compression problems with a large DVD

[liv4speed1]

I'm trying to backup my copy of Chasing Amy (the criterion edition) since it's really scratched up, and I guess about to kick the bucket. So I'm in DVD shrink, and here is whats going on

Menus = 935 megs (Great, freaking great)
Video = 5234 megs (all one file)
Extras = 1843 megs (umm, nothing to say here)

So when I compress the extras to "still frames" that cuts it down to 300 megs, not to bad. Cutting the menus down level 9 compression does 529 megs. I'm still 1608 megs short of being able to backup.

So how can you do this? I dont 35% compression. That's ridiculous. Has anyone got a idea on how to do something like this, where the video file is really large but you wanna maintain great quality in it?

*edit: I do not wish to re-author as I'd like to keep the menus

[hothandiman]

What do you want to use the menu for? Selecting scenes, audio tracks? Also, what version of shrink? Version 3 beta 5 has the most versitility. Have you stripped the audio tracks you do not need? Subtitles? If this is the case, and you have shrunk all the extras and menus with shrink, I do not think there are many more options. (ddlooping?) Be sure to use deep analysis. You may want to check out DVDClone, I undserstand you can completely remove extras and still retain the menu.

[liv4speed1]

I want to keep the menus, because it's more pleasing to have a smooth transition between the menus and such (plus it looks a little more professional). I burnt some anime with really jittery menus and I wish I didnt now.

I'll give DVD clone a go through, I have the program I just havent checked it out.

For some reason, DVD shrink v3 beta 5 crashes my computer so I'm kind of limited to what I can do. I'll give clone a gothrough and see what I can do. Thanks for the idea.

[liv4speed1]

to answer your questions more, I stripped all the audio except the one english track. all the subs. it's just a pain the ass that there isnt much more I can do without quality loss

[liv4speed1]

is 30% compression bad?

[hothandiman]

Depending on how critically you view your DVD's, 30% could be bad. This is especially true with wide screeen HDTV displays. Casual viewing on a smaller display and you might not notice. My rule of thumb is not more than 25%, but I would try it and see it you like the results. The last option is to split, but there go the menus.

edit: IC8 I think will do a split with menus and so will DVDXCopy. Then there is always good ol' ifoedit--a great app, but a little hard to learn

[liv4speed1]

I dont like going above 15% with non-anime, 30% with anime

I'd rather just buy myself another copy than split it . But we'll have to see how this turns out. I'll reply later with results. I'm going to do it at 30% and see (this is the hardest of the DVDs that I have to back-up, damn Criterion collection puts so much extra crap on there ;0).

Thanks hothandiman for the help!

[FulciLives]

What about using DVDFab on it to split it out over 2 DVD-R discs. This way you get 100% quality.

DVDFab will attempt to put everything on the first disc (the menus and the extras) and as much as the main movie as it can ...

at some point it will stop playing and ask for you to insert DISC 2

DISC 2 then starts from the same point DISC 1 ended.

The only problem is DISC 2 will have no MENU but you can use IFO EDIT if you have too (might not need too) so that DISC 2 defaults to the correct audio and/or subtitle streams. If you only have a single AUDIO stream and nothing else then that won't be a problem.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[liv4speed1]

Well. I can get the DVD for about 10 bucks brand new (granted not Criterion collection, but I dont care). So it's a matter of using 2 bucks in DVD+Rs, or just paying a couple bucks more (which isnt really a problem for the most part) and getting the real DVD. But thanks for the advice FulciLives. I might have to do that in the future so I'll keep DVDFab in mind ;0