Newb

[Dis_tort_ion]

Hello everyone!
neato-info on this site, shouts to all who contribute to others...

For my first post in this forum, it involves (can you guess? ) DVD
Ripping.

More specific in what ive done/used:
dvddecryptor 3
smartrip
vstrip

now in reading post after post about the entire process, a conclusion still
sticks in my head. ripping the VOBs is one of the most important steps
of keeping quality for encoding. loading ripped VOBs into winDVD has
(at least to me) proven true. every one of these applications used results
in poor quality video when loaded/viewed.
playing with all the different options in these programs has not made a
drastic increase (or decrease) in the quality.
Film is 'blade' and a summary of the undesired quality includes very blurry
opening credits, small small blocks on most lines.
Audio is good.

[poopyhead]

loading the vobs into powerdvd/windvd may not be indicative of the quality....

sometimes it plays in a foreign language...sometimes it plays in incorrect aspect ratio...so may result in stretched "eggheads"...

but, trust me....the vobs are encoded at a really, really high bitrate...==> really really good quality

[Dis_tort_ion]

ok so then the actual vobs are great quality, getting them into
svcd without losing quality is the whole trick...

[NeWcS]

The objective I try to reach is to get my SVCD to look as close as possible to the DVD.

Im getting pretty dam good at it if I must say.

Ive found the best way to go is with the encoding. I use TMPG w/ 2-pass. My quality is killer. Its not a DVD but if someone didnt know better they wouldnt have a clue.