Large DVD Compression Back Up?

[Sakuya]

I'm having trouble deciding how to do this in order to have the best possible quality. I have a rather large DVD set that I want to back up in order to save space.

There are 20 DVDs. Each DVD has 2 episodes on it. So in total there are 40 episodes. Each episode is around 48 minutes long. I want to compress them to DVD-R so that there are 10 episodes on each DVD-R. So, in total there will be 4 DVD-Rs. Are you still with me? Is that too extreme?

There are no extras on these 20 DVDs. It's probably because of the LPCM audio which I will be converting to AC3 to save space.

How do I go about doing this? I tried DVD Shrink and reducing the compression ratio all the way to 55.1% but the video acquired a bit of noise, like those on VCDs. Is there a way to get the best possible quality while fitting all 10 episodes on a DVD-R snugly?

Also of mention is that after I reauthor the compressed project above using DVD Shrink, I get 2 separate VOBs for one episode. Do I need to use something like VOBMerge?

[castellanos]

:eek: My God!! You want to put 10 episodes of 48m in one DVD?... that means 8 hs!!! into a DVD-R? Tell me... you don't care about video quality, do you? :D
Whatever. I don't know if you want to make the back up on a DVD5 or a DVD9, but anyway, even if you use a DVD9, it will be very difficult to put 8hs of video (always talking about mpeg2 DVD)... even if you reduce de audio, you are going to loose a lot of video quality.
I think you will need to think again, may be not in 4 DVDs but in 10!! or you can try to convert the episodes to mpg4 (avi) and then burn them on the DVD... you will need of course a standalone that supports mpg4... if that is what you have in mind. Even that, I am not sure if four DVDs are going to be enough.
Greetings! :)

[Sakuya]

Really. How bad will the video quality get? I tried DVD Shrink to compress it down to 55.1% and it's still pretty clear. The noise I was talking about was only in high motion scenes...

10 DVD-Rs is still a lot. I don't have any space left on my shelf. :scared: Yes, I was thinking of DVD5.Well, how about 5 DVD-Rs, 8 episodes on each DVD-R? :D Or 5 episodes per DVD, with a total of 8 DVD-Rs? Nonetheless, I don't know where to start with DVD Shrink. Should I back them all up first and then reauthor them (using DVD Shrink so that it can fit on a DVD)? But I would also have to create a new menu and remultiplex the AC3 into the VOB. I'm so confused. :eek:

[castellanos]

Well, it's all depends of your personal taste, if you copress under 55% and you are still happy with it, go ahead!
For me, 8hs video in a DVD5 is extreme (talking always about mpg2 DVD)... That's why I suggested to convert the episodes into avi.
5 episodes per DVD is much better, that means 4hs, which is still a lot... You can in that case, use some search and look what people think about backing up "The Lord of The Rings - The Return of The King" which is very tricky, because it's very long (almost 4hs...and even more the extended version - I Think).
But you know, some people are very worried about video quality, they see a poor video even if it's compressed at 95%... for me it's not like that.
But trying to help you a little bit more, you can try DVD Rebuilder (With CCE, ReJig..etc...) which has a very good reputation, specially in long movies.
As I said before: Personal taste. Is your back up, and you have to be happy with it.
Greetings! :)

[danpos]

Using DVD-RB with a custom low bitrate matrix can to do the trick (I'm talking theoretically since I did'nt do a such thing). I know a lot of guys that got a 8h of good quality video in a DVD5 media using custom low bitrate matrix and others, putting it a lot series epsodies ;) But ones did a full reencoding of sources, created a .d2v project, blablablabla ...

Cheers,

[Sakuya]

Thanks. This is my current strategy, do you think it will work?

