Best compressor?

[ddlooping]

guns1inger, have you had the opportunity (or curiosity) to compare v3.2 output to DVD RB/CCE?

[TimeZone]

DVD Shrink 3.2 is my vote for best all around. Big increase in quality with the new AEC settings. If you have a really long movie (heavy compression) with fast action scenes or a lot of fade type transitions, fog, smoky scenes, etc., then you might get better results with the smooth or Max smooth settings, though it gets slower. Shrink is just so powerful!

For ultimate quality when you have very heavy compression, DVD Rebuilder combined with CCE Basic will still do better in some cases. You have to pay the $60 for CCE Basic though, where Shrink is free.

Shrink can also reauthor a DVD or shrink menus which DVD Rebuilder doesn't do. So Shrink is also great to combine with it.

For everything but the toughest discs though or something super important , I would stick with Shrink as in most cases the quality is just as good and it is much faster.

[guns1inger]

Not against the same movie, although I may get an opportunity this weekend. I was very impressed by job it did with Chinatown. The movie runs 2 hours 4 minutes, and had been very generously encoded to over 6 gb with a single dd5.1 audio track. A number of times I paused and zoomed and rewatched scenes that the earlier version of shrink would have struggled with - the rocky riverbeds, concrete walls, fabric covered sofas, and all were rock solid. And this was using the default Sharp setting. I have just backed up Evil Dead 2 using the smooth setting, but I wont get to watch it until tonight when the kids are asleep.

Tonight I will backup Where Eagles Dare - lots of stone walls, snow, film grain etc. I will use both DVD RB/CCE (2 pass) and shrink 3.2 AEC Smooth, and let you know how it fairs.

Bare in mind, I am very fussy about image quality, which is why I still watch films on my Loewe glass tube TV, and haven't upgraded to a large screen plasma abomination

[ddlooping]

... A number of times I paused and zoomed and rewatched scenes that the earlier version of shrink would have struggled with - the rocky riverbeds, concrete walls, fabric covered sofas, and all were rock solid. And this was using the default Sharp setting. I have just backed up Evil Dead 2 using the smooth setting, but I wont get to watch it until tonight when the kids are asleep.

Tonight I will backup Where Eagles Dare - lots of stone walls, snow, film grain etc. I will use both DVD RB/CCE (2 pass) and shrink 3.2 AEC Smooth, and let you know how it fairs.

Bare in mind, I am very fussy about image quality, which is why I still watch films on my Loewe glass tube TV, and haven't upgraded to a large screen plasma abomination

Thanks for the positive feedback.

I'm looking forward to hear your comparison test results.

[Faustus]

Best kompressor?



Or.... ya know CCE.

[MackemX]

best kompressor you say?

there's the Mercedes from HERE


or the BMW from HERE


Mercedes for me

[ddlooping]

A big apology to all who have downloaded the "Smooth" comparison tests.
The links were actually pointing to the v3.2 beta 3 test files.

This error has now been rectified.
A "Maximum Sharpness" comparison page has also been added.

http://www.dvdshrink.info/temp/beta/comparative_tests_smooth.html
http://www.dvdshrink.info/temp/beta/comparative_tests_maxsharp.html

[noki]

The new AEC options have removed one of my biggest issues with shrink - pulsing in fine detail areas. As a test I backed up Chinatown with the new 3.2. Compression ration was 68.9 in reauthor mode (movie, 5.1 audio, no subpictures). No pulsing, no banding. I was very impressed.

was the AEC left at its default (sharp) or did you change it (ie to smooth)? thanks.
Sorry, I think you already answered that in a subsequent post that I just read .

DD
Is there a general rule of thumb where one would use the smooth or sharp (actually for the other settings too)? Thank you.

[guns1inger]

OK, let me preface these findings by saying that this test is purely subjective, and is based on finding an image quality acceptable to me. My standards may or may not match your own (I had a discussion a while back with a guy who could not tell the difference between his original and his 3.17 beta version of LOTR:TT theatrical release. If you feel the same way, then upgrading will be a waste of your download bandwidth).

