Eclair
03-16-2006, 08:32 PM
I recently got the first two releases thinking I could save ~90-ish total over the R1 release (which sadly, like many R1 releases isn't still a guarantee for competent encoding) and frankly, I'm quite disappointed in the first set (EP 1-13) thus far. Since I watch 99% of all my DVDs on my computer, video encoding has always one of my highest priorities, which really pisses me off that somewhere in X year of DVD's life, people still can't get it right.
Granted the first two discs came out gorgeous but leave it to the third disc to sour everything. The first two discs, being 4 EPs each, occupied ~6.7GB but come disc three, it's still ~6.7GB despite the extra fifth episode. A quick bit-rate check shows that 2 of 5 episodes have a halved bit-rate, which is to be expected. When you're sitting about a feet away from the screen, it's fairly obvious theres more pixelation around text, breakups near harsher/faster transitions, and just an overall lack of solidity (LOL is that a word?), all the typical stuff you'd expect.
Now, this isn't exactly new and I've had a fair share of "poorly encoded" DVDs (Funi's FMA comes to mind as most recent, with Vision Wise's shit preset ~1GB/EP), but what always gets me is the why does it happen and how it could've been easily avoided. They used a dual-sided disc, why not just use the extra disc capacity? Or why not have all 5 EPs in a more evenly distributed bit-rate instead of three 7-10 Mbps EPS and two 3-6s? A quick look at the second set (14-26) shows the exact same bit-rate issues on the third disc. While I can't comment on how it looks until I've through, it's a bad sign. Argh, stuff like this is just annoying, looks like I'll be giving the R1's go now too... /images/graemlins/anger100.gif
Granted the first two discs came out gorgeous but leave it to the third disc to sour everything. The first two discs, being 4 EPs each, occupied ~6.7GB but come disc three, it's still ~6.7GB despite the extra fifth episode. A quick bit-rate check shows that 2 of 5 episodes have a halved bit-rate, which is to be expected. When you're sitting about a feet away from the screen, it's fairly obvious theres more pixelation around text, breakups near harsher/faster transitions, and just an overall lack of solidity (LOL is that a word?), all the typical stuff you'd expect.
Now, this isn't exactly new and I've had a fair share of "poorly encoded" DVDs (Funi's FMA comes to mind as most recent, with Vision Wise's shit preset ~1GB/EP), but what always gets me is the why does it happen and how it could've been easily avoided. They used a dual-sided disc, why not just use the extra disc capacity? Or why not have all 5 EPs in a more evenly distributed bit-rate instead of three 7-10 Mbps EPS and two 3-6s? A quick look at the second set (14-26) shows the exact same bit-rate issues on the third disc. While I can't comment on how it looks until I've through, it's a bad sign. Argh, stuff like this is just annoying, looks like I'll be giving the R1's go now too... /images/graemlins/anger100.gif