DVD backup: xvid v. cce

[richarddd]

I'm thinking of switching my DVD backup strategy from AutoGK/xvid to DVD2DVD/cce (DVD2SCVD, d2sroba & CCE). Goal is to play results on a TV.

xvid provides excellent results when played on my computer, but sometimes stutters when played on my standalone player, even with xvid 1.1's VBV function. Higher bitrates help quality, but sometimes hurt playback on the standalone.

DVD2DVD & CCE don't seem to allow as much compression - I can do a reasonable xvid backup to 1 cd, but CCE seems to require more space. If I'm backing up a DVD9 to a DVD5, this is not really a problem. 1.5 hour movies often look better than 3 hour movies (not a surprise), but the difference is not great.

I don't yet have a HD TV, which makes realistic testing a bit difficult. It's not clear to me if the computer screen (especially examining individual frames) is more or less foregiving than a HD TV viewed at a reasonable distance (just watching the movie).

Any comments? Any reason not to switch to DVD2DVD?

By the way, I've found lots of comparisons of one mpeg-4 codec to another and one mpeg-2 one click to another, but not much dealing with this issue. If I'm missing something, please point me in the right direction.

[Mug Funky]

if you've got a DVD burner, then it's find to make 1-DVD backups.

i only just got my burner, so i haven't played much with 1-click solutions. i've just done a little manual re-authoring in maestro, which is far from the most efficient way to do things (though knowing meastro is something that can go on a resume, whereas operating a 1-clicker is not).

one thing i've been playing with is encoding to high bitrate xvid and storing that on DVDs. playing through TV-out, so compatibility and speed issues aren't a problem. a 10-metre long composite cable is my only problem here (ew... but not as bad as it could be).

a computer screen works at far far greater resolutions than TVs. it even gives HDTVs a run for their money (what's the highest res plasma out at the moment? is it still 1024x1024?). this means they are far less forgiving than TVs at viewing distance. if something looks good on a monitor, it'll generally look great on a TV. the only thing to watch for is the fact that TV screens are quite a lot brighter than monitors, so they will actually show artefacts in dark areas better. you can fix this by turning the contrast down until the dark areas are clipped off, or doing a better encode :)