DVD2oneX v1.4.2 'Ratio' settings

[KeepItSimple]

Hello.
Does anyone have experience and can explain the Ratio settings in DVD2oneX? There is Variable, Constant, and Selective. Selective has low, med, and high settings. I'm not sure which to use. I have version 1.4.2

I'm really happy with Toast 7's compression but there are those on this forum that really like the DVD2oneX job better. Great so tell me how to get that quality because so far it's ok but not better than Toast.

ALSO, some have advised using full motion estimation and half-pel in Toast but those compression or encoding options (I'm not sure which they are ) are only available using the 'DVD-Video' setting, not for 'DVD-Video from TS folder'. I have no idea what kind of compression happens in 'DVD-Video from TS Folder' mode -- but it looks good to me!

Any advices or personal preferences?
Thanks!

[terryj]

with DTOX, All you need to remember is this:

Constant is good for Animation ( Simpsons, Boondocks)
and for interview type shows ( The Today Show, Meet the Press)

Variable is for everything else, unless the source was a VCR
VHS capture, and then you can use Constant, due to the
GIGO rules.

Some like selective, but to me if you have to tweak your
video that way, you might as well learn an Authoring
Program and re-author it (the content) from scratch.

Variable and Constant are all you really need to worry about.

[KeepItSimple]

Some like selective, but to me if you have to tweak your
video that way, you might as well learn an Authoring
Program and re-author it (the content) from scratch.

Yes probably so but it's only 3 settings low-med-high and the help file says something about variable using the 'old' engine with constant and selective the 'new' engine. I just want the best video possible from this software.

[terryj]

Yes probably so but it's only 3 settings low-med-high and the help file says something about variable using the 'old' engine with constant and selective the 'new' engine. I just want the best video possible from this software.

Again my friend, it depends on your Source Material, and GIGO rules.
If you follow that rule, you will get the best compression choice for
your footage using DVD2ONEX.

Selective won't do crap but waste your time on footage that
probably doesn't need to be tweaked THAT much.

If it's grandma's gall bladder surgery or your first born's birth,
and its original source was mini DV, then you are better off
learning an Authoring program like DVDSP3 or somesuch
and learn BitRate calculations to get the best quality to
the targeted disc space.

If you want the MOST pristine quality from say a backup of
a Commerical DVD you own, then instead of backing it up, go buy
another copy. A used PVT with a few scratches on the disc, would get
you better quality than a Popcorn or DVD2ONEX back-up.

But for DVD2ONEX, what I said before, are the simplest rules to follow
to get the best quality out of THIS SOFTWARE. Constant for animation/
news show/Saturday Night Live/Comedy Concert stuff,
Variable for action/blockbuster/martial arts type stuff.

with Selective, you can tweak the encoding engine,
but then you tweak then watch, then decide
what sacrifices you can live with.
then repeat until you get it tweaked just right.
On a 2 hour movie, for example, you go for High quality,
with low compression, you get a disc to big to author. You go for
Medium quality, medium compression, you 'll not like the night time
scenes or heavy black scenes ( think StarWars space scenes or
any movie were the action takes place at night) which wil be overly pixalated.

and tweak, and test, and tweak, and test. Nine hours later,
you could have followed the simple rules I told you and
had a great disc, 8 hours and 40 mins ago. Your choice.

[KeepItSimple]

Thanks for all that info Terry.
Compressing a DL disk to a single layer with DVD2oneX using 'variable' looks just fine. It looks as good or better than Toast and it takes less time.
The version I have is 1.42. Is there anything better that version 2 does? I heard it crashes but don't know on which macs. I have a G4 dual 1.25 (FW800).
Thanks!