Smooth/Sharp settings in DVD Shrink 3.2

[raynist]

I have been setting these to smooth. What is everyone else doing and have you noticed a difference?

Thanks
Ray Nist

[solo]

Using the same media I always do and never having problems before I noticed that when I set to sharp every so often there was a very slight pause at the start of a new chapter . I used smooth and it was less noticeable so I just tried maximum smoothness and there wasn't any at all and the quality was fine for me. It does say though that different results will be had from different players and films etc so as always I would say do what works for you

[gregpolo]

Ray,

I've tried both, Maximum Sharpness takes forever, but the results appear better when I have a DVD that requires a lot of compression. I did not notice any difference in DVD'd that required anything less than 75% compression at all.

Greg

[MysticE]

One of the problems of trying to wring the most out of an app is that problems will arise. The old Shrink always produced very compatable output with almost every player/DVD made. More complicated programs, IC8, InterVideo etc. were always more of a hit or miss afair. I went for smooth on my first round of Shrink 3.2 (I grew up on film, sharpness is not the most important thing to me) I ended up with some pauses that I had never experienced before. The 'it depends on the DVD' thing is too much of a pain, I don't want to be experimenting and re-doing burns depending on the source. The old way suits my 'Movie Only' needs just fine.

[mazinz]

i use smooth, as the help file suggested it would make scenes blend together more. I have not had any glitches/pauses or whatever. I just dont need crazy block noise to appear if it swtiches to a new scene (which was listed as "could happen" if sharp was used)

[TimeZone]

Using the same media I always do and never having problems before I noticed that when I set to sharp every so often there was a very slight pause at the start of a new chapter . I used smooth and it was less noticeable so I just tried maximum smoothness and there wasn't any at all and the quality was fine for me. It does say though that different results will be had from different players and films etc so as always I would say do what works for you

Not sure about the pause you mention.

Max smooth takes the longest to encode. As you get sharper (Smooth, Sharp, Max Sharp) the encode time is faster. Max sharp is the fastest encode when using any of the AEC settings in shrink. It still takes longer though when using any of the AEC setting than without.

The picture quality is much better (on heavily compressed video) when using any of the AEC setting than without using them. The terms smooth and sharp might be misleading, becuase I don't think you will really notice a sharper or smoother effect with a particular setting. In fact I have read where sometime the Max Smooth setting could make something look sharper than the other settings in certain cases. This is not really a sharpness control.

I have found that the Max Smooth setting produces images with less pixelation. The Max sharp setting will have the most. The only time you can really tell the difference though is when you have heavy compression and also have a difficult scene; like fast action or a transition or effect like a fade, fog, smoke, etc., that is demanding to encode. If your source has a lot of tough scenes like this you might give the Max Smooth setting a try, otherwise it is probably best to stick with the default Sharp setting in most cases. Just depends on the material and compression level.

The only time I can tell the difference is on the tough scenes I mentioned above.