DVD Ripper Don't want to resize video, want orginal

[snakyjake]

I'm converting a DVD to MP4. In the Video Format section, there's several Frame Resolutions to choose from. Not one of the available selections is the Original Frame Resolution, nor Original Aspect Ratio.

I want the original; not resized, not cropped, not zoomed, no change to aspect ratio.

Do I need to "customize" the Output Size to match the Orginal Frame Resolution?

[Anny]

I'm converting a DVD to MP4. In the Video Format section, there's several Frame Resolutions to choose from. Not one of the available selections is the Original Frame Resolution, nor Original Aspect Ratio.

I want the original; not resized, not cropped, not zoomed, no change to aspect ratio.

Do I need to "customize" the Output Size to match the Orginal Frame Resolution?

Hi snakyjake，

1) When using DVDFab DVD Ripper-MP4 option, insert the original movie to your DVD/Blu-ray drive, select the titles you need to convert, click on "Edit", open "Conversion settings", then you can adjust the settings for the converted movie files.

You can click on "Video Effect Settings", then change the aspect ratio or customize the output size.

2) Also, you can try using DVDFab DVD Ripper-VOB option or DVDFab DVD Ripper-MKV option(choose mkv.remux as profile at the bottom of DVDFab main screen) . There would be no compression involved and the output file would be with original aspect ratio, original bitrate, etc.

Anny

[signals]

The output frame size is usually not the same as the MPEG-2 frame on the DVD, which can be anamorphic, letter boxed or pillarboxed. You can copy it exactly by turning cropping off in Common Settings, but the result will be that you encode black bars, wasting video bits and reducing the encoded size of the active video in your conversion.

[snakyjake]

Thanks for this information.

Here's an example from the Video Effect Settings, use what DVDFab preselected:

Original Frame Resolution (852 x 480)
Original Aspect Ratio (1.77:1)
Cropped Aspect Ratio (2.34:1)
Source Zoom: 57%
Output Zoom: 60%
Output Size: 720 x 308

I don't understand why the Output Size is different than the Original Frame Resolution. The Original Frame Resolution is not even a selection in the Frame Resolution. This is my main confusion. I would expect DVDFab to automatically select the original.

Unless that's because I'm selecting a 16:9 aspect ratio, which requires cropping and resizing to make it 16:9.

Or should I customize the size, and force the Original Frame Resolution?

[signals]

You can add the original manually on the resize tab if you want to try it. What disc are you trying to convert? Normal DVD-Video is 720x480, yours is an odd dimension. The 720x308 that is suggested will look good and have no black bars encoded as part of the picture.

[snakyjake]

You can add the original manually on the resize tab if you want to try it. The 720x308 that is suggested will look good and have no black bars encoded as part of the picture.

So the pre-selection is DVDFab's best choice?
Now that I'm understanding this a bit better, I really want best picture for my TV, and that doesn't mean it needs to be the original. Though I don't quite understand why the original DVD format is not the best for my TV (isn't that what the DVD was made for?)

What disc are you trying to convert?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/

I've also had this same issue on many other DVD's.

Jake

[signals]

Great movie. The best picture is the one that looks best to you, it is subjective. If you are converting to MPEG-4, there are many settings that interact that have an effect on the picture. You can experiment with short conversions using the Title Start/End button to make conversions of only a chapter or two and see how they look with different settings. If your media player upscales to an HDMI output for a hi-def screen, use one of the h264 MP4 profiles for better results if your player supports it.

[Complication]

Yes, DVDFab does usually select the best frame resolution. It will be the one that is equal to or slightly less than the DVD width, 720x??? or 704x???. As signals pointed out, DVDFab is just trying to get rid of the extra black bars in the video stream that were added to make the video DVD compliant.

If the content is a film then DVDFab will often also want to remove the extra copied frames and get the video back to the original 23.976fps (and you should let it).

[Floyd]

You can add the original manually on the resize tab if you want to try it. What disc are you trying to convert? Normal DVD-Video is 720x480, yours is an odd dimension. The 720x308 that is suggested will look good and have no black bars encoded as part of the picture.

I am also having the same issue converting to .h264 on at least 25% the size is reduces to something like 546 x 306. Shawshank Redemption is one I am converting right now. Seems a little extreme. Original 854x480.

[snakyjake]

I want DVDFab to auto crop the black bars (to save space, without quality loss), and readjust the frame resolution to the optimal HDTV aspect ratio of 16:9.

This copy goes on my HTPC, not a limited storage device (e.g. portable player). I'm preferring quality over compressed storage size.

From what I'm told, this is exactly what DVDFab is doing be default. Though I have no idea why DVDFab is giving me so many choices.

[Complication]

If you are looking for quality then you might try VOB Passthrough. It is what I use for DVDs unless there are forced subtitles. You get the original quality of the DVD with all the extras and other audio tracks stripped out. Averages about 5G per movie. Hard drive space is cheap so I'd rather have the quality.

Also, your experience is going to be determined by how good of an upscaler (480p to 1080p) you are using. Most PCs don't do a good job. I use a PS3 which is excellent at upscaling but otherwise a pain in the a** for media playback. Your milage may vary.

[Floyd]

Yes drives are cheap, but for me at least, I want to try to keep it to as few drives as possible, and I stream them to my Nook Color which I don't think does VOBs. I get very little loss of quality from h264 .avi on my WDTV Live, and 1080P TV, you do see a little loss, but not much. I'm not a super videophille that needs the best of everything, I want to retire someday, so I'm happy with close to DVD quality, and I have close to 400 DVDs.

I always assumed the software would give you the best resolution based on the original files, but I'm not so sure. I would also think keeping the same resolution would result in a quicker file conversion, but I am not an expert on conversion or the software by any means. I don't suppose there is a setting to keep the original or up to 720 x XXX (Nook likes 720).

Is there a description of what the presets do in the profile editor yet?

Thanks,