help wanted - newbie

[minnesotatv]

Hello:

I'm a newbie to DVD, SVCD and DivX, and I need some help.
I've been reading the posts in the forums, and searching
for FAQ's on the subjects, but I've been unable to find
answers to some of the questions I have. I would appreciate
it if some of you could pass along some of the knowledge
you've acquired.

First: After reading some posts and reviews, I was generally
under the impression that some ATI and some Matrox video cards
with TV-Out did a rather good job for DVD playback. I've
also seen posts which claim that no computer video card
is any good, and that stand-alone DVD players are the only
way to go. Is this a highly subjective topic, or are there
some inherent weakness' in computer based DVD playback?

What opinions might you have on the ATI Rage Fury Pro VIVO
card for DVD playback?


Second: its very important to me that the copy protection
(Macrovision?) can be defeated (which is one reasons I've
asked about the ATI video card. I'm not going to let the
kids play with my DVD's. No way, no how! They can destroy
VHS tapes.) So, I understand that there's a way to defeat
the copy protection using an ATI card, ATI DVDPlayer v3.0
or v3.1 and cinemaster 1.0.28 engine. Does this work?

Are there other video cards which can be used, and made
VCR-friendly (if that's the correct terminology)?


Three: in the early days of Audio DAE and burning, I
remember reading several discussions of IDE vs SCSI drives.
As I recall the overall consensus claimed that SCSI was
preferable. Fewer problems and fewer errors for the SCSI
drives. One of the arguments attributed this to less "noise"
on the SCSI bus. My own experiences with DAE bears this out.
Does anyone have any experience with both IDE and SCSI DVD?
Is there any real difference in IDE vs SCSI DVD-ROM drives
when it comes to playback?

How about for ripping? Are there more problems with IDE
DVD-ROM drives than SCSI? Or vice versa?

Is there any advantage to 68pin Fast-Wide SCSI vs 50pin Fast
SCSI2?

Any recommendations for IDE DVD-ROM drives?

SCSI DVD-ROM drives?


Four: as I understand it, converting audio .wav or .cda
files to .mp3 is a "lossy" process. If you rip a DVD file,
is converting it to a SVCD or DivX also a "lossy" process?

is this subject to bitrates selected and various parameters
like "constant", 'average" and "variable" bitrates?

I'm under the impression that a typical film on DVD is about
4.7GB. Converted to SVCD, how much space is typically
required?
How about DivX?



Five: I've read some posts that explain how to use the subst
command to create a virtual drive in order to play the DVD or
SVCD or DivX. Why is this necessary?


I appreciate you taking the time to answer some/all of my
questions. Email is minnesotatv@hotmail.com TIA!!!

TV

[setarip]

"Five: I've read some posts that explain how to use the subst
command to create a virtual drive in order to play the DVD or
SVCD or DivX. Why is this necessary?"

1) This is only applicable to DVDs saved to a hard drive (not DivX, VCDs, or SVCDs).

2) Some software DVD players (WinDVD for one) will not recognize saved-to-harddrive DVDs (and it MUST be the entire contents of the "Video_ts" folder) if the Video_ts folder is not in the root directory of the primary drive. Therefore, the player has to be fooled into believing that you have an actual DVD installed (which it will happily play, regardless of the drive letter).


"Four: as I understand it, converting audio .wav or .cda
files to .mp3 is a "lossy" process. If you rip a DVD file,
is converting it to a SVCD or DivX also a "lossy" process?"

Definitely! However, with regard to VCDs and SVCDs, since they are typically viewed on a television, which has lower resolution than your computer's monitor, they can be virtually indistinguishable from the original DVD. With regard to
DivX-encoded files, which will be viewed on a computer monitor, the degree of loss of visual quality is dependent upon the conversion process(es) used subject, to an extent, to a filesize versus quality relationship.