MST3K on DVD

Updated 2003-8-15

I have a grand vision of producing high quality MPEG-2 video from the remaining tapes of MST3K episodes. Join me, won't you?

By the way, do you have a better background image for this page?

Episode list

I was attempting to add at least one episode every month, but I have been failing at that. I won't have a chance to work on another episode before mid January 2003. On the positive side, I have been cooperating with John T of the Torgonic Garden to make more DVD's.

Warning

Not all DVD players can play back DVD-R disks. It seems that most, but not all, manufactured since about the middle of 2001 can read DVD-R's. For more information on compatibility, read the notes I have.

Goals

Save MST3K episodes from degrading video tapes
Make recorded MPEGs available to fans
Do it all with high quality variable bit rate MPEG-2 video (quality made possible by zucchini throw pillows)
Completely remove commercials
Include the entire episode from the opening theme to the stinger

Episode immortalization

Use MPEG format that is commonly supported and put it on DVD-R for playback in DVD players.
I now have Pioneer's DVR-A03 DVD-R/RW drive and a number of disks
Presently concentrating on Sci-Fi era episodes in excellent condition
Episodes available from Rhino will be avoided. Eventually the VHS only titles may be converted to MPEGs, but not released to avoid conflict with Rhino. After all, their work satisfies the primary goal of this project, and they get to use better masters than I do.

Acquisition of Tapes

They will materialize in my living room.
My parents supply me with S-VHS tapes of episodes airing on the Sci-fi channel which they receive from Direct TV.
Only high end consumer S-VHS VCRs are used with S-VHS video tapes.

Distribution

Those who want an episode could send me media or pay me for the media and shipping and ask me to fill the disk before shipping. The present prices (my cost) as of 2003-3-9:

Items	Shipping cost USPS within the continental US	Total cost doesn't include PayPal fee
BeAll (Samsung spin-off) Disk	N/A	$2.10 Includes jewel case
Mailer	N/A	$0.50
1 disk in 1 case	$1.06	$3.66
2 disks in 1 case	$1.06	$5.76
2 disks in 2 cases	$1.52	$6.22
4 disks in 2 cases	$1.75	$10.65
4 disks in 4 cases	$3.85 Priority Mail	$12.25
8 disks in 4 cases	$3.85 Priority Mail	$20.65

The shipping charges sometimes are not what I expect, so sometimes I charge more than the cost of shipping, and sometimes less. The charges for Priority Mail seem rather variable to me, probably because I don't yet understand.
To send money, use either a personal check or Paypal. For Paypal, get the total cost, including shipping, add 0.7% to that total, and then add another $0.30. That is a PayPal charge; I won't be collecting it. Also, send me an email to let me know what is going on.

Episodes can made downloadable from time to time. I have a cable modem that is faster than a T-1 and I can host my own FTP server. However, it looks like downloads from my server will be limited to about 40KB/s. I can download stuff at up to 250KB/s, but the cable modem puts more restrictive limits on the outgoing speed.
Off site server?

Labels

I don't want to put anything permanent on these disks that isn't better than just decent. Since I'm not a graphic artist, although I'd like to think I didn't do badly with the DVD menus, I'd rather not make a label that is attached to the disk. I do make insets, usually just the back, for the CD jewel cases. What little printing I do, including the insets, is done on my reliable DeskJet 500. It is a black and white printer manufactured in December of 1993, so don't expect the exceptional.

Funding

No funding. I'm insane. Maybe I should get a job dealing with digital video?

Video format specifics

From source to end product:

Direct TV -- my parents get this; I cannot.
S-VHS -- far superior to VHS, and I'm using high end consumer VCRs from JVC to provide an outstanding image.
DV -- a digital format that records 720x480 video (not MPEG, but higher quality) and high quality audio (stereo PCM, 16-bit samples, 48kHz sampling rate). It has a constant data rate of 25Mbps, about 2.5 times the maximum of DVD. The compression artifacts from this format are far more subtle than the artifacts from MPEG, so it causes little noticeable loss of video quality.
Quicktime -- just DV wrapped up in Quicktime. At this point, it's on a hard drive ready for editing. FYI: Quicktime is commonly used in the broadcast industry, but different codecs are used from Quicktime movies commonly found on web sites. For broadcast, uncompressed or DV compressed Quicktime is used, while highly compressed codecs are used for movies on web sites.
Another Quicktime -- this is the edited version with commercials removed and audio errors from DV taken out. No encoding to a compressed format has occurred by this point, so no video quality has been lost from editing.
MPEG-2 -- the finished video product. Several trials may be made with different quantization values (this affects the retained video quality) in an attempt to fit the greatest visual detail onto the DVD. The bit rate is variable so when there is a sharper image or more motion the bit rate increases so that the video does not become blocky.
DVD -- processes the MPEG-2 video into something that complies with the DVD spec (this involves multiplexing the audio and video streams and putting them in the proper files; the encoding is finished before this step) and adds menus.

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