Vidding 101

[thuviaptarth]

I should probably post this to vidder, but I am too embarrassed, because I feel like I should have figured it out already fter reading the A&E Guide five zillion times. I am hoping one of you will take pity on me and answer here anyway.

The problem is (I mean, the problem apart from not being able to tell where the beat is, and Premiere crashing on me like a really bad pun, and ...), it feels like I'm doing a lot of processing on the files I rip from DVDs and I can't shake the feeling that I really shouldn't have to do so much to recent footage to get it viddable. If I do, that's cool -- I'm doing it, I've done it. I'm just terrified I'm doing extra and unnecessary processing and degrading visual quality because I don't know what I'm doing and am too freaked out to be able to tell anymore whether one picture is better than another.

So, I'm ripping the Supernatural DVDs (I know you're shocked), and this is what I'm doing:

1. I rip VOB files from the DVDs.
   
2. I run the VOBs through DGIndex (usually I create one index for each DVD) to get D2V indices.
   
3. I create AVS files for the indices which look roughly like this:
   
   

   MPEG2Source("C:/Thuvia Ptarth/spn2.1.d2v",cpu=4,upconv=true)
   Telecide(order=1, post=4,show=false) 
   Decimate(mode=1, threshold=1.0)
   ConvertToRGB32()
   

   
   
   --except for when, just to make me extra crazy, the DVDs switch from Top Field First to Bottom Field First for a disc or two in Season Two, completely destroying the false sense of confidence I gained from anticipating the Pilot and first disc might be in a different frame rate than the other discs, but. Anyway.
   

So, um. Is that right? Should I be doing something different? Should I be doing less? Should I be doing more? Should I be going for a particular frame rate or just converting the odd files to whatever frame rate most of the files are in?

Help?

Comments

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

Should I be doing less?
See, I don't know about this "should" business because it all looks really complicated to me and I'm not sure if each of these lines serve a really useful function?

Could well just be I am lazy, but all I usually do is

MPEG2Source("file location", false)

And that's about it (false being kill audio). If I use different framerate sources, I add the AssumeFPS line.

I export using the "no fields" option in Premiere, neither top nor bottom, and on the occasion that the interlacing looks really off, I use the TomsMoComp(1,5,1) script and that usually smoothes things over.

So this is obviously the lazy and "you didn't actually fix things properly" way of doing it, and I'm sure I'm breaking a lot of rules and Ian will be all gritting his teeth and shaking his head if he reads this, but hey, the end product looks all right from my end and that's pretty much all I care about.

Er... not sure if that was helpful. Just letting you know how I go about it. :)

[untrue-accounts.livejournal.com]

See, I don't know about this "should" business because it all looks really complicated to me and I'm not sure if each of these lines serve a really useful function?

You and me both! I mean, I can say what each line is *supposed* to be doing, but I am still hopelessly confused about whether I need to be doing it.

MPEG2Source("file location", false)

Huh. So you don't even index the file? I actually started off there, but I got a much smoother preview in Premiere when I added indexing.

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, yes I also run it through DGIndex first. But once the avs file is created, I don't usually add more lines of code to it unless I absolutely have to.