Anyone notice blockiness with DVD Shrink when you compress just a little?

[rpboy]

Has anyone noticed any issues with using DVD Shrink to compress just a little?

This weekend, I backed up both Lion King 1 1/2 and Camp. With both, I used TitleSet Blanker to remove most of the extras. (On LK, I left all the Sneak Peeks since I know removing them causes problems on some stand-alone players.)

I opened them in DVD Shrink, removed the audio streams and subtitles I didn't want. Lion King 1.5 listed the compression ratio at 94.5%. Camp was at 91.7%.

I selected to do Deep Analysis (out of habit) and let it go through. I popped each in to my DVD player and Camp had lots of blockiness. Looking at my original, the film has some natural grain to the image, but it doesn't look like it would be enough to cause the kind of blockiness I am seeing after its shrunk. Lion King 1.5 looks okay, but some scenes get pretty blocky, especially with vibrant colors - like Scene 3 when Timon is singing.

I was just surprised since my compression rate was minimal. I've compressed other films far more than that and gotten good results, so I didn't think anything of these in the 90% range.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Where compressing only slightly causes this?

I installed DVD Shrink 3.0 beta 5 last night and ran Lion King 1.5 through it to see if it is maybe limited to the version I am using (3.1.5). Haven't gotten a chance to look at it yet, though. Just wondering if its something someone else had noticed.

[Kedirekin]

I have never noticed this, though I've only done a few disks above 90%. Most are either 80% on down or No Compression.

Do you only notice this on your stand-alone, or do you see it when you play back on your PC too?

[rpboy]

Originally posted by Kedirekin
Do you only notice this on your stand-alone, or do you see it when you play back on your PC too?
No, I can see it on the PC too, though its a much smaller screen so its far less obvious.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by rpboy
No, I can see it on the PC too, though its a much smaller screen so its far less obvious. I believe Kedirekin was referring to viewing your DVD Shrink backup prior to burning. Is your response to viewing your "backup DVD" on your PC?

[rpboy]

Originally posted by 2COOL
I believe Kedirekin was referring to viewing your DVD Shrink backup prior to burning. Is your response to viewing your "backup DVD" on your PC?

Yeah, that's what I meant. If I open the shrunk output in PowerDVD and view it full screen, I can see the same blockiness (albeit not as clearly as I can on the TV).

I've also tried on different media and with a different burner, and same thing; its not an issue with the media or the burn. Didn't think it would be since its not stuttering and its not like the MPEG stream is breaking up. It just looks like MPEG compression artifacts.

[rpboy]

Originally posted by rpboy
I installed DVD Shrink 3.0 beta 5 last night and ran Lion King 1.5 through it to see if it is maybe limited to the version I am using (3.1.5). Haven't gotten a chance to look at it yet, though. Just wondering if its something someone else had noticed.
Took a look at 3.0 beta 5-shrunk output on LK 1.5 and same thing.

Interestingly, it seems to happen when there are lots of vibrant colors on the screen. In other fast action scenes that use muted colors (like "beige" Timon running or waving his arms around) its fine. But when lots of colors get on the screen, it gets blocky.

Not sure about Camp though. Camp had blockiness all throughout in the 3.1.5-shrunk output. Didn't try with 3.0 beta 5.

Maybe it just happens to be these two titles. All the times I've used the great DVD Shrink software and gotten such great output, just seemed strange getting two not-so-good in a row, epecially with such low compression.

[2COOL]

Strange...maybe it's time for a periodical defrag.

[Kedirekin]

It's too bad I don't have either of these DVDs, and don't have much interest in getting them, or I'd give it a try.

Your comment about vibrant colors reminds my of Road to Eldorado, which had some high-color fast-movement scenes at the beginning. Perhaps it takes all 9.8 mbps that DVD can offer to encode scenes like that, so even a little compression introduces noticeable artifacts. There may even have been lesser artifacts in the original. I am just guessing though.

And I have no guesses for Camp. That's just strange.

[2COOL]

@rpboy

Originally posted by rpboy
Lion King 1.5 looks okay, but some scenes get pretty blocky, especially with vibrant colors - like Scene 3 when Timon is singing. I just did Lion King 1 1/2 region 1 at 84%. All I did was remove DTS and French audio. You are right with seeing artifacts during this scene, especially when he dives into the water and you see bright colored fishes and butterflies. Anyways, I also previewed the original DVD and the artifacts were there too. Sooo, IMO, this is just another classic case of garbage in, garbage out.

[rpboy]

Originally posted by 2COOL
I just did Lion King 1 1/2 region 1 at 84%. All I did was remove DTS and French audio. You are right with seeing artifacts during this scene, especially when he dives into the water and you see bright colored fishes and butterflies. Anyways, I also previewed the original DVD and the artifacts were there too. Sooo, IMO, this is just another classic case of garbage in, garbage out.
Really? I'll have to take a look again. When I watched the original on my tv, I didn't notice any blockiness. Or at least none that was so obvious it jumped out at me. I'll have to give it another look.

Thanks!

[rpboy]

Originally posted by Kedirekin
There may even have been lesser artifacts in the original. I am just guessing though.

And I have no guesses for Camp. That's just strange.
Yeah, 2COOL said there were artifacts in the original so maybe they just got compounded during shrinking and that's why I noticed it clearly on the shrunk version. Gonna check it out tonight.

As for Camp, it is a low budget movie and there is a lot of grain in the picture. I just never thought that the grain would cause so much blockiness after shrinking, especially in the 90% range.

Man, dual layer burners need to come out soon. :)

Thanks for your feedback!!