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Ripping movies to the computer
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30		 Page 2 of 2
Author:  limeibook86 [ 17 Oct 2011, 02:37 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
elviscaprice wrote:
Not putting you down or anything, just using your experience as an example. Why would you want to make a DVD once your digital? I can only think of one reason. To give someone else a copy with inferior technology so they can watch it on an old set top DVD box. Otherwise, once your digital and on a hard drive, your home free. Never need another DVD.

You say, " I've copied some LaserDiscs to the computer (via an analog to digital FireWire converter). " I take it you we're unsuccessful with this method otherwise why copy to a DVD recorder?

Yes, authoring can be tricky when using different systems for copy. Best to stick with the PC only DVD recorder. I never liked the DVD recorder stand alones, for many reasons, biggest is choice of quality settings for recording.


I was very successful from using my FireWire converter to the computer. But I was trying different ways to copy content. At this time I had my old iMac which didn't have too much hard drive space free. Importing the digital video to iMovie and then exporting a QuickTime video file would take over 5 hours for a 2 hour film. So it wasn't worth it to me. That's why I tried my DVD Recorder, I was trying to make a backup of a disc. Turned out pretty well for what it was.

However I did author a DVD from my iMac so I can give someone a copy to share once, and that worked out pretty well. The raw formatted digital video file on my Mac was well over 20GB in size, my friend didn't care about quality, he just wanted to see the content. So in this case a DVD was just fine. And it compressed very well and it was pretty good. I mean my LD I was copying from had some laser rot. So at the very least I wanted a personal digital copy of it, even if it wasn't the best quality. Now with the Star Wars Blu-Ray set with this content it's not as useful to have but still... (This was the Making of Star Wars LD disc I was copying)

As for the Star Wars LaserDisc extras (from the Definitive Collection) I copied them with my new iMac (with plenty of hard drive space) into iMovie for editing and rearranging via my FireWire converter. Then for sharing I exported a QuickTime file for and burned a data DVD to give to a co-worker. I do understand how making a DVD of a digital file degrades the quality. But in my case it was easy to burn a DVD to share the content. It's not like I deleted my digital master files. That would be just silly! :lol:
Author:  elviscaprice [ 17 Oct 2011, 03:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
Your talking about compression (DVD or mpeg 2 codec). Actually the laserdisc analogue quality when comparing to digital quality works well with the MPEG 2 codec. The problem is usually in how you handle the sound (quality). The lossless file is overkill but works nicely for any mastering alterations. Another good way to send someone a DVD file is to send them a USB hard drive key. Just so they send it back. If it's alot of data, I use an internal hard drive without an enclosure.

8-) Elvis
Author:  limeibook86 [ 17 Oct 2011, 03:07 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
elviscaprice wrote:
Your talking about compression (DVD or mpeg 2 codec). Actually the laserdisc analogue quality when comparing to digital quality works well with the MPEG 2 codec. The problem is usually in how you handle the sound (quality). The lossless file is overkill but works nicely for any mastering alterations. Another good way to send someone a DVD file is to send them a USB hard drive key. Just so they send it back. If it's alot of data, I use an internal hard drive without an enclosure.

8-) Elvis


Well my original intent was not to rip LDs perfectly, I do realize the way I was doing things was no where near perfect. I'm sorry if I was giving the impression of that, I didn't intend to. But for my situation and needs it worked out okay. But of course for anything I'd like to make a nice copy of I'd take care to save the original format. Yes USB drives (even some flash drives these days) are a great way of transferring larger files. I recently got a 16GB USB drive for under $20, great little thing to have to transfer a good amount of data (if you don't mind waiting a bit). :)

-Steve
Author:  elviscaprice [ 17 Oct 2011, 03:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
Sorry, I went over the top, have to much time on my hands. LOL, yeah those keys are nice.
8-) Elvis
Author:  limeibook86 [ 17 Oct 2011, 03:30 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
elviscaprice wrote:
Sorry, I went over the top, have to much time on my hands. LOL, yeah those keys are nice.
8-) Elvis

Oh don't worry about it. :lol: Yeah those USB flash drives are great. I still remember buying my first 128 MB one... thankfully they've gone down in price and up in capacity!
Author:  mikeystoyz [ 17 Oct 2011, 03:39 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
I just keep my dvd quality at 2 hours. It looks fine. Normal dvd is 4 hours isnt it? Regardless, looks and sounds find on my computer.
Author:  limeibook86 [ 17 Oct 2011, 03:46 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
mikeystoyz wrote:
I just keep my dvd quality at 2 hours. It looks fine. Normal dvd is 4 hours isnt it? Regardless, looks and sounds find on my computer.


Yeah from my tests the 2 hour mode worked pretty well in most cases. It was hard to tell the difference from the 1 hour mode, at least on my DVD recorder it was. :)
Author:  mikeystoyz [ 17 Oct 2011, 05:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
Most LDs are under 2 hours. I have a 1 1/2 hour mode as well that I want to try. I figure at 2 hours you get as good as you can almost. Plus, it gives me a backup copy incase something happens.
Author:  tshephard [ 21 Feb 2023, 01:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
On an almost similar thought...

As DVDs die away, why on earth don't DVD player/recorders come both ways?
I mean a universal DVD unit with digital connections for the PC, and A/V output for a display.
I know they are the same mechanisms, and by now a single SOC should be able to allow either output for pennies more - but be sold to either customer without compromise.

Anyone know?
Author:  rcarlson [ 21 Feb 2023, 08:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
I suspect that it's just simpler and cheaper to sell DVD players and DVD drives as separate products for separate use-cases. There's a legal difference between DVD and DVD Video. I think selling a DVD drive has fewer licensing stipulations than selling a DVD player.

^ That's a paragraph that, while still technically correct today, would make more sense with "Blu-ray" substituted for "DVD," not least because of the backwards-compatibility. It hasn't been worth the effort to so much as design new DVD-specific products for years.
Author:  geekdom [ 26 Feb 2023, 02:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
Even though I have multiple LD players in the house, my wife doesn't like messing with them when she wants to watch one of my collection when I'm not around so I've digitized several.

I digitize a lot of camcorder videos for family and friends and have a device called a ClearClick. It has a little view screen and composite and hdmi inputs. It records to a SD card. Transfer them from the SD card to my computer. I'll look up what the screen ratio is for the disc and use a ratio to pixel calculator to get the right dimensions. Then I fire up camtasia and edit the video. Take the end result and put it on my plex server for easy access for her from any roku in the house.
Author:  barrioman [ 26 Feb 2023, 23:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
I use Easy VHS to DVD for my capturing, except I save the video to a drive and not a DVD.
Author:  lonerangerface [ 26 Feb 2023, 23:55 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
Did I mention I use the Canopus ADVC-110 to capture LD's?
Author:  geekdom [ 27 Feb 2023, 02:18 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ripping movies to the computer
lonerangerface wrote:
Did I mention I use the Canopus ADVC-110 to capture LD's?


That's a good setup. I went with the ClearClick because I started off just looking to digitize my mom's 300+ vhs/vhs-c/8mm collection and it's nice and portable...there was no way I was carting that collection to my house nor taking my pc to her's.
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