I don't have HD yet, but I'm familiar with Shrink. Even with regular video the output will vary according to compression. Any degradation is going to be enhanced in the HD environment. It goes to the old saying, garbage in, garbage out. For HD I'd suggest keeping the compression as low as possible.
My Son has a plasma TV and an upconverting DVD player. I do backups
of my grandkids movies so they don't ruin the originals. I have
see the backups played on his equipment. They are unbelievable when
it comes to quality.
I use AnyDVD, Shrink, and Imgburn. Usually I copy movie only, but
can do it both ways. Either way on his equipment you can not tell
the difference from the original even when I am using cheap media
discs.
Hope this info helps.
I do it every time I watch a movie I've just backed up. I have a Sony DVD player with an HDMI input (which is required for the upconversion to take place) that upconverts the video to 720p or 1080i, the movies look great and I highly recommend getting one.
Shardel
As you probably know, not all factory DVDs have the same content. I've seen them range from barely over 4.5GB on up to 8.5GB. Some factory DVDs are even DVD5 to begin with with no compression needed. You can see how compression would vary from no compression to 8.5GB. Even on regular TV you can see some degradation as the compression gets really high, 40% or more. I use encoder software instead of the transcoders most people use and I can see the difference between a highly compressed copy and an original. The copies are still good, but some flaws creep in. After all, something is being removed when compressing. Editing eases the compression, which you said you were doing with the movie only. A lot of movies need little compression at all. The filler material on a lot of DVDs is where software has to work harder.
I agree with you about the compression. That is the reason I usually
do movie only. I use 4.5G discs and try to keep the compression at
70%. Still the few that I do with more compression than that have
been really good. The upconverting is much better on the kids
movies that are animated such as Cars. I do think the upconverting
looks much better on a plasma than an LCD, but for the average
person both are quite acceptable. Most people watching them would
not be aware of the difference if it wasn't pointed out to them
that they were watching a copy.
I was only trying to be helpful with a layman's opinion, but I
always acknowledge the experts because you really know your stuff.
Shardel
Sounds like you know quite a bit yourself. We appreciate your opinion. Using an upconverter definitely has to be better than just trying to use a regular player. From your first hand experience and good recording techniques, we've got input on copies playing good on upconverters.
