8gb to 4...Quality Reduction

[Kingnog]

Hey people! (and others)

In every guide I have read about dvd2one or dvdshrink or dvdxcopy (you get the idea), it says that when backing up a dual-layer disk, you should copy only the main movie for the most quality. However, I want the menus also, but want it to fit on one disk!


Question: How bad does an 8gb movie look after being compressed to a 4.7gb disk with menus? Is it worse/just as bad as a VCD, or is it better? If better than vcd, I really dont care :P

[tgpo]

It depends on the length of the movie. But in my experience, all of mine have looked much better than VCD

[Kingnog]

Lets say its a 2 hour movie. Will you see artifacts and all that horribleness?

[Sifaga]

Try it on a DVD-RW and judge for yourself

[MackemX]

get hold of a copy of DVDShrink and it will take you less than an hour of processing to find out for yourself, which I think is always the best way

you will never get an agreement on what is classed as good quality as another guy could be the total opposite

anything you don't want just set to still pictures and make sure you remove unwanted audio/subs as that will increase the quality of the stuff you keep

it won't cost you a penny and it will only take 5-10 mins usertime

[Kingnog]

Well, I just thought I'd get some people's opinions....I cant try it, because (lol) the dvd drive is still being shipped! Those FedEx people have it...so ill rephrase the question:
IN YOUR OPINION, how good does a 2 hour movie compressed from 8gb to 4 gb look? With menus and extras and all

[tgpo]

In my opinion:

In low light scenes compression is visible, but not very noticable, especially if you're into the movie.

In well lit scenes compression is harder to see.

But even in the worst case of compression, it still looks better than VCD to me.

[mats.hogberg]

I cant try it, because (lol) the dvd drive is still being shipped!

Yes you can. Most soft DVD players have an option to play DVD from folder. Just do it all like you should, but stop before making the DVD image and burning. Then load your compressed DVD and take a look.

/Mats

[proxyx99]

In Pinnacle Instant Copy I always try to stay above 65% (of the size of the original) to 85%, and must say that even zooming will not reveal much pixelation. I'm most amazed with encoding quality. Playing the original vs. copy ~70% is totally indistinguishable on 32 inch Sony. Never tried DVD Shrink but after reading posts that quality drops rather dramaticaly I do not even plan to do so. All of my disks (copies) are so good that I don't care what I play, original or copy. No one at home can say which is which (unless instead of watching you start analysing frame by frame with magnifying glass). My DVD is JVC XVS 60 and picture quality is unbelievable. Also on PAL DVD's that it can play on NTSC TV. No difference. Hats off to Steinberg/Pinnacle effort.

[proxyx99]

BTW. I always keep disk structure with menus etc. except for trailers and extras that I don't like.

[Gazorgan]

You don't get something for nothing!!!

I just bought an old favorite movie (Barb Wire). It has WideScreen and Full screen on the same disk, and it's a DVD5. 2 Channel AC5.1 . So, yes you can have a full length movie that is 2GB and it looks great.

You can always put your extras on anotehr DVD. That's what I do, I have DVDR's or just extras (not that I watch them that often). You can convert your menus to Stills, and get a full 4 GB for a movie backup. I ahve yet to find a movie that looked bad at teh 4 GB level. Hell, I haven't seen a movie much over 5 GB to start with anyway(after your drop the 4 useless audio tracks and 8 sub tracks).

[noki]

Kingnog

However, I want the menus also

check this topic
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=185976&highlight=

[Kingnog]

Wow...lots of responses. I had my doubts that it would look 'horrible', 'disgusting', or 'awful' after compression (as many people seem to say on forums...then again, the same people say that a 2500kb/s svcd looks bad!) lol. Burner should be arriving in 1-2 days...so ill test it out!

Btw:

I cant try it, because (lol) the dvd drive is still being shipped!
Yes you can. Most soft DVD players have an option to play DVD from folder. Just do it all like you should, but stop before making the DVD image and burning. Then load your compressed DVD and take a look.

It always looks different on the TV