dvdshrink max (acceptable) compression?

[pepipocpoc]

Hi everybody,

I wondered what maximum compression you think dvdshrink (v3) can handle with -of course- good enough results, to avoid as much as possible re-encoding with CCE. Am I clear enough?

I know mods usually don't like "what's the best...", but I'd just like your appreciations and although I am perfectly aware that "good enough" for someone isn't even "nearly rubbish" for someone else, I could do with a few answers...

10x

[Kedirekin]

This depends strongly on the content (movie, show, episode, whatever).

I personally don't always aim for perfect quality, but when I do want really good quality, I'm much more likely to split to two disks.

That said, for some disks compression all the way down to 55% yields watchable results (ex. DareDevil, albiet with a couple of pixelated scenes). On other disks, even 75% is too much (ex. 28 Days Later).

Luckily Shrink is quite fast, so you can just try a compression ratio and see. I've gotten pretty good at previewing content in WinDVD and knowing if it'll be acceptable on my TV.

Also, a lot of people say that a Shrink disk that looks good on a standard TV will look like crap on a HDTV, so if you ever expect to watch your disk on an HDTV you should never compress below X%. They're right that you have to be careful, but I don't agree with the militant attitude.

If you don't have an HDTV, you should be more critical when previewing the Shrink results on your PC (1024x768 is effectively HD, though not 36 or 42 or 108 inches worth), and you should be more cautious about accepting borderline results. If the results look acceptable on your PC, they'll probably be okay on an HDTV, and if their a little iffy when the time comes, just turn the sharpness down a little.

[pepipocpoc]

Thanks, Kedirekin.

I have momentarily been a brick, or maybe a lettuce. Of course! Why didn't I tried preview! So simple...

In fact, there is something I didn't mentionned, and maybe I should ask in another forum : I am compiling back my svcd collection to dvd-r, and so try to put two movies (sometimes three) on each dvd-r. And there again, you are perfectly right on one more point : it all depends on the content.

Right. So, my movies are already svcd-compressed, I just demux-remux them, and there is generally no need to re-compress again. But sometimes, I have two 3x99'discs sets and then...

For example, I intended to compile Gladiator and Braveheart together : reauthoring done (quite long ; I keep two audio tracks, rebuild three subs, chapters, for each movie... that keeps me busy, in fact), dvdshrink ask for a 81% compression -I don't think I will ever need more.

Yes, yes, I WILL do it and have a preview on my PC. But, would you say a 80% max-compression is a good deal?

The problem with a PC preview is that you only verify a very small part of the movie ; while writing this, it dawn to me that I recently watched a compressed movie on my (LD)TV and saw (little) problems that I missed when I before-burn-quick-checked it...

Thanks again.

PS :
Hey, there! Everyone is welcome, so let me know your experiences.
10x

[digitalman]

PowerDVD previews your video in 16:9 1080x720 resolution, if your movie is 16:9. So you get a great idea what the results will look like on an HDTV. I will tell you, videos that look outstanding at 720x480, do not necessarily look as good at HDTV resolutions.

[Kedirekin]

I'm not sure about transcoding SVCDs. They're typically already at a really low bitrate, so I wouldn't think DVDShrink would have much to work with. Both the low average bitrate (1600-2300) and the low maximum bitrate (2500) are likely to cause problems with transcoding, but I'm really just guessing. As I understand it Shrink doesn't just pull down the average bitrate, it pulls down the maximums too, and for high action scenes 2500 is already too low.

I also don't know if it'll choke on the resolution, since 480x480/576 isn't DVD compliant.

I guess the only answer is to try it and see. I'm not sure I'm curious enough to try it myself, so I'd be interested in hearing your results.

[pepipocpoc]

Hi again

It's probably because of this already low svcd bitrate that I could see some loss (eg. generic texts looks like boxed, sea riplets are nearly squared...). But on the whole, I was satisfied with the original svcd format, and still am with svcd-dvd.

About resolution, it is true that 480x576 isn't DVD compliant, but I choosed my standalone to be able to handle that (Philips DVD 634 if my memory is good enough) ; anyway, there are ways to trick the player, like dvdpatch.

And, yes, if you are not curious enough, don't try it! It took me nearly a whole month to obtain the results I expected. Although simple svcd (one audio, no subs, no chapters ; inother words, a divx :D ) are pretty straight forward to reauthor to dvd, more complex are... more complex :rolleyes: .

Usually, I compress(ed) my DVDs using CCE, then use IfoEdit to reauthor and finally dvdshrink to compile. And the result is good enough, at my eyes, on my TV screen (it's true that's worst on PC...).

I haven't burn nor seen my gladia-heart yet, but on PC, it looks nice enough (for what I've been used to).

10x

PS
Any other experiences? Come on.

[jawzforlife]

I will use this for my example:

Sapranos (any disc), they are dual layer. And unlike movie discs you cant just get rid of everything and keep the movie, These are eposodic discs. So the entire dual layer is the episodes. I had to shink to a total compression of 65% (loss of 35%). I watched it on my standard TV and it looked great. BUt then I got my 51' HDTV, and it is not great anymore. You can tell it was compressed.

So HDTV will show more flaws than a standard tv.

[pepipocpoc]

So, it most depends on your TV quality (Kedirekin suggest to turn the sharpness down a little)... How lucky am I not having a HDTV

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