Making a Huntik DVD Set, Quality Questions

[lordsmurf]

continued from PM...
Posting answer here because it may help others...

Originally Posted by JonathanEntertainment

Well I checked the other encodes and this is the details on them I believe he created the other encodes from this...



Any thoughts? or what I could do if it would help I have uploaded a full episode from that encodes.. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N0ODXVCA
Thanks

Having looked at this episode against the DVD version your friend made (his re-encoding the XVIDs to MPEG with Womble), this is far superior in quality. His version was full of blocks, especially on scene changes or at fast action, a typical problem seen from poorer encoders (or from over-stuffing a disc with video, using inadequate bitrates).

To convert this in high quality, use ConvertXToDVD 3 and pay close attention to your settings. I would do two things:

1. Save as Half D1, and put up to 8 episodes on a single DVD-R or DVD+R. For better quality, no more than 7. Ignore that stop-light color-coded "quality" indicator. It only bases the quality on bitrate, but fails to account for the allocation against Half D1 resolution. Not a very smart meter, ignore it. It would look better than the "excellent" indicated by stuffing 5-6 episodes onto a 720x480 Full D1 disc. Less noise/blocks on the Half D1, as it's max bitrate with 7-8 eps (about 3 hours).
2. Remember to fix the crop, and add back the black borders removed from whomever cropped and encoded the XVID. Without this step, your new DVD will be cropped on the tv, not properly displayed as it was when it first aired. (If your anime has any subtitles, this is extra important, prevents subtitles from being cut off and going off screen.)

Now them all of this said, I think it might be a waste of time for you, at least for the first 26 episodes. This site is about preservation of the best possible quality available.

The XVIDs might make for good temp viewing, but you can do this without making DVD-Video discs, unnecessary time to re-encode and author. Just watch them on a Divx-capable player (which will almost always also play XVID, since they are similar codecs). Philips makes some great ones.

And then the official DVD release comes out in August:

North Las Vegas, NV (June 2, 2009) – Many would call 2009 the year of Huntik, with global broadcasts, worldwide licensing deals and popularity gaining momentum globally. Magic, mystery, mythology and adventure come together in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers. In the animated series, young Lok Lambert and Dante Vale travel the globe with their group of amazing Seekers, exploring exotic locations from the pyramids of Egypt to the jungles of the Amazon, seeking to unlock the ancient secrets of each locale. Lok and his friends search for powerful spirit-warriors called Titans to use in battle against the evil Organization. Dante, Lok and the Seekers must battle the Organization and its sinister mastermind, The Professor, for the fate of the world.

This August, the first season of Huntik comes to DVD, thanks to distribution by Master Blasters. “Media Blasters is proud to be a part of this exciting new property”, said John Sirabella, CEO of Media Blasters Inc. “Huntik is a property we strongly believe in, and building the Huntik brand will be our primary mission in 2009. Given the great response we’ve seen worldwide already, we’re confident that Huntik on DVD is going to be a smash hit!”

The DVD release will feature all 26 episodes of the first season of Huntik: Secrets and Seekers. This DVD set is perfect for all fans of action and adventure and for those who have not yet had the chance to catch Huntik on CW4Kids, this DVD series is a must have! The DVDs will be sold across North America and Canada in both video stores and major retail outlets starting in August 2009.

Huntik: Secrets & Seekers airs in over 20 countries worldwide and is the inspiration for the new Huntik: Secrets and Seekers Trading Card Game produced by The Upper Deck Company. For updates, events and more information on this exciting action-adventure brand, please visit the official website at www.Huntik.com <http://www.huntik.com/>

About Huntik: Secrets & Seekers
Huntik: Secrets & Seekers is an original property created by Iginio Straffi, the author of the Winx Club, and developed through a partnership between Big Bocca Productions, leading animation studio Rainbow S.p.A., and production company m4e AG. The Huntik: Secrets & Seekers animated series has been co-produced with Rainbow S.p.A. in Italy.

About The Upper Deck Company
Upper Deck is a premier sports and entertainment publishing company, delivering a portfolio of relevant, innovative and multi-dimensional product experiences to collectors, and sports and entertainment enthusiasts. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.UpperDeck.com <http://www.upperdeck.com/> .

About BIG BOCCA Productions
Big Bocca, a newly created entertainment company, specializes in the development, distribution and licensing of kids’ intellectual properties. The first production is Huntik Secrets and Seekers, which has been co-produced by the renowned Italian producer Rainbow in collaboration with m4e Germany.

About Rainbow
Rainbow was founded in 1995 and quickly became a successful player in the sector of animated television series. Today the Rainbow Group is one of the leading independent cartoon production houses in Europe, for both the cinema and TV with highly successful and widely known properties such as Winx Club, Monster Allergy, Pixies. Rainbow is one of the few studios in Italy that can handle all the stages of cartoon production in house.

About m4e AG
m4e AG is a brand management- and media company that is according to its company credo „made for entertainment“ specialized on the development and utilization of high-value brands and intellectual property rights (IP-rights). m4e’s business areas are TV-production, licensing, home entertainment, merchandising, publishing, interactive & new media as well as the production of textiles and accessories through the subsidiary company Tex- GmbH.

Keep an eye for it on Amazon.com, as that date gets closer.

[JonathanEntertainment]

-_- Of course....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B002C8YS3I

Seems it will be september before the first release on dvd...volume 1 2 Disc set! Not sure how many episodes it will be..