dvd2onex compression rates - multi-movie/episode ripping

[broaddd]

Hi all,

I have using a demo of dvd2onex, and reading the guides and forums, which are great. Hope someone has some advice on these questions... sorry, because I'm sure they're common but I can't find the answers in the forum.

- Roughly how many minutes of widescreen video (5.1 audio) can dvd2onex squeeze on a DVD-R while maintaining roughly standard definition broadcast-TV quality? Roughly how many minutes of 4:3 TV-episode style material (stereo audio)?

- When using join mode on dvd2onex, is there an easy way to make a simple menu screen to choose between the joined movies/episodes? I heard Toast 6 can do this?

- As dvd2onex doesn't compress audio streams, how much space do Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, stereo, commentary, etc. streams each tend to take up per hour of video?

- Roughly how much space do sub-title tracks take up? and how much space for typical menus? I'm trying to work out whether movie-only mode is worth it in terms of space saved vs. loss of pretty menus

Cheers,
Bruce

[WiseWeasel]

- Roughly how many minutes of widescreen video (5.1 audio) can dvd2onex squeeze on a DVD-R while maintaining roughly standard definition broadcast-TV quality? Roughly how many minutes of 4:3 TV-episode style material (stereo audio)?

There is no average playtime for a given quality you can fit with DVD2OneX. Since it doesn't re-encode the mpeg 2, the output quality will depend largely on how the video was encoded. Some movies will easily compress down to 50% size and still look almost as good as the source, while others can turn to complete crap trying to shave off 5% of the size. You really have to determine that on an individual basis, and decide what feature/quality/playtime compromises you are willing to make. This means you will sometimes have to compress many times with different options to find one suitable for that DVD.

- When using join mode on dvd2onex, is there an easy way to make a simple menu screen to choose between the joined movies/episodes? I heard Toast 6 can do this?

This can get quite complicated. Once you compress and join the tracks with DVD2OneX, you can then use OSEx or Extractor to get the video and audio streams extracted from the VIDEO_TS folder, and then use Sizzle or DVD Studio Pro to design menus and master a new VIDEO_TS folder. Up to you to determine if this is worth it to you, especially considering you don't feel the movies are worth putting on their own DVD-R discs.

- As dvd2onex doesn't compress audio streams, how much space do Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, stereo, commentary, etc. streams each tend to take up per hour of video?

DTS and PCM audio take up a lot of room. I would suggest throwing these out if you want to save space. Dolby Digital 5.1 (5.1 channel AC3) doesn't usually take too much, only about 2x or 2.5x a regular stereo AC3 track. 2 and 5.1 channel AC3 are pretty small, and only take up about 100-250 MB of space each (a DTS track can take up more than 500 MB) for a 2 hour movie. I usually leave them in unless the quality of the output is unacceptable. DTS are always the first to go, though.

- Roughly how much space do sub-title tracks take up? and how much space for typical menus? I'm trying to work out whether movie-only mode is worth it in terms of space saved vs. loss of pretty menus

Subs are negligeable, and can (should) always be left in, since you're really not saving anything by tossing them out. Menus are usually pretty small (like under 50 MB), unless they have extensive motion menus and video clips, but the savings on these are not too important. I usually leave 'em in. You're going to have to experiment with DVDs and find the balance between quality and features for each disc. I like to keep as many features as possible while keeping the main video track looking good, which requires me to compress some of them multiple times with different options to find one I'm comfortable with. Sometimes, I still split some movies over 2 DVDs so I can keep the quality and extra features, but that will only be for special favorites.