www.mindwarppavilion.org
Stefan / GoblinKing / freestate @ Mind-Warp PaVilion (v2.0 March 2007)
Guides To Finding Technical Information About Your
DVD
For PC Users Using PowerDVD
XP4
For Mac Users Using MPEG
Streamclip and
DVD Player
Guides To Finding Technical Information About Your
DVD
For PC Users Using PowerDVD
XP4
For Mac Users Using MPEG
Streamclip and
DVD Player
The software used is;
Windows XP Professional
PowerDVD XP4
PowerDVD XP4 is commercialware.
Open PowerDVD and put the DVD in your drive. Click on the folder icon to the left of the Stop/Play/Pause controls and choose the drive that has the disc in it. (all of these tips can be used if you choose to 'Open DVD File on Hard Disc Drive' as well)
Start playing the DVD and, while it is playing, right click on the viewing screen. You'll get a menu;
Click on Show Information. When you've done this
you'll notice that the playing screen will show a number of pieces of information
about the DVD.
NOTE: This information will not be displayed
when the DVD is paused, and the screen in the screencap below is showing
black because a screencap will not capture a moving picture.
The information shown is:
Total Running Time:
- this Time is correct as Total Running Time
only
if the DVD has just one Title. There is a difference between Chapters and
Titles. Chapters should be considered to be the same as track splits on
a CD. Titles exist on a DVD where the DVD contains more than one sub-Title.
In order to get Total Running Time for the DVD the Times of each
of the Titles have to be added up. More on that later.
Number Of Titles:
- you'll notice that in the screencap example above this
is showing as 2/2. The reason for this is that this particular DVD has
a menu which is considered to be Title 1. The Time of the menu is not considered
to be part of the Total Running Time.
Number Of Chapters:
- if this DVD didn't have any chapters this would read
1/1. However, even though this particular DVD is showing 1/11, indicating
that there are 11 Chapters, it does not tell you whether the Chapters are
intuitive (which means each Chapter is the start of the next song or the
next part of the documentary) or x-minute auto-chapters. To find out whether
the Chapters are intuitive or auto all you have to do is skip to the next
Chapter a couple of times while watching the Time. If the Time skips forward
approximately 5 minutes or 10 minutes this indicates auto-chapters. Also,
if the DVD has auto-chapters you will notice that the next chapter will,
more than likely, start in the middle of a song. Auto-chapters are common
when a DVD has been recorded on a stand-alone recorder.
Video:
- in the example above it reads MPEG-2 (which is a given
as far as DVDs are concerned) and 8.89Mbps. This last figure is the transfer
rate - it means 8.89 Megabits per second. You'll notice when playing a
DVD that this figure changes frequently depending on what the DVD is actually
showing at the time. The figure will rise when there's fast action or lighting
effects and it will fall when there's not a lot going on in the DVD. To
denote an approximate Transfer Rate, which is all MWP is asking for, we
use a tilde (~) to denote 'about' so on this particular DVD the Transfer
Rate would be ~9mb/s.
Audio:
- In this example it reads Dolby Digital 2.0 / 384Kb/s.
There are a number of types of audio streams that accompany DVDs such as
LPCM, MPEG 2.0 etc., and numerous bitrates. These all depend on how the
DVD was originally authored.
Side Note: A rule of thumb where DVDs recorded on stand-alone recorders are concerned is that in HQ mode the Transfer Rate will be ~9mb/s and in SQ mode it will be ~4.5mb/s. DVDs made using computer software will vary. A high Transfer Rate, however, cannot be used as an indication of video or audio quality. Video and audio quality is dependant on the DVD's source and/or authoring.
Format:
- This denotes whether a DVD is PAL or NTSC. There are
other formats such as NTSC Film and SECAM but these are very rare. To find
out whether the DVD is PAL of NTSC click on the 'hammer and nail'
icon (it's highlighted orange in the screencap below):
This will give you an Information Box:
This Information Box gives you Video and Audio Attributes such as TV System (PAL or NTSC), Aspect Ratio and Frame Rate (PAL is always 25f/s and NTSC is always 29.97f/s - except NTSC Film but we're ignoring that).
NOTE: The Video Bitrate
(Transfer Rate) displayed in the Information Box is inaccurate.
The preferred method of gauging Bitrate (Transfer Rate)
is to watch the detail displayed on the screen as described above. As mentioned,
the Transfer Rate will vary as the DVD plays. If, for example, the lower
rate is about 3.9mb/s and the upper rate is about 6.9mb/s it is acceptable
to denote the Transfer Rate as ~5mb/s.
Disc Type:
- DVD5 indicates a single-layer DVD, DVD9 indicates a
dual-layer DVD. DVD9s are rare within the torrenting world at the moment
but as media prices drop and people start experimenting with software they
are likely to become more common. This is why having the Disc Type in the
Announce is important. People would be very disappointed if they downloaded
a DVD9 without being able to burn it to disc. (That said, it would be easy
to infer whether a DVD is a 5 or a 9 by the size of the download.)
Number Of Discs:
- Most Torrented DVDs are a single disc. An example of
an exception to this rule is Bowie's 50th Birthday Bash which is 2 discs.
It is important to specify the number of discs so as to make it clear that
2 DVD5s are being torrented as opposed to a DVD9 which might be roughly
the same size in Gigabytes.
