Re-encode for higher quality?

[Blazey]

Hey gang,

I bought a DVD and the picture quality is rather poor. It looks like some filtering is in order, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Should I cap it as an AVI and encode, or rip it and re-encode the ripped MPEG?

[louv68]

To the best of my knowledge, if you start out with crap, you'll still get crap. Garbage in, garbage out. I could totally be wrong. That's just what I've heard others say.

[Blazey]

I'm with you 100%, but this isn't really crap. It's an old movie released by Alpha Video on DVD. It's probably in the public domain (as are most of their releases) and wasn't given the treatment it deserved. So, it just needs a little help. Anyone who has bought Alpha, or Rhino DVD's before knows what I'm talking about!

[steve2713]

Anyone who has bought Alpha, or Rhino DVD's before knows what I'm talking about!

I hear that :P. I've got alot of those Alpha sets, classics, sci-fi, horror, b-movie crap, all kinds of stuff :P Some of them are not released on anything better anyway, so sometimes they're your best or only option.

Some transfers aren't bad, many of them look like VHS transfers and could probably be improved with some sharpening, as long as you give them plenty of bitrate when you convert them. I agree that typically you can't improve crap, but you may be able to sharpen the image at least. I've never done this personally with a poor DVD transfer, but I'd love to hear if you have any success doing it, there's a few that'd be worth trying to sharpen up.

P.S. - what's the movie, anyway? I may have it as well, I've got some pretty cheesy stuff in some of those sets.

[louv68]

I bought The Giant Gila Monster & The Killer Shrews double feature back in the late 90's. It has got to be the worst DVD Mastering I've ever seen. Macroblocks are flying all over the place. I was wondering if I could somehow improve upon the quality and get rid of all the giberish.

[steve2713]

I've got both of those movies also louv68 :P , though they are not that release. The Killer Shrews is from the Alpha sets I'm talking about, and actually I've got both of them in a 50(!) Horror Movies pack. The whole 50 pack is only about $24 online and some of the transfers are not too bad, some are pretty marginal. They're better than some transfers I've seen, most Madacy transfers are putrid. I can check these to see how they look, you'd just be better off buying something like this for as cheap as they are.

edit: Here's what I'm talking about louv:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=VMG007003

They're a reputable retailer, $23 shipped, you can't beat that. I've ordered from them before, they're a good company, great prices.

Here's a link to Amazon, for some reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001HAGTM/qid=1108685397/sr=2-1/104-714...v=glance&s=dvd

[louv68]

Thanks steve2713

Too bad the collection doesn't include "The Creeping Terror." This movie is so bad, it's great. "Bobby........Bobby.........BOBBEEEEEEEEE!!!"