Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

It depends on the software you use.

I developed a ripping app that upconverts to full quality DV so we can edit in Final Cut. There is no quality loss with upconversion.

THe other best option is to use an app that pulls the raw MPEG-2 stream with no re-encoding. It's fast like copying files off the disc since no compression is done.

Most ripping apps have piss poor encoding engines IMO.