How To Calculate Total Running Time:
- if you have a DVD that has more than one Title, go
to this site (bookmark it now!): http://www.csgnetwork.com/timescalc.html
Here you can add, for example, Title 1 @ 31m 22s and
Title 2 @ 23m 45s and Title 3 @ 32m 55s and easily come up with a Total
Running Time of 1h 28m 02s.
A Few Words About Honesty:
- When uploading a DVD it is always best to be honest
about the DVD's contents when making your Announce. Be familiar with your
upload - take the time to sit and watch it prior to uploading and make
notes as you watch regarding quality, errors etc. If the video quality
is poor please say so. Keep in mind that a high Transfer Rate does not
necessarily mean good video quality. MWP assumes that if you've taken the
time to create and upload a Torrent you will continue to use MWP's Tracker
either as an uploader or a downloader in the future and your reputation
can be made or lost based on your Announce. If you are honest the
future is bright for all concerned.
Special Thanks to Weesam for providing screencaps for Mac software and modifications to this Guide for Mac users!
The software used is;
Mac OS X
MPEG
Streamclip v1.8
DVD Player
MPEG
Streamclip is freeware, DVD Player is
included with Mac OS X
Open MPEG Streamclip and
put the DVD in your drive.
Navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder of the DVD. It should
look something like this;
Notice the files with the .VOB suffix:
Drag a .VOB file to the main window of MPEG
Streamclip.
You will be asked if you want to include all the .VOB
files. Say Yes.
From the File Menu select 'Show Stream Info'. You will see the following window:
The information shown is:
Duration:
- This is the total running time of the DVD, in this
case 18 minutes and 5 seconds.
Video Tracks aka Video Details:
- In the example above it reads MPEG-2 (which is a given
as far as DVDs are concerned),
and 9.55Mbps.
- 704x576 is the resolution, which here is full DVD.
- 4:3 is the aspect ratio of the DVD.
The Bitrate (Transfer Rate):
- This number will vary as the DVD plays depending on
what is happening in the DVD. You'll notice when playing a DVD that this
figure changes frequently depending on what the DVD is actually showing
at the time. The figure will rise when there's fast action or lighting
effects and it will fall when there's not a lot going on in the DVD. To
denote an approximate Transfer Rate, which is all MWP is asking for, we
use a tilde (~) to denote 'about' so on this particular DVD the Transfer
Rate would be ~9mb/s. If, for example, the lower rate is about 3.9mb/s
and the upper rate is about 6.9mb/s it is acceptable to denote the Transfer
Rate as ~5mb/s. Here it is 9.49Mbps
Format:
- This denotes whether a DVD is PAL or NTSC. There are
other formats such as NTSC Film and SECAM but these are very rare. PAL
is always 25fps and NTSC is always 29.97fps, so we can see here that this
video is PAL (in the Video Tracks details)
Audio:
- In this example it reads "AC3 (Dolby Digital) 2.0,
48kHZ, 256Kb/s".
(It could say DTS (Digital theatre System - a competing
system) instead of AC3)
There are some pieces of information that MPEG Streamclip cannot report;
Chapters:
- To see how your DVD is chaptered, play it using OS
X's DVD Player. The 'Go' menu has a
chapters sub-menu. There you see how many chapters there are and you can
navigate to the individual chapters to see if they are intuitive or 'x'
minute auto-chapters.
You can also flick through the chapters with the '>>'
button on the DVD controller.
Regions:
- In DVD Player go
to File Menu -> Get Disc Info -> Regions;
Here we can see that this disc can be played anywhere.
Disc Type:
- DVD5 indicates a single-layer DVD, DVD9 indicates a
dual-layer DVD. DVD9s are rare within the torrenting world at the moment
but as media prices drop and people start experimenting with software they
are likely to become more common. This is why having the Disc Type in the
Announce is important. People would be very disappointed if they downloaded
a DVD9 without being able to burn it to disc. (That said, it would be easy
to infer whether a DVD is a 5 or a 9 by the size of the download.)
Number Of Discs:
- Most Torrented DVDs are a single disc. An example of
an exception to this rule is 'Bowie's 50th Birthday Bash' which is 2 discs.
It is important to specify the number of discs so as to make it clear that
2 DVD5s are being torrented as opposed to a DVD9 which might be roughly
the same size in Gigabytes.
So, using Mind Warp Pavilion's Video
Announce Example we can use all the gathered Video information to create
a Video Announce for this disc;
Type: unofficial
Author: unknown
Source: TV
broadcast
Menu: no
Chapters: yes
Transfer Rate: ~9mb/s
Audio: Dolby
Digital 2.0 / 256kb/s
Format: PAL
/ 25fps
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Disc Type: DVD5
Region: all
Number of Discs: 1
Total Running Time: 18m
05s
Artwork Included
Contents:
- Staples
- Taillights Fade
- interview
- Mineral
- Velvet Roof
Torrent History:
Uploaded to Mind-Warp PaVilion
by *username* on *date*
A Few Words About Honesty:
- When uploading a DVD it is always best to be honest
about the DVD's contents when making your Announce. Be familiar with your
upload - take the time to sit and watch it prior to uploading and make
notes as you watch regarding quality, errors etc. If the video quality
is poor please say so. Keep in mind that a high Transfer Rate does not
necessarily mean good video quality. MWP assumes that if you've taken the
time to create and upload a Torrent you will continue to use MWP's Tracker
either as an uploader or a downloader in the future and your reputation
can be made or lost based on your Announce. If you are honest the
future is bright for all concerned.