Mpeg 4 -> DV -> FCP, image quality problems

[Cheesebury]

I'm trying to get some video from a DVD I decrypted and encoded into mpeg 4 using Handbrake into Final Cut.

Obviously it won't edit the straight up mpeg4 or any variant of .mov I throw at it so I'm turning it into a .dv file. Unfortunately nothing I do, no matter how many settings I play with, gets it to translate the quality of the original mpeg4.

The mpeg is crisp and damn near a perfect translation from the DVD, whenever it gets shifted into .dv it blurs out a little and loses it's clean edges.

Is there anything I can do to get it from the clean mpeg4 into an editable state without losing image quality?

 

[VaricamLife]

I'm trying to get some video from a DVD I decrypted

Sorry to tell you there mate, that part of your sentence alone kind of precludes us from really being able to help you. If its a DVD you have to decrypt, well then you need to be contacting the legal/legitimate copyright holder and asking for the footage from them. This forum stays away from such problems.

As for the quality concern, I'm not sure you'll really every avoid that. You are switching codecs (MPEG-2 on the DVD to whatever you finish with). So you are going from one compression type/level to another. That's usually automatic that you'll see some loss in quality going that route. And if you don't really see it there, you'll certainly see it in the end as you've then gone from MPEG-2 (and not HDV), to another codec, and then back to MPEG-2 again (if you go back to DVD in the end).

You could always switch over to a PC and purchase Sony Vegas. The latest version of Vegas will edit .vob files natively as is my understanding. There may be other NLE's that can do so as well, but Vegas is the only one I've heard of that does. Good luck, whichever route you do take.

Cheers.