Strange compression issue with DVDShrink (Long)

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

My first post here. I have searched these forums for something similar and have found no information on this problem. So, here goes.

I have had a strange problem with compression with DVDShrink so that resulting DVDs are much smaller than the maximum 4.4G size. I am far from an expert, but I have been using DVDShrink and sometimes DVDDecrypter to make backups of my DVDs for about 4 months and have not noticed any previous problems. First, my equipment: My PC is running Windows98 with an 2.4G Athlon processor and 512 MB of RAM (if any of this matters). I have a Memorex dual layer burner which I use DVDShrink and Nero to burn my DVDs.

The vast majority of backups are movies, and I don’t believe the following has ever occurred with them. Here is what happened: Recently I started backing up the first season of NYPD Blue. The first 5 discs each have four episodes totaling about 200 minutes on two layers. I decided that instead of using DVDShrink to rip two episodes to each back up DVD which would have required no compression, I would instead just put all four on one and see what they looked like. I dragged the four titles of the main feature to the left window. Then I clicked on each one and removed the two unwanted audio tracks (one title on each disc had a fourth audio track which I presume was the “director’s commentary” and which was also removed). This left me with about 1.1 gigabytes for each title and compression of about 70%. I burned the DVDs over night (as each disc took about 4 hours for processing and burning). After burning there is a screen telling you the burn was successful and telling you where the temporary files are on your hard drive and how large they are. I usually don’t pay much attention to it. It wasn’t until I’d burned the fourth DVD that I saw that the file size was only 3.5G instead of 4.4G it should be. The DVD seemed to play fine, so I didn’t pay much attention to it figuring I had just read it wrong. Then I burned the last DVD and found the same result I went back to check all 5 DVDs. Two of the DVDs are 4.4G as they should be, but the other three are all about 3.5. Opening them with DVDShrink shows that they have all four titles, but each title is only about 800M instead of the 1.1G or so DVDShrink reported it would be prior to burning and as it is on the two 4.4G DVDs.

So what did I do? The picture quality doesn’t look that much worse than anything else I have had this much compression on, so I’m not going to bother to try to back them up again, but I don’t want this happening again with other discs. Any ideas? Could it have to do with removing the unwanted audio tracks? I did use the shorten feature for each title removing the end credits, but as I recall I did that for all 5 discs.

Thanks for the help.

SMK

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

I'm sorry not to have gotten any answers, but it has happened again. I am backing up my Fawlty Towers discs. Using DVD shrink I made a copy of the entire first DVD. I did use manual compression ratios to significantly decrease the size of the menus and interviews while keeping the best quality for the actual shows. Perhaps this is what did it, but when it finished burning, DVD shrink reported that the DVD contained only 2.4G! For the other two discs I just left the whole thing on automatic compression, and the resulting DVDs the usual maximum size of about 4.4G.

Is it a problem altering compression? Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks.

SMK

[guns1inger]

If you manually compress more than is necessary, you will get free space. If you remove enough extras then sometimes you will come right own in size so shrink doesn't have to do any further work. If you manually set the target disk size (in preferences) it will change the output.

Just before you set Shrink in it's merry way, what did the green indicator bar in Shrink show you the size wouold be ?

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

I can't be entirely certain, but I believe in all the cases this has happened the green bar filled the line indicating it would completely fill the disc with no free space.

When I adjust compression, what I do is set it to manual and dial it way down for menus and extras while keeping it on automatic to get the highest level then for the program itself. I can't swear that I've done it this way for the four or so discs this has happened on, but I know I did it this way with the last one, Fawlty Towers.

SMK

[INFRATOM]

some movies have moving menu's meaning have part of the movie playing on the background of the menu, that makes tha size of the menu big when you you do away with it or turn it to still there could be a big difference in total size.

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

Well, it's happened again.

I am backing up my copies of the Prisoner. Discs 1 to 9 are all singlelayer, and they back up without any compression. Disc 10 is dual layer, and if I keep all the extras DVDShrink has to shrink it to about 75%. I changed no settings. I kept it on automatic compression. I didn't even untick any of the languages, etc., so I couldn't blame anything that might happen on something I did. I watched carefully. The green bar was all the way across showing that it would give me 4.3G on the disc. I went ahead and had shrink do it's thing, and the disc size reported as 2.8G. Looking at the disc, you could see that only 2/3 or so was used. If you play the disc, it plays OK, and all the material is there, just very compressed. I shut down the computer to reboot and restarted the process. This time it worked as it normally would showing a total disc size of 4.3G and the disc has clearly been completely burned.

So, any thoughts????? No one else has ever had this happen????

SMK

[steve2713]

I've used DVD Shrink a ton and I've never seen nor heard of such problems as these, although it's a little difficult to figure what is the cause without seeing it firsthand. I would delete the registry settings for DVD Shrink within this 'folder' using regedit - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DVD Shrink . Just type in 'regedit' at the START->RUN... in Windows. Then reinstall the newest version of DVD Shrink to be sure. I don't know if this will help, but deleting the registry for DVD Shrink has solved any problems I've had with the program for me.