shrink 3.2 aec.....

[glockjs]

havnt used dvd shrink in quite some time... and wow, he's improved it once again.. just out of curiousity which aec setting do you think looks the best?

edit: various option added

[Cobra]

If the compression ratio is >80% then Maximum Sharpness. If it is between 70 and 80% I use Default. If it is <70% I use Maximum Smoothness.

Coupled with the deep analysis, it makes the transcode almost perfect.

[ddlooping]

Hi.

When the compression ratio is above 80% I normally use "Sharp".
When the required compression is > 20% (Ratio < 80%), I usually test the different AEC options in the following manner:

- Switch to Reauthor mode and drag the movie-title to the DVD-Structure pane.

- Deselect the uneccessary audio/subpicture streams.

- Switch the compression setting from "Automatic" to "Custom Ratio".

- Use "Start/End" to isolate one chapter, choosing the one I think might show the most quality degradation when compressed (smoke, fire, fast action, close-ups).

- Make one backup of this chapter using "Maximum Sharpness" then another with "Maximum Smoothness".

- When done, drag these two backups to the DVD Structure pane, so as to be able to preview them in full-screen mode (F11>> Full-Screen; F12 >> Play/Stop).

- If a scene shows more compression artefact than others, I then use "start/end" to isolate it in both titles.

- I then select the two titles (using the "Ctrl" key), so as to be able to play them back to back in full-screen.

- I then decide which version look best.

- If the better looking version looks good enough, I'll backup the whole movie-title using the corresponding AEC option (or "Sharp" or "Smooth" if I think these in-between options would be a better compromise).

- If none looks good enough, I'll use CCE basic.

[NamPla]

Christ mate, just stick with "Default"! :P

[Cobra]

Why? That won't yield the best results.

[stiltman]

learn something new every day. Here all this time I was using sharp for everything.

[Cobra]

I read a little about it (Google search) and found that leaving it on the "Sharp" setting will mean that you get noise from frame to frame when the compression ratio is high. Maximum smoothness reduces/eliminates this noise.

[ddlooping]

This is in theory correct, Cobra.
However, the fact that some frames (B-frames) will be compressed much more than others is not always noticeable (unless you freeze-frame, which is not the same as watching a video stream at 20 odd frames/sec).
For some titles the result will be better than if you'd spread the compression more evenly between frame types.
For other it will not.
Hence my choice to test the AEC options for fairly high levels of compression.

[fritzi93]

I think Cobra's gunna be right in most cases. Unless you want to test every time.

[stiltman]

OK, ddlooping, what did you say?

Is it bad to leave it on sharp all the time (coming from a IC8 convert)?

BTW, anything over 70%, I switch to DVDRebuilder for compression

[Sabro]

I,as well, have used Sharp for everything and never <knock on wood> had a problem yet!

[Cobra]

ddlooping,

I have a classic example of how AEC would have been A Good Thing in a backup of CSI I have. You can see "pulsating" grain - the image goes sharp, then within a second you can see a whole load of grain appearing then it goes clear again. When I did these backups, AEC wasn't available.

When using AEC on maximum smoothness it should sort that right out. I'll maybe give it a shot when I get back home (I only take copies to uni, never my originals - you never know what may befall them).

Cobra

[ddlooping]

stiltman, I'm not saying it's bad to leave it on "Sharp" all the time, as it is probably the best compromise.
All I'm saying is sometimes you get better results using another of the AEC options.