Encodes vs. DVD

[Xtras]

A lot of the titles I was originally looking into to buying on DVD have been encoded by various groups. OZC for example even includes 5.1 channel audio and has movies with enormous resolutions. Ignoring the blu-ray titles, I was looking at gundam seed destiny by AHQ and the subtitle styling and all was pretty cool. I was wondering, if I were to burn an encode to a DVD, how would it compare to the actual DVD's quality. Do most encoding groups capture the full quality of a dvd during their encoding process? And in what ways would the official DVD out do the burned fansub?

[BuriaL]

The dvd format is obsolete.

That sums up all my thoughts about it.

[Lupin]

When you encode, your pretty sure to lose details. It depends on the encoder how much detail is lost. This assumes the source of the encode is the same DVD.

[Sosseres]

More recently the source for many encodes is HDTV or Bluray, both in much higher resolution than DVD. Even with some quality lost it is better quality.

[Mirgond]

A lot of the titles I was originally looking into to buying on DVD have been encoded by various groups. OZC for example even includes 5.1 channel audio and has movies with enormous resolutions. Ignoring the blu-ray titles, I was looking at gundam seed destiny by AHQ and the subtitle styling and all was pretty cool. I was wondering, if I were to burn an encode to a DVD, how would it compare to the actual DVD's quality. Do most encoding groups capture the full quality of a dvd during their encoding process? And in what ways would the official DVD out do the burned fansub?

If you wanted to buy the DVDs (or in the future the BDs) and you have the money then do it...
1) Most studios should be rewarded for their work
2) It's a lame reason to say "I wanted to buy them, but the fansubs are nowadays so good, why bother" to not buy them after planing to do so.

That's exactly the reasoning the studios always say the "damned" fansubbers and leechers have and why they lose more money then making it with producing anime.

So what would be better with the original DVDs?
Following:

• Still better quality
• The studios get money for more anime (and to pay their staff... Hei, some people are living on that money!)
• You have a nice box/some nice DVD cases on your shelves
• And you have the good feeling to be on the light side of the force *cough*

I can understand it that you use the fansub-rips, if it is not possible to get the anime in your country, but there are so many ways to get them today for most people on the planet, that i can't understand it if you don't buy them when it is possible for you and you have the money... (some should stop smoking for example: saves money and is better for you health plus you can buy anime from the saved money ^^)

[Xtras]

I agree with mirgond with one exception. DVD's are not guaranteed to last very long. Quality manufacturers releases last well beyond their 30's but this isn't always the case.Bandai for example has had proven issues with manufacturing low quality DVD's that die pretty quickly even under ideal circumstances. Encodes on the other hand are easily backed up as they don't take a lot of space. If you wanted to back up your DVD's, then you would need an illegal decrypting program, and pretty fat hard drive to go along with it.

[kurandoinu]

If you wanted to back up your DVD's, then you would need an illegal decrypting program, and pretty fat hard drive to go along with it.

As opposed to the illegal downloads and hard drive space that they take up?

[Xtras]

If you wanted to back up your DVD's, then you would need an illegal decrypting program, and pretty fat hard drive to go along with it.

As opposed to the illegal downloads and hard drive space that they take up?

But those are free and unofficial, done merely for the enjoyment of fans. Box sets are fairly pricey and probably shouldn't have added headaches since you are paying for a professionally made product.

[kurandoinu]

If you wanted to back up your DVD's, then you would need an illegal decrypting program, and pretty fat hard drive to go along with it.

As opposed to the illegal downloads and hard drive space that they take up?

But those are free and unofficial, done merely for the enjoyment of fans. Box sets are fairly pricey and probably shouldn't have added headaches since you are paying for a professionally made product.

But if you own the original boxset at least you have done something to help the industry along. Backing them up and getting pretty good picture quality doesn't take that much harddrive space up either, unless you want all the menu's etc. Just downloading everything all the time doesn't do anyone any good.

And why should the fact that you bought something mean that it shouldn't have any additional headaches? Its a physical product, and sometimes its gonna break, you just have to deal with it.

[Xtras]

I 100% agree about buying box sets to help the industry, and I am a fan of rewarding people who make a good series. The only thing that really makes me mad is when these companies manufacture low quality products that are likely to stop working. I know they are low on funds and are hurting pretty badly considering the current state of affairs but still, substandard quality is not easily forgiven. If the products released are of quality and won't stop working if properly cared for, then I have no objections. If you have been following the craziness with bandai's new releases, you will see what I mean. They are cutting corners all over the place.

The thing I really wanted to know by making this forum topic was not really whether it is worth it to buy the DVD boxsets or not. I plan on doing that anyway. What I wanted to know is, in the event that one of the DVD's fail, would I be able to replace it using encodes, without a noticeable loss in quality? I'd rather not back up DVD's with zero compression (that is just asking for errors and fragmentation).

[kurandoinu]

I 100% agree about buying box sets to help the industry, and I am a fan of rewarding people who make a good series. The only thing that really makes me mad is when these companies manufacture low quality products that are likely to stop working. I know they are low on funds and are hurting pretty badly considering the current state of affairs but still, substandard quality is not easily forgiven. If the products released are of quality and won't stop working if properly cared for, then I have no objections. If you have been following the craziness with bandai's new releases, you will see what I mean. They are cutting corners all over the place.

