Dvd mastering

[Guest jake richards]

-what are you guys using when you want to record you dvx footage to a dvd master?

 

i need to make a master of good quality so then it can be used to make copies for distribution.

 

thanks,

 

jake r.

[David Landelle]

-what are you guys using when you want to record you dvx footage to a dvd master?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It depends on the content. If fast moving, 60i (or 50i).

 

Otherwise, choose progressive video mode.

 

Avoid 24p which will lead to frame rate conversion (disaster).

 

David.

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't know if DVD is a mastering format so much as a distribution format -- can one make copies from a DVD master without any quality loss on top of the original conversion to MPEG?

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> can one make copies from a DVD master without any quality loss on top of the

> original conversion to MPEG?

 

If by master you mean a gold master for pressing then yes, obviously, that's the whole point. However I assume you mean to make a single playable disc and copy that, in which case again yes although it was - for obvious reasons - never really intended to let you do that.

 

If it's a homebrew disc without the copy protection bits set, then it's a simple matter of duplicating it like any other optical disc, in a computer with one reader and one writer (or copy it all to a hard disk and mount the image, or whatever.) That's just a bit for bit duplicate of the original DVD and it will be indistinguishable from it. Same as copying a data CD-ROM or something of that sort and this is probably how our correspondent will want to do it if he's making copies at home. If he wants to master for duplication at an out-of-house facility he'll need to consult with them on how they want it provided, but most often they'll want a tape archive of a complete disc image. If the DVD is small it may be feasible to provide the image burned onto another DVD. All of this is just bit for bit data copying and it's loss free.

 

Just for the record - if it's a protected commercial disc - it's more tricky, but it can be done. Because if the horrible naivete of the encoding system, it's technically quite easy to extract decoded MPEG data from a disc which can then be played as a computer file or reinserted onto another DVD without loss. It's a bit more taxing to ensure you have all of the subtitle tracks and menus and suchlike along with it if you literally just want to duplicate the entire disc, but with a bit of work it's not impossible.

 

Phil

Edited April 10, 2005 by Phil Rhodes

[Guest jake richards]

ok, thanks.

 

i will contact the video house and see if it is better for the dvd image quality to bring my files on a portable hard drive, or on a mini-dv tape.