End Credits vs. Compression Level

[RzSwede]

I can save one level of compression by cutting out the end credits. I am going for better over all quality of course, but at the same time I hate when the movie just cuts out at the end... what do you guys think?

[ddlooping]

Hi RzSwede

This is a tricky question with no clear cut answer.

Sometimes the end-credits are a fairly important part of the movie.
They carry its mood and can even enhance the viewer's overal experience.
This can be in the form of a soundtrack ("Traffic" hautingly beautiful music), or simply gooffy bloopers (any Jacky Chan's movie ).
I am always very reluctant to abruptly cut off this kind of end-credits.
(Hence my search for a way to edit an AC3 stream, so as to fade it out)

Other times, the end-credits are just that.
The soundtrack might be ok but doesn't bring anything to the movie-watching experience.
I usually crop them off if they are long (leaving only a few seconds), to get a lower level of compression.
(but I would still like to find a way to fade out the soundtrack )

So I'm affraid I can't vote either way. :P

[RzSwede]

I agree, maybe it is a case of judging by the mood. I just did a conversion of Gladiator and at the very end the music really carries on the mood and when I cut it off it was really annoying. Maybe I could cut off the 20th Century fox intro and stuff like that instead, but I fear I still have to drop a level in compression (or use something with finer control over compression).... Like you mentioned being able to fade out would be great! Hope you find something, I will also try to have a look for that.

[Donny661]

I usually keep the end credits just because i'm too lazy to cut them out. I also agree that sometimes you need to keep the credits. Like in the movie the Pianist, the credits seemed just like part of the movie and they were something that you wanted to watch.

[ddlooping]

I agree, maybe it is a case of judging by the mood. I just did a conversion of Gladiator and at the very end the music really carries on the mood and when I cut it off it was really annoying. Maybe I could cut off the 20th Century fox intro and stuff like that instead, but I fear I still have to drop a level in compression (or use something with finer control over compression).... Like you mentioned being able to fade out would be great! Hope you find something, I will also try to have a look for that.

I have search long and hard, and so far the only way I have found to edit an AC3 stream is by converting it to .wav files first, and then re-encoding them as AC3.
It is said to bring a huge loss in quality though, thus unacceptable for our purpose.

[RzSwede]

It should be possible I think. The AC3 channels all have a "gain" signal I believe so even though you can't do any audio processing without decoding and re-encoding it should be possible to do volume fades. I haven't seen any software that can do this and my programming skills are quite limited. Would be kinda cool to have a VOB-audio fading util though, for this exact purpose.

...Or the option to totally super compress the credits, there should be no need for credits to occupy 200MB

[ddlooping]

To be able to gradually lower the gain (if it is indeed possible) could make for a good-enough fade out, I guess.

But if there are no tools to accomplish this, we are still at square one.

Hopefully somebody who has the knowledge to program such a tool will be reading this thread and decide it is worth his/her time and effort.

[Donny661]

I got an idea. When you know the end of the movie is coming, you can turn down the volume on your speakers gradually and you would have a perfect fade out . Wait, don't steal my idea. I'm going to patent it and charge liscensing fees to everyone that uses it, and i'll be rich .

[ddlooping]

I'm affraid you might be too late, Donny661.
An6eLo might have just beat you to it.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/37747

:P

[poopyhead]

how much percentage improvement do you gain by chopping off the end credits??? (the difference b/w each level isn't always the same...could be as small as 1% difference.)

some parts of the DVD just isn't worth compressing for saving such a small amount of space.

i.e.
menu's are usually quite small (maybe like 100-200 MB). compressing those down will probably not look very good and won't save you very much. i personally think the same goes with subtitles because they are at most like 40 MB.

so far, only exception for me is the T2 extreme DVD. the menus are over 1 gig, i HAD to compress it down just to be able to fit on 1 DVD-R.

[ddlooping]

Hi poopyhead

I would say it depends on 2 things:

How long are the end-credits?
Are you using DVD Shrink?

I have seen movies having end-credits almost 10 minutes long.
I'm pretty sure cropping them would make a noticeable difference in the quality of the backup. How noticeable is always debatable.

In case you use DVD Shrink for a particular movie, cropping a few MBs off can sometimes enable you to compress at a lower level (-5%).
As for the gain in quality achieved, it just happens that I've uploaded a few files in my "movie clip test" that can help you make your own judgment on that matter.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21620