The thing I really wanted to know by making this forum topic was not really whether it is worth it to buy the DVD boxsets or not. I plan on doing that anyway. What I wanted to know is, in the event that one of the DVD's fail, would I be able to replace it using encodes, without a noticeable loss in quality? I'd rather not back up DVD's with zero compression (that is just asking for errors and fragmentation).

It all depends on how good the encode is really. But whats wrong with using a program like Handbrake to back them up? I get pretty good quality for a film even when I tell it I want it not to exceed 700mb.

[Xtras]

I 100% agree about buying box sets to help the industry, and I am a fan of rewarding people who make a good series. The only thing that really makes me mad is when these companies manufacture low quality products that are likely to stop working. I know they are low on funds and are hurting pretty badly considering the current state of affairs but still, substandard quality is not easily forgiven. If the products released are of quality and won't stop working if properly cared for, then I have no objections. If you have been following the craziness with bandai's new releases, you will see what I mean. They are cutting corners all over the place.

The thing I really wanted to know by making this forum topic was not really whether it is worth it to buy the DVD boxsets or not. I plan on doing that anyway. What I wanted to know is, in the event that one of the DVD's fail, would I be able to replace it using encodes, without a noticeable loss in quality? I'd rather not back up DVD's with zero compression (that is just asking for errors and fragmentation).

It all depends on how good the encode is really. But whats wrong with using a program like Handbrake to back them up? I get pretty good quality for a film even when I tell it I want it not to exceed 700mb.

Is encoding really as simple as running a dvd through handbrake? I am about to have a cyborg 009 dvd shipped, and i have had several people request that I upload it. If i run it through handbrake, will the program get the full quality along with the subs? I have heard that Handbrake has some problems with subs. Would Handbrake be the best way to encode, or is there a better program you could recommend.

[kurandoinu]

I 100% agree about buying box sets to help the industry, and I am a fan of rewarding people who make a good series. The only thing that really makes me mad is when these companies manufacture low quality products that are likely to stop working. I know they are low on funds and are hurting pretty badly considering the current state of affairs but still, substandard quality is not easily forgiven. If the products released are of quality and won't stop working if properly cared for, then I have no objections. If you have been following the craziness with bandai's new releases, you will see what I mean. They are cutting corners all over the place.

The thing I really wanted to know by making this forum topic was not really whether it is worth it to buy the DVD boxsets or not. I plan on doing that anyway. What I wanted to know is, in the event that one of the DVD's fail, would I be able to replace it using encodes, without a noticeable loss in quality? I'd rather not back up DVD's with zero compression (that is just asking for errors and fragmentation).

It all depends on how good the encode is really. But whats wrong with using a program like Handbrake to back them up? I get pretty good quality for a film even when I tell it I want it not to exceed 700mb.

Is encoding really as simple as running a dvd through handbrake? I am about to have a cyborg 009 dvd shipped, and i have had several people request that I upload it. If i run it through handbrake, will the program get the full quality along with the subs? I have heard that Handbrake has some problems with subs. Would Handbrake be the best way to encode, or is there a better program you could recommend.

Not having done many encodes so far, I couldn't tell you. But it sure works better than what I was using before. I did have Mac the Ripper which I was then using MPEG streamclip to convert to .AVI etc, but it was taking far too long, and wasn't encoding well. I've used Handbrake for some foreign cinema and anime films now, and I try to keep the size of files down, which it does nicely and still looks good. Not had any subtitle problems so far, unless I've forgotten to select them. Think my boyfriend said he didn't like how it compressed sound though. Might want to ask some other people round here what they think though, they'll have more of an idea.

Just miffed I couldn't get a copy of the art dvd my friend had because it had stickers on top of it. My mac wouldn't read it at all

[Sosseres]

If I were to do it I would use:
DVD Decrypter (or similar)
Subrip (or similar)
Megui (with addons)

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/Guides/Basic_Guide

[Slysoft]

A lot of the titles I was originally looking into to buying on DVD have been encoded by various groups. OZC for example even includes 5.1 channel audio and has movies with enormous resolutions. Ignoring the blu-ray titles, I was looking at gundam seed destiny by AHQ and the subtitle styling and all was pretty cool. I was wondering, if I were to burn an encode to a DVD, how would it compare to the actual DVD's quality. Do most encoding groups capture the full quality of a dvd during their encoding process? And in what ways would the official DVD out do the burned fansub?

If you wanted to buy the DVDs (or in the future the BDs) and you have the money then do it...
1) Most studios should be rewarded for their work
2) It's a lame reason to say "I wanted to buy them, but the fansubs are nowadays so good, why bother" to not buy them after planing to do so.

That's exactly the reasoning the studios always say the "damned" fansubbers and leechers have and why they lose more money then making it with producing anime.

So what would be better with the original DVDs?
Following:

• Still better quality
• The studios get money for more anime (and to pay their staff... Hei, some people are living on that money!)
• You have a nice box/some nice DVD cases on your shelves
• And you have the good feeling to be on the light side of the force *cough*

I can understand it that you use the fansub-rips, if it is not possible to get the anime in your country, but there are so many ways to get them today for most people on the planet, that i can't understand it if you don't buy them when it is possible for you and you have the money... (some should stop smoking for example: saves money and is better for you health plus you can buy anime from the saved money ^^)

This will probably sound pretty lame, but I honestly can not stand 99% of the "official DVD subtitles" not only do they tend to change the meaning of sentences to "westernize" them, but it seems that most companies like to use the ugliest subtitle styles ever which to be honest ruins the experience of watching it for me.