Home DVD to MPEG2 - limitations

[cibola]

Hi
I'd like to share my experience and observations. My project is converting my old VHS family video tapes to digital.
I achieved some success about 3 years ago, by converting the tapes to DVD using a Panasonic DVD recorder. I am pleased with those results, as I know VHS has quality limitations due to resolution, so wasn't expecting HD results.

For various reasons (apart form disliking DVD's which I think are annoying, slow to load, scratch easily and tempermental), I now wish to have the files available in another video format that can be used on a PC or output to a TV via a DVD player or PS3 with USB inout.

I tried many (and I mean many) DVD to AVI programs at various bitrates. The quality at over 5000 bits was reasonable, being about 80% as good as the DVD quality on screen. Some artifacts can be observed, but not too bad.

The trouble is, the AVI files don't like being played on my DVD players and PS3 etc uinless the file is below 2 gigs. I could split the large files into 2, but thats messy. I also noted that original DVD burn had AC3 audio, and the various converters often tried to change that to MP2 or 3 format. Using MP3 just provided no audio. MP2 was ok though.

Next I thought I'd try MPEG, as the VOB files on the DVD are pretty similar. Again, I've tried many programs. The results are mixed.
Using something like VOB2MPG does a fair job, with no recoding, which is what I'prefer. The file does play on my PS3 usb input, but my video aspect options drop from 5 (which it was happy to do for for AVI files), down to 3. I get normal view, which I am thankful for, but miss the slight zoom option.

The same file will not play on my usb drive if used my 2 dvd players or the Sony Bravia TV USB input unless the bitrate is below 6800 (I experimented from 9282 down to 6800). Using 6800 bits means recoding from the original 9282 bits (approx) from the DVD. Quality is about 90% as good as the DVD, I can still see a few artifacts. Still better than the AVi though. And, the TV allows me the full 5 video aspect options - remember the PS3 only gives me 3 of the 5 available on the TV. Weird.

You might say I'm being fussy, but when you start with a format like VHS which isn't very high res, you need every bit of detail you can get.

So unless someone has done this before and managed to get a full MPG from the DVD VOB files that will play on a USB drive in dvd players, I guess I can use the PS3 with the limited aspect options.

By the way, my DVD players are an LG with USB and HDMI out, and a $35 ALDI brand with USB (don't scoff, as it plays just as many things as the LG, which is almost anything). My Sony Bravia TV has a USB input, but is very fussy at what it plays....not much.

Cheers

[tigredefogo]

Thanks for sharing this information.

[guns1inger]

I don't really understand what you are talking about, frankly.

DVD has two aspect ratios - 4:3 and 16:9. That's it. Mpeg-2 has three options - 4:3, 16:9 and 2.21:1.

Whatever you are talking about is a hardware limitation of the players you are using. You also haven't mentioned what converters you tried, but judging from your experiences they were either very poor (WinAVI, Xilisoft or similar) or you didn't know how to use them properly.

If you ditch the requirement to play the files on your DVD players, the best option is H264, in an MP4 container. With the right options you will easily get the same quality you have now at around half the bitrate or better, and it will happily play on the PS3 (I can't speak for the TV's media player).

[chowmein]

Investigate avisynth, you can denoise & upscale & make progressive-frame etc... And convert to h264, as gunsl1nger says, if you want to play on PS3.