After introducing myself in the "welcome" thread,
http://forum.dead-donkey.com/viewtopic. ... start=1040
questions were posed and it was suggested I start a new thread to avoid going off topic. Any other questions or comments are welcome.

I mentioned in my introduction that my non-horror movie interests include pre-70s campy nudist flicks and named "Goldilocks and the Three Bares (1963)" as an example. A link to the film was asked for:
ed2k: Goldilocks%20and%20the%20Three%20Bares%20(1963)%20Herschell%20Gordon%20Lewis.avi  [699.72 Mb] [Stats]

I had only planned on making release pages of my own rips, but I'm led to infer that I can release other peoples' rips if they are of interest to Dead Donkey members. Is this correct?

Also, a question was raised about the size of my rips - 900mb, rather than the usual 700mb. I use AutoGK to encode my DVR's vob files to avi, and I find the extra 200mb adds noticeable quality. Since I make my rips for my own archival purposes then share them out, I would like to continue with the 900mb file size unless it really causes too many headaches for other members.

I have tried using the full Gordian Knot in the past, and I find it way too technical and time consuming for my liking. AutoGK instead, does all the analyzing, cropping, de-interlacing and other stuff that needs to be done, and gives me a result I'm very happy with. Call me lazy I know, but even after fiddling with Gordian Knot for hours, and following all the guides I could find online, my results with it were still inferior to what I get with AutoGK.

Anyhow, I hope to be posting more rare films soon that appear on the specialty channels I get at home. I find it weird that more SatRips are not made considering satellite is a great resource for hard to find films.

I basically didn't have a clue what most of that meant. However, I did see "nudist", so I embrace you like a brother.

Cool, thanks for that


It is, and it's welcomed, but please check it's not already here first



700mb is useful for people as it means it fits on a CD, 745mb (IIRC) means that you can get 6 on a DVD with little or no wastage. 900mb offers no means of sensible archival other than hard disk, personally I don't mind, but there are plenty around who do.

The results of GK are FAR better than that of AutoGK, if they're not then you've misconfigured GK, there's a few guides on this site that should be able to help.

Sounds good, there are a number of satrips around on the site BTW

I put 4 x 900mb + 1 X 700mb film on 1 DVD. Doesn't seem to bad to me considering how cheap DVDs are.



I always thought AutoGK was GK, just on autopilot. What should my setup time be with GK? I always seemed to spend to much time making minor adjustments.

AutoGK IS GK on autopilot, but if you spend 10 minutes or so playing with GK your results will be MUCH better

Well, the advantages of regular GK are that you can get a closer aspect ratio with the least picture cropped, and you can choose what filters to use and what matrix to use. AGK decides all of that for you, and has been known to be wrong when it comes to cropping/aspect ratio. You can use whatever file size you like, but 1.46GB (3rd of dvdr) is hot in the streets right now.

But whatever you choose to do, bring us some sweet rarities from satellite!

I won't whine about my problems with GK here, I will however promise to give it another go soon.

Cheers!

I agree with PCA that now it only takes 10 mins to set up GK, but the first few times, until you get used to it, it will take you longer. Its quite logical if you step back & look at it, all youre doing is adding the audio, setting the resolution & cropping off the black bits. The only hard bit comes after youve ripped & its come out grainy, or ghosted, or blocky or interlaced etc. as thats when you have to start adding filters to improve things. Its no slower than AGK to rip with until you apply some filtering.

1/6 DVD aka 745mb rips seem to be the new standard, they call these AFR (Advanced Filesize Regulations).

That's the bummer part. Encoding for 2 hours and getting an unsatisfactory result, then encoding again, and again, and maybe again. (Darnit, I'm starting to whine.)



I enjoy sharing my work, but I make the rips for myself, and not really for the masses; sorry if that sounds selfish. Maybe there benefits to conforming to AFR that I can't see at present.

Hold on though, AGK rips are far less reliable than GK. AGK is auto & it often doesnt crop or resizes wrong & even includes anything thats in the same vob (trailers etc) in the rip it does, thus by using GK youre already fixing that in the first place. AGK will not stop you getting the above problems as it doesnt auto apply filters.

You guys are starting to scare me, because if AutoGK is as bad as I'm hearing, I'm due for some mishaps really soon. My last 20 film rips came out great, except for one that had a minor sound sync problem near the end. Trailers are never a problem because I'm encoding a DVR recording, that first goes through a VideoRedo editing process to cut ads. AutoGK has so far given me satisfactory cropping on WS films, even knowing to cut any overlapping watermarks. The only problem I have with Autogk is the size dimensions it picks for films in WS (too small). However for those I just force the width I want.

Is it possible that people who have given AutoGK a bad review, were encoding DVD rips, and never tried it with DVR rips? AutoGK gets a 8/10 rating at VideoHelp: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AutoGK

Don't get me wrong, AGK is the best of all the 1 click programs but as with all of them, because its auto it makes assumptions & often it does this badly.

Slayer is finding AGK has bitten his ass on his last 3 or 4 rips (check his recent releases) so these are the best examples I can suggest to explain what I mean.

I was 1 of the AGK crew until I finally took the plunge into GK after a crappy AGK rip of a film that I wanted to release. I started a thread in the Help section & spud, lux & others jumped in to help me work it all out as they love helping people get things right & from that day onwards I've been using GK.

I've no idea about TV rips as I've no capture card but thats something the VHS rippers might be able to input on, although I know STR rip VHS with GK as well.

Well, what I plan on doing in the new year is to rip a film in AutoGK, then do it again with GK. I'll post the steps I took here at Dead Donkey, and maybe with some help, I'll be able to produce a result that surpasses what I got in AutoGK.

You don't need to rip the whole film though. If you're unsure of wether its going to turn out ok, use a program like chopperXP to cut a section of the VOB, preferably a high motion section, then encode this. That way you save hours of wasted time reripping & reripping to get it right.

I like the sound of your idea though, ripping with both programs to compare the two is a great plan

I'm sure you've spotted it, but in case you haven't I've made a beginners guide to GK: http://forum.dead-donkey.com/viewtopic.php?t=15117

Well, I'd rather do the whole film because one of the problems I had with GK is audio sync related, that became progressively worse the further in film I went.

No, I didn't see your guide, as I'm just beginning to truly explore this site. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll use it when I embark on my project.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about Im guessing ripping/burn programs hopefully but its all very very scary

Its about as scary as seeing your Grandma naked

It's not so bad. I sometimes get more satisfaction out of the project, than the actual film I'm ripping.

roger doger and yes seeing my grandma naked is scary....**shudders**

BB is on a mission, like a missionary in South America: all hail the GK!