Compression question

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Hello,

I want to back up my collection of Friends DVD's. Each season is pretty much 6 dvd's. 9 seasons so far makes 54 dvd's.

My question is, with the "X" amount of compression, would it be possible to put 2 dvd's onto 1 while still making it look decent? Meaning, I know I can put two dvd's to 1. Thats not the question. But what will the quality be? Still "dvd" quality or would it drop to "vhs or something" quality?

Anyone have any experience in this?

Thanks in advance.

LG

[northcat_8]

In my experience with episode DVDs like that to compress it enough to fit 2 DVDs on one disc would make your quality terrible.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Poop. Damn you :P

I wanted good news haha.

I kinda figured as much. Just wanted assurance really.

I dont normally compress movies too much. If I have to use 2 dvd's then so be it. I did compress season 1 and 2 of Family Guy at like 80% an, I guess since its a cartoon, I didnt really notice THAT much of a difference, hardly any in fact.

[northcat_8]

Well it depends on the size of each DVD to begin with. I think my wife has discs 1-4 in the set, I'll have to check them out.

I know for something like the Chappelle Show DVD, it's a 2 disc set and the compression for the first disc was pretty substantial just to fit it on a 4.7 DVD-R, so putting both on the same 4.7 DVD-R was completely out of the question.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Yeah. But doesnt it also depend on the content? In that, I compressed a cartoon 80% and didnt notice any difference. I have a pretty good tv as well (43" toshiba cinema series) and a marantz home theatre receive with psb speakers. I cant tell the difference.

I would assume that cartoons, give that they arent .. erm "real" can be compressed more and not suffer quality degredation.

[Capmaster]

Yeah. But doesnt it also depend on the content? In that, I compressed a cartoon 80% and didnt notice any difference. I have a pretty good tv as well (43" toshiba cinema series) and a marantz home theatre receive with psb speakers. I cant tell the difference.

I would assume that cartoons, give that they arent .. erm "real" can be compressed more and not suffer quality degredation.

Definitely content-dependent. Try this test if you need convincing:

Compress or capture two movies so they fit into 3 GB. Pick Little Women and Starship Troopers 2.

Watch both movies and tell me what you see Result: Little Women, being an old movie, and with not a lot of action or flashing lights, will look unchanged.

Starship Troopers 2, on the other hand, will be a macro-block-fest. That has to be the hardest movie to encode MPEG2 It's almost continuous flashing lights and/or great detail, and it takes an MPEG encoder to its limits. Up until I captured that movie, the hardest movie content-wise was Event Horizon.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Pick Little Women and Starship Troopers 2.

Little women? Could you not have picked a worse movie? :P

I get what your saying though and I totally agree.

By the by .. Event Horizon .. awesome movie. I gotta get that one now :P

[Capmaster]

Pick Little Women and Starship Troopers 2.

Little women? Could you not have picked a worse movie? :P

I get what your saying though and I totally agree.

By the by .. Event Horizon .. awesome movie. I gotta get that one now :P

Yeah, I recommended it purely for the technical side of it. As far as watching, I think I would rather have my genitalia subjected to red-hot vise-grips than sit through it. My wife loves it, and has all the various versions that have been made through the years. And I was the one who transferred them from VHS to DVD :P

Event Horizon definitely kicks butt

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Yeah, I recommended it purely for the technical side of it. As far as watching, I think I would rather have my genitalia subjected to red-hot vise-grips than sit through it. My wife loves it, and has all the various versions that have been made through the years. And I was the one who transferred them from VHS to DVD

Event Horizon definitely kicks butt

Right! I'll watch little women over the red hot genetialia example, but thanks for the visual lol.

I havent seen horizon in like two years. I thought it was awesome. I love Sam Neill.

[Capmaster]

Yeah, I recommended it purely for the technical side of it. As far as watching, I think I would rather have my genitalia subjected to red-hot vise-grips than sit through it. My wife loves it, and has all the various versions that have been made through the years. And I was the one who transferred them from VHS to DVD

Event Horizon definitely kicks butt

Right! I'll watch little women over the red hot genetialia example, but thanks for the visual lol.

I havent seen horizon in like two years. I thought it was awesome. I love Sam Neill.

Yeah, I probably would pick that choice too

If you're a Sam Neill fan then I'm sure you've already seen the Omen series. He plays the evil character so well. The only exceptions I can think of right now are "Dead Calm", with Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane, and A Cry In The Night ("the dingo ate my baby") with Meryl Streep. He's played the good guy before many times, but he seems to excel in the evil roles. Probably because he can look so evil when he wants to.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Yes, I have seen the Omen series. Never even heard of the other two which I guess is ok since they apparantly suck haha

He does play the evil roles better though. There are just certain characters that play certain roles better.

For example. Im not sure of his name, something Wilson I believe, but the Merovingian from the Matrix movies. He plays the cocky bastard so well. I have seen him play other roles but this role was sooo perfect for him. That cocky french superiority thing was soo well mastered in that role. I think he was probably my favorite character in the series.