Digital Noise after Ripping

Please post here for issues related to Blu-ray discs
Post Reply
Ikswolokos
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2022 1:59 am

Digital Noise after Ripping

Post by Ikswolokos »

Recently I've started using MakeMKV and Handbrake to digitize my movie and TV shows. After ripping files there's quite a bit of digital noise/artifacts present, specifically in the colors. Attached is a screenshot from Star Trek. In the red of Captain Picard's uniform dots in the color can clearly be seen whereas the black is perfect. Is this normal? Or is there something I'm missing? Using Handbrake I can clean up some of it but I'd rather see the same image as if I were playing from the disk. Thank you!

Image
Woodstock
Posts: 9912
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: Digital Noise after Ripping

Post by Woodstock »

There is only one thing I'll say about ST:TNG on bluray... it didn't start out as a good source to copy.

A lot of clean-up was done when they created the BD copy, but it wasn't perfect. Remember, the source was DVD-sized, and (from what I've read) was not perfect, even as a DVD.

What you see in the MKV file generated by MakeMKV is an exact copy of what was burned on the disk. Handbrake does a pretty good job of matching that at RF-20 or RF-18, but it can exaggerate errors when it tries to shrink blotched areas into dots. Going higher than RF-20 will make those stick out worse, although it will make things somewhat smaller, file-size-wise.

When I did ST:TNG, I used "-q 20" on the command line, i.e., RF-20. I've also done it at RF-22 for a smaller file, but I watch the RF-20 version more. And I don't bother looking at the "details", because, when I saw it the first time (over the air), the blotches were WORSE because of the static in the signal.
MakeMKV Frequently Asked Questions
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
dcoke22
Posts: 2561
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: Digital Noise after Ripping

Post by dcoke22 »

I don't have ST:TNG on blu-ray, but from the screen shot, that looks like encoding artifacts.

I presume if you look at the rip from MakeMKV, you don't see that? If that's the case, you should adjust the encoding options in Handbrake.

As a side note, the blu-ray.com review of the blu-ray of ST:TNG gives it high marks. IIRC they used 16mm film when shooting the series.
Post Reply