DVD-R Loss In Picture Quality on Larger TVs

[sukoto]

I have been using DVD-Decrypter + DVD-Shrink to backup my DVD collection. Quality-wise, everything looks great on my 27" TV, but last week when I moved up to a 41" Sony, I noticed a huge decrease in picture quality (blocky, pixelated). Is this something that I can avoid?

I am usually ripping the DVDs at about a 60% compression rate on DVD-Shrink to allow me to fit the movie (without extras) onto a single DVD-R. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Hardware: P4-2.4, 1gig RAM, Pioneer 106D, Pioneer 117-ROM

[tompika]

1. Watch the original DVD's

2. Do not watch backups on bigscreen TV

3. Re-encode with CCE instead of using transcoders

[kupton]

If your movies are so long (2 hours or more I guess?) that you have to compress at 60% I would just back up to 2 discs.

You are getting rid of all the audio tracks you don't need, right?

[sukoto]

Thanks to both of you for your help.

Unfortunately, the DVDs have to be played on a larger TV... I will try CCE and see how that works.

I am getting rid of all of the audio tracks that are not in English, and usually all of the bonus material.

Any additional advice?

[bdf24]

I use the same method as you. Only I get my compression to around 85 to 90% by taking out all the menues and extra's. Plus I use DVDShrinks Deep Analysis to get better quality. It takes me about and hour and a half to two hours to get the backup completed from rip to finished burn. But It's worth it for the quality.

I agree with the above post that if the movie is longer then two hours split it onto 2 disks.

All the movies I've done so far are two hours or less and I've gotten them onto 1 DVD-R and the quality is excellent. Although this is on a standard 36" RCA TV not a 41" big screen. So maybe that's the difference.

[kupton]

All the movies I've done so far are two hours or less and I've gotten them onto 1 DVD-R and the quality is excellent. Although this is on a standard 36" RCA TV not a 41" big screen. So maybe that's the difference.

I have a 51" TV and they look good at 85%-90% compression with deep analysis.

Another way to shrink file size is to leave out the credits.

[Jayhawk]

I agree with kupton and bdf24 about needing to get around the 80% level at least. I have an 84" Infocus DLP projector but watch most movies on a Sony XBR 61" so I do have some experience watching movies on a large screen.

Anything under 80% and you definitely need deep analysis and it's not a bad idea at 85% - 90% if you have the time. Sukoto, you seem to have excellent equipment so that's probably not an issue. What media and speed are you using and do you burn "dedicated" or are you doing other things when burning.

[FulciLives]

DVD blanks are cheaper than they have ever been and even DVD players are darn cheap these days.

So use something like DVDFab to split the original dual layer DVD to 2 DVD recordable discs and then if you don't like the idea of having the movie split out over 2 DVD discs buy a 5-disc changer DVD player.

Surely you can handle the few seconds it takes the changer to switch from disc 1 to disc 2.

Isn't it worth that for 100% quality?

Granted if you can get away with little to no compression on the copy then fine but if you need to compress it A LOT then the 2 disc back-up method is the way to go.

And don't forget that dual layer DVD burners and blanks will be out later this year too.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Magua]

You should be able to get quite a bit higher than 60% for most ~2hour movies with DVD Shrink (always deep analysis, even at 90%). Ususally my movie only backups (AC3 5.1 english only) range from 80%-100%. Some of my first backups, before re-authoring for movie only, were done with DVD X-Copy and were between 50%-60%, and to notice any quality difference you really need specificly look hard,even on my 55inch HDTV. I have never had friends/family notice anything, even on the big screen, and with poor compression ratios. I have, however, tried to raise the ratio just for perfection.

[eugenile]

i am very picky about the quality..

i am viewing these movies on a Gateway 56" DLP through DVI output from Samsung dvd player.. no d/a transition.. so u notice EVERY lil detail.. on most picture tube tvs 60% would be ok.. but step up to plasma/dlp tvs.. and u wont be satisfied..

this is wat i do..

dvd decrypter to rip the files

then i open up dvd shrink.. i only care about the movie itself and quality.. i do movie only and remove unnecessary audio tracks and subtitle streams.. if it still isnt above 90% ....

USE CCE.. way better as far as quality.. i use this for long movies or movies i really like and want the quality to be top notch..

for short movies and movies u really dont care about.. i use shrink..

[tsantsa]

Give CloneDVD a try while you're at it. I find that it's quality far surpasses DvdShrink even when using its time sucking 'deep analysis.'

And those who mention the cce method aren't telling you it's learning curve...It invovles RE-encoding not simply TRANScoding, making the process a little more difficult. But CCE gives far superior quality than anything else and I doubt you will find anyone here that can argue that point! (short of simply splitting to 2 discs that is!)

[Spence]

Basic rule of thumb when playing a backed up movie (on one disc);
The bigger your telly, the crapper your picture.
Its that simple. Think about digital pictures blown up 200%...

[JasonK]

I used to use the CCE method, but DVDshrink provides almost indistinguishible difference in quality at 80% compression or higher, which I'm able to use on 90%+ of the movies I do. (I have calibrated large high definition TV and high-end progressive scan DVD connected via component, so I notice any quality problems. But most of the problems I see are on the poorly transferred DVDs - originals - not any loss of quality on my backups.)

Get rid of the extras, menus, credits, foreign audio tracks, the 2-channel stereo track, and foreign subs, and you can get that percentage up.

I can get about 1/2 my movies to 100% quality with DVDshrink, and there is NO way you can get better quality than that with CloneDVD or CCE.

DVDshrink is great! Excellent quality.

[tsantsa]

Get rid of the extras, menus, credits, foreign audio tracks, the 2-channel stereo track, and foreign subs, and you can get that percentage up.

I can get about 1/2 my movies to 100% quality with DVDshrink, and there is NO way you can get better quality than that with CloneDVD or CCE.

DVDshrink is great! Excellent quality.

At 90% no you probably wont be able to tell the difference, but get around 70 to 80% and I bet CloneDVD looks better (and even better with CCE re-encodes)...It has something to do with their (CloneDVD's)transcoding engine. It looks smooth compared to dvd shrink. Shrink starts giving some macros at around 75% from my last usage of this product. Admittedly, I haven't used it in at least 2 months since I have gotten CloneDVD and have been learning to re-encode using CCE.

However one big plus for shrink is that it's free and easy to use for any noob. Its what I started with and probably 75% of the people here did too! But as you learn more about dvd burning you learn to try new tools and new variations of those tools until you find something just right. Obviously you found the way you like it JasonK, but I disagree about some of the quality claims. BTW, when you have to do a movie that is say 60 or 70% of original quality, how do you handle it? Do you split to 2 or CCE or what? Just wondering cuz I just did Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets and its near 50% !!! Oh the horror!!! I used CCE and it doesn't look half bad btw!