compensating low quality DVD of Fifth Element

[Sujao]

Hi everybody,

the other day I bought the DVD "The Fifth Element". For the first time I was shocked by the shabby quality of the video stream. I dont even know if only copies of my publisher are affected or all releases over the world. I dont know for sure if DVD are digitalised seperatelly for every video standard. Anyway I have the PAL version. To be clear from the start: I bought this DVD in a store so its NEITHER a selfmade DVD9->DVD5 copy NOR any other kind of illegal copy.

The first thing that striked my eye is the great noise on areas with the same colour (see this screenshot (http://www.nforum.de/files/5thelement.jpg)). Especially in the first part of the movie it is very noticable and disturbing. It is even more visbible when actually watching the movie because when you watch the movie the noise "dithers" (dont know if its the right term) as if I was watching TV and had a bad reception.

The second thing which is even more striking is that the whole picture is wobbling horizonzally like if the projector in a theather would be shaking. I suppose this really happened during digitalisation.

I dont understand how a DVD of a such a popular movie could be sold with such obvious flaws. It's not like I have superior perceptions, the flaws are clearly visible!

Well, what are my questions?
First I would like to know if anybody of yours has got the same DVD and could tell me whether his copy also has this flaws.
Second I would like to know which filters I should apply in XVID in order to get rid of both flaws, the noise and the horizintal shaking in case this is possible at all.

I use mencoder (mplayer) for encoding. (yes, its linux :))

Regards

Sujao

[ReinerSchweinlin]

As far as I know, "the fifth element" was on of the first DVDs in Germany. There are several versions, maybe u got the one with the very ugly quality. Try looking for another version. Filtering might help a little but will introduce other Problems, so it´s easier to get a better source.

BTW: Why encode a movie u already have on DVD? It won´t get better in XVID :)

[Sujao]

Hmmm, OK! I'll see if I find another source. But I dont think the seller will accept this as a argument to give me my money back. :(

My laptop has a big harddrive and I would like to have my favorite movies avaiable so that I can watch them while being on the road.

[E-Male]

if you insist (including asking for the boss, ...) you might get it returned
you got nothing to loose

the newer version of this movies are among the best DVDs avaible
the US-superbit is great, especially the audio-mix

[Koepi]

For a short time I saw a remastered widescreen version (not really like the american superbit version though). I can't find it anymore, all I see now are versions which are that ugly.

The noise effect you're describing comes from cheap temporal denoising (make a small tvrip and use virtualdub's internal temporalsoften(4) on it and watch frame by frame in the preview, you'll see the similarities).

There's nothingyou can do about that without further destroying the image quality :-/

Cheers
Koepi

[Sujao]

Do you know something equivalent to superbit for germany? I searched german amazon and there is nothing with that name avaiable.

[Soulhunter]

@ Sujao

Could you upload a short sample (30 seconds) for demonstration ???

Maybe its possible to improve it with some filtering... :)


Bye

[ReinerSchweinlin]

Did u take a look here (I asume u are looking for a greman version..)

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/dvd-de/B00005NP1Z/tech-info/ref=ed_tec_dp_1/028-8549315-6377365

[E-Male]

there are no superbits in germany

[ReinerSchweinlin]

"Superbits" is a marketing instrument, not present in Germany. But.. There is a newer "remastered" edition of "the fifth element" with a much better picture and EX-Sound, DTS is included, too.

Just throwing a lot of bits into the encoding process is no guarantee for a superior picture (although the superbit versions are better most of the times). I remember a few examples where the NTSC Superbit version was quite inferior to a PAL Version due to better Source Material and better Encoders (probably, the people doing the encoding were more accurate, too).

[Ogig]

For a comparisons of different version also see http://www.dvd-compare.com/comparisons/0_9/5th_element/index.htm

[ReinerSchweinlin]

WOw, Superbit really makes a difference in this case !!!

[Mentalmummy]

Originally posted by ReinerSchweinlin
BTW: Why encode a movie u already have on DVD? It won´t get better in XVID :)

Actually I do that quite often. I prefer watching films on my Xbox and it`s nice to have lots of films on one disc. Plus of course I can change the aspect ratio and cut out the black bars, etcetera :)