Not really. I can already see the differences just in the codec alone.
"If you like I will send you a bootleg DVD for nuffin so you can compare your results to what is already out there."
Well, I still want to send you mine, so you can hear the 5.1 and see how I incorporated the commentaries. I've just been holding off until I made a better version. We'll trade.
"It does look a little light compared to the LD"
Like I said, MPEG makes it darker, and I like the background details. Once I've finished this full compile (12 out of 24 hours so far), we'll see what improvements can be made at the next step.
BTW, just a little thing here. I found out that "null transform" will let me crop my AVI's, so I wanted to make two different sets. One set would be cropped 24fps, which turned out fine. The second set was supposed to be a cropped copy of the originals (still at 30 fps), but with the extra "false start" minutes edited out.
Using VirtualDubMod, on the "Frame Rate" tab, I clicked "No Change", but there's no apparent way to keep from taking off the "Progressive" tab. Now, the resulting 30 fps files, cropped and with several minutes of extra footage cut out, are 1/10 bigger , and are labelled "Progressive Order" in Vegas, rather than "Lower Field First" like my masters. What gives?
BTW, my 24fps cropped versions look perfect, but Vegas says they are 19 fps and progressive. Is this right?