After preview/edit changes, re-run "Prepare" ?

[hallway]

Now that I've got the Preview/Edit tab usable, if I blank out or still image parts, do I need to re-run the "Prepare" phase ?? I assume even if I don't that DVD-RB will still give the gained space to the main movie. I'm just curious to see the results of the changes (compare the logs).

I've currently got Jumanji ready to run. I've chosen to steal 10% and do Half-D1 only. The log file says:

- Reduction Level for DVD-5: 48.8%
- Overall Bitrate : 3,340/2,672Kbs
- Space for Video : 2,168,590KB
- Movie improvement from extra reduction = .6%
- HIGH/LOW/TYPICAL Bitrates: 3,170/350/2,672 Kbs

I might change to 25% reduction in this case (I'm hesitant because I went overboard on my first job and chose 33% (or maybe 50%) and both of the Half-D1 and Half-space options. In that case, the extras were horrible quality (unwatchable).

Then again, I only blanked out (3) previews for other movies with this one so I doubt I'll gain much anyway.

[hallway]

Either something was wrong with the first run-through or there are some HUGE extras on this DVD. Here's what I get on the 2nd run:

[13:06:00] Phase I, PREPARATION started.
- HC encoder selected
- "Movie Only" mode is enabled.
- VTS_02: 2,565,682 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 149,892 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- Reduction Level for DVD-5: 95.2%
- Overall Bitrate : 6,554/5,244Kbs
- Space for Video : 4,001,604KB
- HIGH/LOW/TYPICAL Bitrates: 6,149/4,590/5,244 Kbs
[13:13:40] Phase I, PREPARATION completed in 7 minutes.

I'm going to do a full-backup prepare again and look at the preview/edit tab again.

What does DVD-RB consider "extras", by the way ?? On this DVD, only (3) trailers/previews showed up. When I un-checked the "show extras only" menu item, many, many more were listed.

[jdobbs]

1. Rebuilder considers the largest VTS to be the main feature, all other VTSs are considered to be Extras.

2. Do not rerun PREPARE. It will cancel out any changes you've made in the editor.

3. Sometimes there are "Extras" in the main VTS -- in that case you can uncheck "Show Extras Only" and manually blank them.

[laserfan]

I've managed to get confused myself over when-to-do-what myself. You have to first get your Options right (including Movie Only or With Extras etc), run PREPARE, and then do the Preview/Edit thing, and REBUILD.

I guess I'm a little slow, but I find the tabbed standard skin a bit confusing in this regard--at least as a newbie it's hard to know when "what you are changing" requires another PREPARE, or that you should specifically NOT do another PREPARE. I've messed-up a number of times before learning how this works, by changing Options and then REBUILDing (so my option changes didn't work) or by changing Preview/Edit selections and then PREPAREing again, which doesn't work also.

I think I have it figured-out finally, but still it might be nice if there were flags/reminders sometimes ("you've changed an option, you must re-run PREPARE").

[hallway]

2. Do not rerun PREPARE. It will cancel out any changes you've made in the editor.

3. Sometimes there are "Extras" in the main VTS -- in that case you can uncheck "Show Extras Only" and manually blank them. I have to bring this up again and hopefully someone will help me or explain this. On another DVD today, I did "Half-D1" and "Steal 10%...." and got this:

- Movie improvement from extra reduction = 6.3%

The main movie is 6.26gb.

Hoping to increase that number and gain higher bitrates, let's say I blank or still image some extras. I'd like to be told something like "Movie improvement from 2nd stage (i.e. blanking or still-imaging segments) = 19.2%". As it is currently, after blanking or still-imaging things out, you've no real idea of the improvements you've made or do you (somewhere) ??

[spydymn]

Under the preview/edit at the bottom it says feature bitrate 2,656 or something like that when u blank out or make extra a slide show it shows your bitrate # increase when performing that function. I am asuming this is the improvement to the main movie bitrate but i am not sure as i asked this in another thread

[hallway]

Yeap, I saw that. Before doing anything though, it listed a number. That number wasn't the overall bitrate, nor the typical bitrate listed in the status log. It's close, smaller, than the higher overall bitrate number. It's a fair amount bigger than the typical number in the high/low/typical listing.