CloneDVD aspect ration problem

[godftw]

First of all I have to mention that I am a complete newbie at DVD ripping.
The way i rip dvd is with CloneDVD5, after that converting them to .mkv with Ripbot264. It's probably not the best way, but it's easy so I use it.

From what I understand after ripping the dvd with CloneDVD there should be no quality loss, but I see a quality difference.. not much but the .avi is slightly more 'pixelated'. I compared the media info of both videos and the only difference is that after the ripping the aspect ratio changes from 16:9 to 5:4... i think this may be the problem, am I right? If so, how do I keep the same aspect ratio ?

[guns1inger]

Ripping with CloneDVD will not produce a quality drop, if you are only ripping. However if you rip to a DVD5 size then you may be transcoding to reduce the output size - potential quality drop one. Then you re-encode with ripbot - potential quality drop two. if you want absolutely no quality drop then you have to rip it without trancoding, then use makemkv to create you mkv file. You will end up with lots of 7, 8 or 9 GB mkv files, but no quality loss.

As for the aspect ratio change - it could be something ripbot is doing, or it could be that your player doesn't read the correct aspect ratio from the mkv file.

[godftw]

maybe i don't quite know what ripping is, i'm not talking about ripping to a DVD5 from a DVD9 ... i copy it as a Movie File. I know there is a quality drop after re-encoding it with ripbot but i notice the same thing after i copy the dvd asa a movie file. Also the .avi file created by CloneDVD is the one that has the aspect ratio changed.

LE: I tried makemkv on a chapter and the difference between the 1gb file made with makemkv and the 200mb one, copied as a movie file and encoded with ripbot, is very very little, so the quality drop isn't a problem.

The aspect ratio problem remains, any ideas?

[godftw]

I tried changing the aspect ratio for the mkv file with mkvtoolnix but after muxing the video is rubbish: no image+scratching sound... Maybe i don't know how to use the tool:/

This is what i did: i added my .mkv file in the input, i clicked on the video file in the Tracks, chapters and tags list and then at format specifications i changed the aspect ratio, is there more to it?

[guns1inger]

What player are you using ?

[godftw]

Kmplayer

it can't be the player the one that reads the aspect ratio wrong, I've used mediainfo also.

[guns1inger]

Did you use mmg.exe, or the commandline tool ?

[godftw]

i used mmg.exe

The problem with mmg is because of the .mkv video (the one copied as .avi with clonedvd and encoded with ripbot). I tried it on another .mkv file and it works...


I think I must add that after the encoding with ripbot the video changes it's aspect ratio again... so it's something like this:
Original DVD File 16:9 --clonedvd--> .avi file 5:4 --ripbot--> .mkv file 4:3

It's f. annoying.

[guns1inger]

CloneDVD is screwing up aspect ratio during the conversion to AVI. I believe you would get better quality results by doing a straight rip to ISO or Video_TS folders with no conversion to AVI, then using Ripbot to convert the DVD and create the mkv file. This not only removes a useless conversion to AVI, but will most likely solve your aspect ratio problem.

[godftw]

thanks, I'll try that because I still see a quality drop and I don't like it.

I found a solution for the aspect ratio problem on my own, I used mpeg4modifier to modify the .avi and then encode it with ripbot, but I think your solution may solve the quality problem.

[guns1inger]

Every time you encode video using a lossy codec, you reduce quality to some degree. The bigger the squeeze, the bigger the loss. The goal should always be to get from your source format to your destination format in the least steps possible. Sometimes you do need to have intermediate steps - video processing or filtering, for example - in which case it is recommended that you save to a lossless format, then encode to your final format from this.

The other thing to consider is that mkv files can contain different formats. For example, your avi may be able to be repackaged as an MKV without re-encoding. It may not be H264, but that may not be of concern to you. Just something else to think about.

[godftw]

damn there still is a quality drop and it isn't worth the time and space because I get the same result with the steps I mentioned above ...

I think my computer or a codec or something might be the problem becouse I ripped the dvd with AnyDVD also and the quality of the vobs is not 100% as it should be.

Eh, it doesn't matter ... the quality/size ratio I get with the ClodeDVD to avi + mpeg4modifier + ripbot is good enough for what I need.

Thanks for the help.

[HemLok]

CloneDVD will not change the aspect ratio of a copied/ripped/burned DVD. I suspect, however, that the discussion here is really concerning CloneDVD mobile, right? There's never going to be no loss of quality if you convert from a DVD to DivX/Xvid. That said, the recent versions of CloneDVD mobile use Xvid for the DivX profile rather than using ffmpeg which results in better quality for the AVI output. With regard to the aspect ratios issues, use a profile that makes use of the correct aspect ratio or add a custom profile to the devices.ini file in the CloneDVD mobile installation directory. If you need help with a custom profile for that then you might want to ask that section of the Slysoft forums.

For ripping my DVDs to a more portable format I simply use MakeMKV to rip to MKV without changing the audio or video format and thereby keeping all the original quality. I get to keep the original quality and have a more portable file that I can archive and/or stream to other devices.

[godftw]

I assure you that there is a drop of quality, even with MakeMKV I have a quality drop. The edges (people faces, stuff like that) become more pixelated, I understand that it's not normal, or event 'imposible' as you seem to state, but it's just how it is, I'm not imagining it.
Anyway it doesn't matter right now, I don't have time to see where and what the problem is, I'll surely post again when I'll have time and try to solve the problem.

PS: it's not CloneDVD mobile, it's CloneDVD5 - i believe there is a difference:/, i'm not sure.