxed run "4x3.bat".

Upload the .jpg files that were just produced.

Using VDubMod not only gives a much more 'pure' capture but you have perfect backwards and forwards frame-by-frame navigation and it's a whole lot faster to take caps with than any DVD playing software. The batch files upscale to PAL resolution so all cap sizes will match and have the same level of minimal jpeg compression.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 11 Apr 2007, 22:43

1. Will this version of VirtualDub actually decrypt CSS keys ?
It would be silly if people had to rip the entire DVD just to take a few caps.

2. Is your 4x3 bat file correct ?
720x576 is not 4/3. It would be better to resize to 720x540 or 768x576, no ?

3. Are you sure about your "pure capture" thing ?
I've been doing a little comparison on my own and...
The VDubMod cap is more orangey than both my VDubMpeg-2 and Media Player Classic caps.

So far I'm liking the idea.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 11 Apr 2007, 23:12

Hmm I forgot about CSS keys. I'll look into the quickest way around that.

Forgot to change the size in the second batchfile before I zipped it. It should be 768x576 (upscaling > downscaling), sadly jpeg's don't support 4:3 flags do they.

I wrote pure as 'pure' for a reason, just meant unaltered and equal. VDub-MPEG2 doesn't let you easily save images, VDubmod does and is common. Whole idea of this is just the use of the same software so the tiny differences don't really matter.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 11 Apr 2007, 23:32

DVD43 is just like DVD RegionFree, no ?
It's a program that needs to be installed.

I can't ask people to install a program and download another just so they can do proper caps.
Tell you what, I'll add your idea to the sticky as an "alternative way of taking caps" after you've fixed the 4x3 batch file.

Let's all adopt 1024x576 and 768x576 from now on.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 11 Apr 2007, 23:36

tom2681 wrote:DVD43 is just like DVD RegionFree, no ?
It's a program that needs to be installed.

I can't ask people to install a program and download another just so they can do proper caps.
Tell you what, I'll add your idea to the sticky as an "alternative way of taking caps" after you've fixed the 4x3 batch file.

Let's all adopt 1024x576 and 768x576 from now on.

I just tested it. It's a tiny program that just sits in the tray and requires no interaction. Updated the above and fixed the batch file names and commands.
It's better than downloading and installing powerdvd as most people have already done.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 18 Apr 2007, 17:36

Why upscale NTSC caps to PAL res? Wouldn't it be more fair to keep them at 852*480?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 18 Apr 2007, 17:44

We've had this argument before and here's how I see it:

Downscaling = loss of detail.
Upscaling = no loss of detail.

852x480 generates a 96 vertical pixel loss for PAL DVDs. THAT isn't fair.
Upscaling NTSC DVDs isn't unfair as there is no loss of detail whatsoever.

It will however make it easier to see the difference between NTSC and PAL DVDs.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 18 Apr 2007, 18:26

How can upscaling not result in loss of detail?

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 18 Apr 2007, 19:15

gasteropod wrote:How can upscaling not result in loss of detail?

You're not taking anything away, you're adding information.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 18 Apr 2007, 19:23

Information that's not inherently there lol.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 18 Apr 2007, 19:55

Just think of it as magic.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 23 Apr 2007, 21:39

Tom, you need to fix the "alternative mthod" in the sticky. You just copy/pasted, needs to quote it for the links.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 Apr 2007, 00:13

Yup. It makes no sense without the link to Lourdes' zip file with the custom batch files and the image resize/converter program.