Controlling Output Size?

[writersblock29]

Hi, Jdobbs!

First and foremost, I want to thank you for your hard work and devotion to this program: I remember well the days of using a buggy collection of freeware programs and spending days piecing together a single DVD that *may* work after all is said and done. I also marvelled at the simplicity of the one-clickers... but missed the CCE quality. You're filling that gap, and it goes deeply appreciated!

The issue that I wish to ask about, Jdobbs, is the final output sizing. I'm using CCE 2.50 (paid a pretty mint for it back in the day, glad to still be able to use it!). The movie I chose to test your program with is KILL BILL, R1. The first time out, I was using DVDRB .42; I left everything at default settings, and hit "one click." When I awoke the following day, to my delight it was done... with a final file size of 4.28G. When DVDRB .43 came out, I used it for the same movie (it's a test, so both results are still on my hard drive) -- only this time, I reduced the size of my extras to half D1. The final file size? 4.15... but the main movie has increased nearly 1 Gig in size -- and looks sooo much better because of it! ...But the trade is that the extras look pretty ragged.

What I'd like to do is to be able to use the full capacity of my DVD media, since it makes no sense to me to remove audio streams -- and reduce the resolution of the extras -- with the logic that I'm saving space for quality... then never really use that extra space at all!

I've used DVD2DVD (DVD2SVCD) in the past for certain projects... it also used my CCE 2.50, and always resulting in 4.36/4.35ish file sizes. Of course I realize that DVD2DVD does things quite differently from DVDRB (it's not reconstructing the DVD, merely re-encoding the main movie itself)... but is there any way to get the final sizing closer to 4.36GB, using CCE, with DVDRB?

[Joergen]

99% of the time my output with CCE 2.66 has been 4.32GB which leads me to believe adjusting the output to a higher number would give equally consistant numbers. And if it was a little off, you could always run it through shrink again to remove a sub track (if you didnt already). This is without the half-d1 extras option (I'm yet to test it).

And I dunno which audio tracks youre talking about, but if you leave a 700MB DTS track AND the 400MB DD track (plus additional 200MB commentary tracks) you're asking for trouble. Kill Bill is a good example of an easy compress. The image is crystal clear and high bitrate so recompressing will give best results.

[writersblock29]

@Joergen

The only audio track I kept was the 5.1 English, choosing to remove both the DTS (which I always shed given the high filesize) and the French (don't speak it -- don't need it!).

<99% of the time my output with CCE 2.66 has been 4.32GB which leads me to believe ADJUSTING THE OUTPUT TO A HIGHER NUMBER would give equally consistant numbers. And if it was a little off, you could always run it through shrink again to remove a sub track (if you didnt already). This is without the half-d1 extras option (I'm yet to test it).>

What output are you referring to? Is there an option in DVDRB already to do this? (I've looked but didn't find one... perhaps I missed it somewhere if this is the case.) Or does CCE 2.66 have one? Since DVDRB makes tons of little video files rather than a handful of big ones, would there be an option to do this concerning batch processing?

[Joergen]

Add CCETargetSectors=2260007 to the rebuilder.ini under [Options] ie:

[Options]
DynamicBitrate=0
CCE=1
BackColor=12632256
RemoveDTS=1
CCETargetSectors=2260007

That gave me about 4.36GB on a test I did.

[writersblock29]

@Joergen

Thank you! I'll give that a run and see what happens!

[DDogg]

writersblock29, I think it should also be mentioned that the 1/2D1HalfBR option is in its infancy, may bear further tweaking, and may only be a temporary measure. If you find there is a sector filesize tweak that works consistently for all different sources please share it with the group.

[writersblock29]

@DDogg

<writersblock29, I think it should also be mentioned that the 1/2D1HalfBR option is in its infancy, may bear further tweaking, and may only be a temporary measure. If you find there is a sector filesize tweak that works consistently for all different sources please share it with the group.>

You bet, bro. Actually, I think about DVD Rebuilder -- as a whole -- as a program in its infancy; which is why I brought the sizing issue up... just in case Jdobbs wasn't aware of it, and there was a way to fix 'er up. I'm having a ton of fun playing around with this program, I must say!

