Can my ripped DVDs on PC be converted to higher resolution?

[roguerower]

I have about 250 movies that I've ripped to my HDD and I use Windows Media Center and MyMovies to manage them. They've all been stripped down to just the main movie, english soundtrack, and english subtitles using DVDShrink. Is it possible to have the images converted to a higher resolution like standalone DVD player is capable of? What sort of software is required?

 

[SlitheryDee]

I think Arcsoft Totalmedia Theater 3 has a simhd plugin that works like the upscaling feature in some DVD and BR players. I think it can also be done with a free codec like ffdshow with some tweaking. I've been looking into that second one, but I haven't figured out how it's done yet.

 

[0roo0roo]

no, you would increase the file size to 1080p or 720p for nothing. you don't magically add detail, upscaling does nothing more than rescale, and it doesn't do any magic. its just a matter of the dvd player being early in the decode chain so its best to rescale it there at the source. pc's always rescale video as they play it by default how do you think you play a 720x480 video full screen!!! its nothing special. upscaling is marketing.

hard coding upscaling would just be a huge waste of time.

 

[BoberFett]

OrooOroo

Not all upscaling is equal. Different scalers have different picture quality. Are you using a bargain basement device or piece of software using straight nearest neighbor or does it interpolate?

 

[sivart]

Assuming that you ripped at full quality originally, there is no way to "increase the resolution" short of buying the Blu-ray.

Sure, upscaling software can be different from machine to machine and software to software, but all that is doing is scaling to fit the resolution of your screen. The resolution of the file WILL NOT be changed.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i would not bother. you started with less (NTSC DVD), threw half away (DVDShrink) and want to end up with more (HD)? it doesn't work that way.

 

[masteryoda34]

you don't magically add detail, upscaling does nothing more than rescale, and it doesn't do any magic. ... its nothing special. upscaling is marketing.

+1

 

[DaveSimmons]

Just yell "enhance!" whenever you start to watch a movie.


But seriously, the only reason to do upscaling ahead of time is if the real-time upscaling in your playback software is lousy.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Just yell "enhance!" whenever you start to watch a movie.


But seriously, the only reason to do upscaling ahead of time is if the real-time upscaling in your playback software is lousy.

Maybe it was doing something more than just upscaling, but I've tried the simhd plugin in Totalmedia Theater 3 and it made a striking difference in the apparent quality of whatever I was watching.

I know it wasn't just some kind of placebo effect because the software offers a split-screen sample mode where you can see the original, unedited picture on the left side of the screen and the enhanced picture on the right side in real time. I don't know how it does it, but everything is notably sharper. It's really noticeable in text.

I've never seen the result of a real upconverting dvd player though. I was under the assumption that they did the same thing from what I've read about them though.

 

[BoberFett]

There's all kinds of filtering that can be done, but better looking is subjective. As others have said, you can't add detail by adding what isn't already there. Things can be smoothed or interpolated, but all you've done is take the same image, blow it up a bit, and fuzz the picture in some manner. Some people prefer a little softer image, other people like crisper images. Pick your poison.

 

[jtvang125]

i would not bother. you started with less (NTSC DVD), threw half away (DVDShrink) and want to end up with more (HD)? it doesn't work that way.

You can strip out all the extras and still rip it with no compression so it's the same as the original. Of course you can't expect HD quality out of them.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1172653

Folks who think upscaling is bunk haven't seen it done right.

 

[KingGheedora]

I have about 250 movies that I've ripped to my HDD and I use Windows Media Center and MyMovies to manage them. They've all been stripped down to just the main movie, english soundtrack, and english subtitles using DVDShrink. Is it possible to have the images converted to a higher resolution like standalone DVD player is capable of? What sort of software is required?

Why do you want to do this? Are you viewing them in a media player or a TV that doesn't scale the picture up to the full size of the screen?

 

[leon2006]

Upscale DVD-formatted material is better than the original DVD. But it is still not on par with Blue-Ray/HD-DVD formatted movies where the recordede information is native 1080P.

Archsoft, PowerDVD do upscale DVD disc and DVD-movies on PC drive.

 

[PurdueRy]

Maybe it was doing something more than just upscaling, but I've tried the simhd plugin in Totalmedia Theater 3 and it made a striking difference in the apparent quality of whatever I was watching.

I know it wasn't just some kind of placebo effect because the software offers a split-screen sample mode where you can see the original, unedited picture on the left side of the screen and the enhanced picture on the right side in real time. I don't know how it does it, but everything is notably sharper. It's really noticeable in text.

I've never seen the result of a real upconverting dvd player though. I was under the assumption that they did the same thing from what I've read about them though.

It is a sort of trick of the eyes. Just like we're drawn to bright shiny objects(see LCD TV's) we're also drawn to things that look contrasty. We perceive sharpness as the graduation between the light and darkness of an edge. The quicker this transition is made, the more "sharp" it appears. Unfortunately, you also get undesired effects when pushed too far. Mainly haloing around high contrast edges. This is what SimHD does. It may look impressive, but really its just applying a sharpening filter over all the edges. I tried it a few times, and turned it off as I found it rather irritating.

 

[Auric]

Just yell "enhance!" whenever you start to watch a movie.

Zoom, enhance... zoom, enhance!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1172653

Folks who think upscaling is bunk haven't seen it done right.

I lol'd.

 

[simonizor]

Upscaling a movie is just changing the resolution of the movie to play at a higher resolution than it was made at (ie playing a 480p dvd at 1080p). The only difference between a regular DVD player and one that does upscaling is that the upscaling DVD player outputs the picture at 1080p. The actual video is not changed in any way; it's simply just scaled up to 1080p. The only reason that a DVD looks better being upscaled to 1080p as opposed to running at 480p is because the upscaling DVD player is pushing out a higher resolution than a regular one. It's not like it magically makes the DVD look better.

Upscaling a movie on a computer is done pretty much every time that you watch a movie and make it full screen. Unless the movie that you are watching was encoded at a resolution that is higher than what your screen is displaying, when you make the movie full screen, it is upscaled to the resolution that your screen is at.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

It's not magic, but it does make movies look better, depending on how it's done.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ster&resnum=2&ct=more-results&ved=0CA8QrQIwAQ

 

[0roo0roo]

Assuming that you ripped at full quality originally, there is no way to "increase the resolution" short of buying the Blu-ray.

Sure, upscaling software can be different from machine to machine and software to software, but all that is doing is scaling to fit the resolution of your screen. The resolution of the file WILL NOT be changed.

yea but as good as it gets its still shining a turd. a bluray is 6x the resolution. if you really have a film worth rewatching, rent or rebuy it in hd.