Low Quality Video/Audio on Some Traded Dvdrs?

[Jeff H]

Some recorded DVDR's I've received in trade recently have some annoying audio/video issues that I suspect may have something to do with the way they were dubbed.

The video has has kind of a jagged, flickery look, which I suspect has something to do with the frames-per-second rate. (I've noticed this same look on some recent reruns of old programs on TV.)

Also, the audio on these DVDRs is incredibly loud and booming, which makes them almost unlistenable, especially when played on an older TV. They're more tolerable on a modern TV, but still pretty annoying.

Does anyone know what causes these issues? Is it a certain setting on the recorder that the trader is using?

[davidflecha17]

It depends on the source that they used and how it was transferred. They might have changed the audio to 5.0 surround sound.

[lordsmurf]

The video is probably deinterlaced, and the audio was recorded too loud )and is thus distorted). I'd have to see the original video, an ISO of the DVD is best, but that's my guess.

[Jeff H]

It's hard to describe, but the movement in the video has a "digitized" look. It's especially noticeable during the ending credits of a show -- the text almost seems to vibrate as it scrolls up the screen.

If you watch some current reruns of old programs on networks like Decades (e.g., Laugh-In or the Dick Cavett Show), you can get an idea of what I'm talking about...I think it has something to do with the frames-per-second rate being changed from 24 FPS to something else.

Anyway, I'm curious as to what methods traders are using that create these issues. Whenever I dub a DVD, I just copy directly from a DVD player to a recorder, and I never have problems like these.

[ERThree]

I've received shows with that "vibrating" look before. It usually has to do with the interlacing settings, not the frame rate. The DVD standard for interlaced video is Top Frame First, but sometimes through the dubbing process, the recording can end up as Bottom Frame First instead; since TFF is the default, this results in the BFF video looking distorted upon playback.

If you have a DVD burning software on your computer (such as DVDStyler), you can adjust this setting after ripping the show from the disc. Setting it to Bottom Frame First almost always solves the problem for me.

[lordsmurf]

Originally Posted by ERThree

I've received shows with that "vibrating" look before. It usually has to do with the interlacing settings, not the frame rate. The DVD standard for interlaced video is Top Frame First, but sometimes through the dubbing process, the recording can end up as Bottom Frame First instead; since TFF is the default, this results in the BFF video looking distorted upon playback.

That's not correct.

TFF and BFF are both valid. BFF tends to be from DV captures and DV sources, while TFF is usually everything else.

In the broadcast world, it's not uncommon for mixed source to exist. It can be a TFF show, cut to BFF commercial, and come back from break as progressive. It happens. I've seen a lot of that over the years, especially from satellite rips (not captures, but decrypted stream rips).

You may be thinking of reversed interlace, when something has screwed with the field order. A BFF was made TFF, or TFF as BFF.

However, given the description, it sounds like a simple lossy deinterlacing issue.

[ERThree]

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

You may be thinking of reversed interlace, when something has screwed with the field order. A BFF was made TFF, or TFF as BFF.

Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my initial post.

[Jeff H]

So is this kind of appearance inevitable when someone dubs using a computer program as opposed to a manual DVD recorder?

[lordsmurf]

Originally Posted by Jeff H

So is this kind of appearance inevitable when someone dubs using a computer program as opposed to a manual DVD recorder?

Not at all.
The person who made those discs just didn't know what he was doing, and ruined the transfer.