what is YOUR methods when using DVDShrink, etc

[scott015]

well as some of you know, im new to this whole thing, VERY new....

anyway, i popped in a couple dvds last night and 3/4 were too big to fit on a single disk, so they needed altering with DVDShrink....

1 dvd was small enough that deleting foreign languages and subtitles alone was enough to make the movie fit

but all my other dvds were way too big to fit on a single disk.... they had to be compressed....

so my question is.... how do you usually do this??

do you totally get rid of menus and extras?
do you just compress them all ??
just erase certain things??

i guess im wanting my cake and eat it too... cuz I would like the extras and menus... AND high quality.... but I guess thats not possible...

so I just wanted some input on what you guys do.... thanks

[cim]

HI, Interesting question... I'm curious to hear the response of others...

I Keep everything, I guess I'm greedy, but I compress everything, usually at the same level.

Quality? I only have a 27", what used to be, high end Panasonic. So I cannot see any difference between an origianl and the highset level of compression.

Hope this helps...

[scott015]

ok, here is another question..... what is the highest % of compression you would want to go?? I mean if you get too high, its gonna eventually be noticable and look like crap... so basically, what is the highest % you can go without really noticing a differnce in video quality... i have a 36" Sony Wega with component cables.... so I get a pretty good picture.... but just curious.... no more than 20%????? level 4

[cim]

I've compressed as high as 50% without any quality loss, as far as I can tell. But, I am curious how it would look on a larger, sharper TV.

[macleod]

the rule of thumb for me is level 3. I have never done anything above 3 (after removing foreign -to me- languages. I keep the english subtitle for hearing issues) and have been able to fit all the movies I have done. I am not a big menu guy, so:

Whole movie is under 4.3, use dvddecrypter and iso the movie
Above 4.3, movie only.

[scott015]

so deleting languages and subtitles, menus and extras.... just movie only... i shouldnt ever have to go worse than level 3, 15%???

[lagerlout]

I've had disks where the main film is 8Gb, so you have to use high compression. At the end of the day its up to you, but heres what I do:

Remove all foreign audio or subtitles (keep english as my sis is deaf)
If its still too big, reduce the quality of the extras to the lowest level. These are watched much less than the film anyway.
If its still too big, then reduce the main feature until it fits.

I generally leave the menus as they are, as most are small anyway. However I did once see a .8Gb menu, which I obviously compressed. The menus that are static don't take up much space, and low details stand out more in static pics to me.

[mkelley]

Since I'm backing up disks, I always do it at full quality (no compression): for me, compressing a backup makes about as much sense as backing up only 95% of all the words in your Word documents.

So I use DVDShrink only for episode disks, where I make two DVDs (one for each set of episodes) turning the other episodes on each disk into still images and removing the sound. It works perfect.

For those movies too long to fit on one disk, I use DVDXCopy and split it into two. With a multi-disk player it takes just a moment to press the "next disk" button (and it's usually a good time for an intermission if we're watching on the big screen downstairs). DVDFab is a shareware alternative to DVDXCopy, and I may be trying it out this week (I like DXC, but I want to custom tailor my "Insert Next Disc" slide). In either case you can preserve all the special features, easter eggs, etc. and you lose zero quality.

With more and more DVDs coming on mulitple disks, splitting a movie up into two or more just doesn't seem that big a deal. Indeed, I'm only going to buy multiple disk DVD players from now on (the cost is only about $30 more for even the top of the line Sony players, for example -- so why not spend the extra and get sooo much more: we routinely watch a cartoon before the main movie nowadays, and I never leave my seat :>)