[writersblock29]

@Joergen

<Add CCETargetSectors=2260007 to the rebuilder.ini under [Options]>

Didn't work! I wound up with a runtime 9 error at the end of rebuilding. I just removed it, and will try again with the same settings tonight to see what happens with the runtime error. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

[writersblock29]

No runtime error... but I think I know what caused it before; I was using Decomb to deinterlace while also reducing the size of my extras to half D1. This time around, I left the deinterlacing off (still trying for half D1 on extras), and specified 2260007 as my target sectors.

4.15 Gigs. Doh!

[Joergen]

Originally posted by writersblock29
No runtime error... but I think I know what caused it before; I was using Decomb to deinterlace while also reducing the size of my extras to half D1. This time around, I left the deinterlacing off (still trying for half D1 on extras), and specified 2260007 as my target sectors.

4.15 Gigs. Doh!

Works for me, while testing RBFarm I did the same disc 4 times. First without CCETargetSectors=2260007, it came out 4.31GB, then with and it came out 4.36GB and subsequent 2 times also 4.36GB.

The half-d1 half bitrate extras option might still need some finetuning though.

[writersblock29]

For those who have followed this thread, and may have also shared the issue of undersizing with DVD Rebuilder:

Opening the rebuilder.ini, and entering the value CCETargetSectors=2297888
my project came out as 4.36, spot-on. I understand that the possibilty of oversizing is pretty high doing this, so those who are thinking of trying it might profit from setting this value down a bit... say, 2290000 or so... until you find what works. I haven't tried any other movies using the 2297888 setting -- so please don't consider that value carved in stone -- but it may give you something to try!

(I disabled the half D1 encoding option when I came up with a 4.36 copy, BTW.)

There still seems to be some audio dropout and stuttering issues, however, that occur within certain places... I've burned to several different brands of re-writables -- as well as a Ritek recordable -- and these problems occur in exactly the same places (very repeatable) in all disks, so I'm sure it isn't a media issue. Any help I can offer from my files, I'll gladly provide!

Cheers!
WB29

[msobetzko]

I have done 4 movies to date (Matrix 2, Matrix 3, Priates of Carrib, Indy Last Crusade) and I have used TargetSectors=2260000. The movies are consistently 4.36 with CCE SP 2.67 and RB .44. I repeatedly created the backup for Pirates starting at 2290000 (which came out substantially to high) and walked it down in 5000 sector increments until I got to 2260000.

I must state though that I am doing movie only, having stripped it out with DVD-Shrink set to no compression.

[the-warriners]

Just done Kill Bill region 2 PAL with DVD-RB 0.45

I used all the default settings for CCESP2.67 trial

The files came out at 3,921,294 bytes which is way under sized.

Still looked great though ;)

Anything I might be doing wrong. I didnt choose to half bitrate the extras.

[plouie10]

Did Miss Congeniality NTSC
Came out 4.36 GB
So far so good. Always great to squeeze a little extra out of an already fantastic program.
Cheers!!

Will continue to test:D

[writersblock29]

@plouie10

<Did Miss Congeniality NTSC
Came out 4.36 GB>

What target sectors did you use? 2260000, 2297888, or did you set a different value?

[Joergen]

Originally posted by the-warriners
Just done Kill Bill region 2 PAL with DVD-RB 0.45

I used all the default settings for CCESP2.67 trial

The files came out at 3,921,294 bytes which is way under sized.

Still looked great though ;)

Anything I might be doing wrong. I didnt choose to half bitrate the extras.

I did the same with good results. Did you deselect the DTS track or other tracks? If you continue a project later (shutting down dvd-rb inbetween) you must re-uncheck the audio you want to remove or dvd-rb will encode the new sections thinking it must have room for all the audio.

[plouie10]

Originally posted by writersblock29
@plouie10

<Did Miss Congeniality NTSC
Came out 4.36 GB>

What target sectors did you use? 2260000, 2297888, or did you set a different value?

I used 2260007

Cheers!!:D