Is DV = to DVD in quality?

[Stiganator]

I'm making a documentary for an electronic art class. I have clips from a DVD that I want to use. If you use a program like MacTheRipper to get the .vob files and process those with something like MPEG Streamclip to DV. Is that still the same quality as the original DVD? The DV files are super huge, what would you recommend to compress them with while still maintaining the ability to edit in realtime with final cut pro?

Would outputing as DV-NTSC or h.264 (100%) be a better option that just straight .DV?

 

[krotchy]

DV is a much higher bitrate than DVD.

 

[Stiganator]

so it oversamples the DVD? You can't actually increase the quality from DVD right? So I will have almost 100% identical quality if I use MPEG, would I notice a difference between h.264 and DV-NTSC, it seems like h.264 has really been pushed lately that's why I'm asking.

 

[krotchy]

h.264 is nice because you can store the same quality video at a lower bitrate, quality is simply an issue of perception, plus not all DVD's are encoded at the same bitrate while DV is always 25megabits, or 50megabits for DVCAM.

Keep in mind you cant encode h.264 in real time. My suggestion is play with things in a test project and find what quality you like for the bittrates/encoding times you choose.

 

[Stiganator]

can I edit h.264 in real time? I know you can't encode it in realtime, because the encode I'm doing has been going for about 3 hours already! Is nondestructive editing like in final cut the same as reencoding or is it just playing until you do the final render

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Stiganator
I'm making a documentary for an electronic art class. I have clips from a DVD that I want to use. If you use a program like MacTheRipper to get the .vob files and process those with something like MPEG Streamclip to DV. Is that still the same quality as the original DVD? The DV files are super huge, what would you recommend to compress them with while still maintaining the ability to edit in realtime with final cut pro?

Final Cut Pro ... You better either stick to the raw DV (AVI) or use H.264. Unless you're springing for the new 3.0 which apparently handles mixed formats and such better.

And as someone else already stated, DV is much higher bitrate than DVD. (Hence the "Huge" file sizes )