Reduction Level?

[rack04]

In "Movie and Menu" mode is the reduction level calculated prior to blanking the extras? Thanks.

Here is an example:

-----------------
[17:24:01] Phase I, PREPARATION started.
- CCE 2.70.2.4 encoder selected.
- AVS Filters are enabled.
- "Movie and Menus Only" mode is enabled.
- VTS_01: 65,828 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 3,995 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_03: 1,119,448 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 119,191 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_04: 67,430 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 7,721 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_05: 41,158 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 4,434 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_06: 41,905 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 4,520 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_07: 2,153,920 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 137,641 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_08: 27,756 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 3,181 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- VTS_09: 273,667 sectors.
-- Scanning and writing .D2V & .AVS files
-- Processed 31,201 frames.
-- Building .AVS and .ECL files
- Reduction Level for DVD-5: 50.0%
- Overall Bitrate : 2,660/2,128Kbs
- Space for Video : 3,379,016KB
- Blanking all EXTRA Segments
-- Feature before/after: 2,629 / 5,051 Kbs

[jdobbs]

Yes. In movie-and-menu mode a standard PREPARE is first done -- and it is followed by an automated "blanking" of the extras. So the 50% you see there is the reduction level before the blanking. From the looks of the before/after bitrate in the last line it looks like you're up in the 90% range after blanking.

[hallway]

Could you add a line like "Reduction Level for DVD-5 after blanking: XX%" to the status log ??

[jdobbs]

Hmm... but the reduction level tells you how much the original disc has to be reduced to fit. Removing parts of the original (through blanking) and then recalculating wouldn't give you a value that could really be compared to anything...

I guess what I'm saying is that when you blank you are still reducing to 50%.... but part of the reduction is the removal of sections of the extras.

I suppose it's just a matter of how you look at it.

[JohnGalt]

I definitely think it would be nice to have this second reduction report, as I'd like to be able to see how much the encoder is going to compress a given title. I might decide to blank something else if I'm unhappy with the amount of compression my main title will experience (I'm thinking mainly of 'everything mode' & subsequent blanking of individual extras).

One way this might be dynamically reflected is in the input settings treeview, something like:

DVD
+--VTS01 [ 5.450MB @ 40% = 3.27MB, 16:9 ]
+--VTS02 [ 2.000MB @ 50% = 1.00Mb, 4:3]

then as the user blanks items, this treeview is updated with the new numbers. then once the user is satisfyed and starts the Encode, the numbers could be written to the logfile.

[hallway]

This is definitely a "wish" thing, not a necessary one by any means. I'm quite happy with the results all the time but it's just a mental thing to know that before (the original disc, as you say), it requires a 50% reduction then knowing that after you've removed (blanked) items, that you've increased, decreased actually, the level of reduction required to say 70%.

You're probably familiar with DVD Shrink and it's dynamic "size" bar as well as the way it shows the percentage (the inverse). Say a DVD is at the 65% level to start (full backup). I change a trailer to "Still picture" and the percentage changes to 70%. Do the same to more trailers and it keeps increasing. I really like knowing this, even if it's an estimate.

You may or may not recall, but when I first started using DVD-RB, after blanking segments, I presumed that I had to re-run the "Prepare" stage so that it could calculate the new numbers or size(s). Hey, there's an idea: Allow us to do the blanking step *before* running the "Prepare" stage.

[jdobbs]

Of course, on the other hand, it would be difficult to compute the sizes before you know what they are...