1. Use DVD Shrink to extract the VOBs for each episode.
2. Demux the VOBs.
3. Edit the WAV and convert to AC3.
4. Author using DVDauthorGUI
5. Plug in DVD Shrink and reauthor to fit on one DVD-R
6. Burn

I used DVD Decrypter to demux. I'm not sure if I set it correctly though because the M2V is 1 hour and 22 minutes when the entire episode is only 48:35. Here's what I did. I set the mode to IFO. Under "Input", I only check off "Chapter 3" and at the bottom it says the duration and it is 48:35. Under "Stream Processing", I check "Enable Stream Processing" and both audio and video are checked. At the bottom, I have it at "Demux". :scared:

[Chetwood]

But I would also have to create a new menu and remultiplex the AC3 into the VOB. I'm so confused. :eek:

You can use my guide (http://www.dvdshrink.info/chetwood/guides.php#PgcEdit_menuimport
) to import your selfmade menu into the new DVD reauthored with Shrink but since you are demultiplexing anyway it might be best to author the DVDs from scratch (preferrably in DVD-Lab) instead.

Demux them with DVDD in IFO mode with stream processing enabled and you will end up with one m2v/wav/chapter file per episode. Convert the wav to ac3 and use them as assets in DVD-lab. After it's compiled you can use Shrink on em. By definition a vob is 1 GB max so it's ok that you have more than one vob and there's no need to merge em.

[Sakuya]

Okay, I have authored a DVD project with 5 episodes. I then plugged it in DVD Shrink and it automatically compressed. However, after I reauthored that, the VOBs are still 4.41GB and the burner won't accept it because it's too big. :scared: I realized that after DVD Shrink, in the high motion scenes, it gets very pixellated while the still scenes are still very sharp.

I don't want to convert to AVI and then convert to M2V because that takes too much time. Is there a better way to further reduce the size? Or should I do 4 episodes per DVD-R...

[Chetwood]

I don't want to convert to AVI and then convert to M2V because that takes too much time. Is there a better way to further reduce the size? Or should I do 4 episodes per DVD-R...

??? Noone said you should do convert to avi and then to m2v cause it makes no sense. Either you convert them all to avi so you can put more episodes on a disk which then will only run on computers or standalones that support divx.

Or you stay with m2v and put less episodes on a disk or use Shrink a second time on the already shrinked DVD so you can get around it's maximum compression rate.

[Sakuya]

Well then, is there a better way to down convert the bitrate of the VOBs? I find DVD Shrink's method very bad. The pixelation is incredibly poor. If I use TMPGEnc, I'm sure it would produce smooth results even at a lower bitrate.

I guess I'll try DVD Shrink with 4 episodes to a disc first. 4 episodes is the max I can go because my purpose originally was to save space. :)

[E-Male]

for 8h on 1 disc you should go for quater-pal/ntsc resolution

[Sakuya]

Using DVD-RB with a custom low bitrate matrix can to do the trick (I'm talking theoretically since I did'nt do a such thing). I know a lot of guys that got a 8h of good quality video in a DVD5 media using custom low bitrate matrix and others, putting it a lot series epsodies ;) But ones did a full reencoding of sources, created a .d2v project, blablablabla ...

Cheers,

Where do I access matrix in DVD-RB? I don't see that anyway. I think I will try that out.

Edit:
I found the Custom Matrix option under QuEnc Options! Should I be checking ONLY Custom Matrix or can I check off Single Pass Encode too? It allows me to check off however many I want which is pretty weird because these options sound like they only allow you to choose one. :confused:

[Chetwood]

I find DVD Shrink's method very bad. The pixelation is incredibly poor.

Like I keep saying: don't blame Shrink for things you mess up. OF COURSE it's gonna look pixelated if you cram 5 to 8 hours of video on 4,5 GB using an outdated codec like mpeg2. This isn't even to be considered a limitation of the codec since it produces acceptable results when used properly. If you put a 100 hours worth of mp3s on a 800 MB CD-R you dont have to act surprised when it sounds crappy.

Shrink does it's job fine, it's you who gotta realize that you have to put less video on a DVD-R or use another codec with all it's disadvantages considering standalone compatibility.

[dragongodz]

if you seriously want to put something like 4 or more hours on a dvd you really want to encode to half D1. being half the picture size means you can use half the bitrate you would for full D1 for pracically the same quality.