Why bigger movies

[ab57128]

Have a general question I didn't see anywhere else. Why are movies today taking up more space on DVDs in general? I can understand when they come with all sorts of special extras, extra tracks, etc. but what about when they don't? I'm backing up 40 Days and 40 Nights (for my girlfriend), after removing the trailers and 2 extra language tracks it's still 6+GB. It's only a ~90 min movie. I have older movies that have no extras but are much longer that take up one DVD5 barely. Is the video that much higher quality or something?
Thanks.

[Tano]

It could me encoded at a much higher bit rate, action movies tend to take up more space due to the amount of data needed to make the dvd look good in fast scenes (but i dont think its the case for this movie). Maybe the movie is multi-angled or contains 2 different versions (4:3 and 16:9 aspect)?

Have you stripped out ALL the extras, subtitles and unwanted language tracks? If so then you will need to re-encode with either CCE or TMPGEnc.

[ab57128]

Yep, stripped them out. Just 2 extra languages, 1 subtitle, and a bunch of trailers. getting rid of the VOBs associated with this just lowered it a little. I guess what I'm asking is, I own primarily WWII movies, plenty of action and definitely bigger than 90mins. I don't ever remember seeing blockiness during action and they easily fit on DVD5. I mean is the bitrate of newer movies that much better today? Is it simply that it's hard to see a difference once the bitrate gets so high? Kind of like trying to hear the difference once MP3 audio gets above 190?
Thanks for the reply
Drew

[ArdenDag]

I mean is the bitrate of newer movies that much better today? Is it simply that it's hard to see a difference once the bitrate gets so high? Kind of like trying to hear the difference once MP3 audio gets above 190?

The only way you can notice the quality differences in certain things (Like you mentioned, MP3 audio over 192 kbps encoded) is by playing them in a better system/player. If you are playing the MP3s from a stereo system, through MUCH higher wattage speakers, of course you'll notice a difference. You'll know it's not CD Audio playing, whereas on a computer, you probably won't.

Thus, with HIGHER QUALITY ENCODED DVDs, you'll only notice a different on much HIGHER DEFINITION TELEVISIONS.

I think the answer is self explanatory, but for most use DVDs wouldn't need the extra bitrate on transferring of the film to digital media, but more and more people are getting better and better set-ups to watch DVD media, so the better encoding just makes it that much more enjoyable for the people who can make use of it.

[ab57128]

Thanks. That explains a lot. I just went back and watched parts of the first couple DVDs I ever bought and they were slightly (but noticably) blocky compared to newer stuff. My TV is just a regular tube 31". So I imagine on something nicer they would appear quite crappy.
So on a regualr 31" TV whats a good rule of thumb for bitrate? When is the improved quality not so much more noticeable?

[ArdenDag]

Now that's a question I can't answer.

I have 25" TVs in my house, and they're quite old (hmm, something like 10-15 years old).

I suspect there's a 'figurative number' out there for the 'standard eye' to not detect much noise, but I don't know it :)

[RadicalEd]

Originally posted by ArdenDag
for most use DVDs wouldn't need the extra bitrate on transferring of the film to digital media, but more and more people are getting better and better set-ups to watch DVD media, so the better encoding just makes it that much more enjoyable for the people who can make use of it.

not to mention it makes for better source-material for encodes since the cleaner the source the better and the more artifacts the harder to compress plus the lossier it becomes
thats an added benefit (for people re-encoding to svcd or mpeg4 at least)