This is a back up of Where Eagles Dare. It is a movie only back up. The movie has a running time of 149 minutes, and clocks in at 6151mb (this is from the region 4 PAL version). Only the english 5.1 audio and english subtitles were kept. This film was chosen because

a) It has a good running time
b) It is an older film, and has a good level of film grain. Many newer film transfers are almost grain free. It also has not been oversharpened, as many films of this era have been in their transfer.
c) It has a lot details that traditional backup methods, especially transcoders, choke on. These include fine details like rock surfaces, snow and grainy expanses of colour.
d) It was next on my list to do

Two backup methods were used. Both backup were written to Ritek G04 -R discs, and were written as close to the edge as possible without overburn. The films was ripped to the HDD using DVD Decrypter (latest version), and reauthored using Shrink 3.2.0.15 without compression, writing a Video_TS folder with the results. The reencodes were written to a second drive (not partition).

DVD/RB with CCE
Standard settings for CCE. VBR_Bias=10, Quality_Prec=24, VBR_Passes=2
Squeeze : 68.7%
Transcode time : 254 minutes
Resultant size : 4435mb

DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15
Deep Analysis
AEC Settings: Smooth
Squeeze: 70.4%
Transcode Time: 109 minutes
Resultant Size: 4466mb

Comparison
Four brief but representative sections of the film were studied in detail. This included viewing at normal presentation, and at 2x digital zoom. The disc is an anamorphic 2.35 print, and was viewed as such (i.e. not letterboxed by the player). Viewing was done usinf a Pioneer DV466 player connected via s-video connection to 72 cm Loewe Profil 16:9 switchable television.

Chapter 1
Blue night sky (probably shot day for night) over snow covered mountains. Grain is very evident in the original - a difficult test.
Shrink 3.2 - A slight shimmer evident at normal. Zoom reveals some macro-blocking, but it is subtle. 6/10
DVD/RB/CCE - Slightly grainier appearance. Zoom reveals slight macro-blocking, but less than Shrink. 7/10

Chapter4 14 and 19
I selected these because they have backgrounds that the 3.17 version of Shrink always struggled with. These are interior shots with stone walls covered in fine detail (pits and pock marks). Shrink 3.17 always displayed pulsing, even at low compression.
Shrink 3.2 - Mostly good detail, with occassional pulsing. Almost no pulsing where there is good contracts and colour/shading differences in the details. Some pulsing where there is low contrast or very similar colours. 7/10 (3.17 would have recieved 5/10)
DVD/RB/CCE - Solid on the details. No pulsing visible. Again, some slight grain enhancement. 8.5/10

Chapter 32
The first couple of minutes has some good close ups of loose snow, followed by high shots of mountains/trees/snow. Lots of fine details.
Shrink 3.2 - Solid. Some very minor pulsing, but over all a solid pick up. 8/10
DVD/RB/CCE - Solid, and pips Shrink at the post as it is pulse free. 9/10

Given the high level of compression required here, the condition of the original transfer, and the types of images involved, I was expecting Shrink to struggle much more than it did. I had reached the stage with 3.17 that I would use it only if the compression was 5 - 7% or less. Any more than that and it was DVD/RB. Granted, this is only one film, and only one AEC setting being tested here, so it is by no means conclusive, but if a few more tests turn in similar results, then I would use Shrink 3.2 with AEC for anything up to 20% without too much thought.

If you had moved away from Shrink because of quality issues, it is now worth revisiting. I think you will be pleasently surprised. The only thing missing now is a definitive guide to the AEC settings and what is best when.

[ddlooping]

Thanks for this detailed and informative report, guns1inger.

[Jah_Rankin]

The new version have better quality for the most part but a lot of pixelations throughout if you can live with this then go for it.

[guns1inger]

I'm not seeing any evidence of this in the movies I have done. I have seen some subtle macro-blocking in very heavily compressed movies (see post above), but for the most part the results with Deep Analysis and AEC are very good. I will still use DVD RB with CCE for anything requiring 15-20% or more compression (dependent to a degree on the quality of the source material), but will use the faster Shrink with the rest.

/* edit

Just saw your other post - don't go blaming Shrink for poor burning practices

/*end edit

[glassvial]

Just curious, has anyone found better results with the sharp or smooth templates in the new version of shrink? Which do you prefer overall, not so much on a movie-per-movie basis?

[guns1inger]

Overall, between smooth and sharp, I prefer sharp (default). It seems to give the best results most of the time. I haven't tried maximum smooth or maximum sharp yet. Smooth, while better than the old Shrink, seems to have some of the bad habits of the old, just not as pronounced.

[fritzi93]

Nice report, guns1inger, and well-reasoned. 8)

[glassvial]

Overall, between smooth and sharp, I prefer sharp (default). It seems to give the best results most of the time. I haven't tried maximum smooth or maximum sharp yet. Smooth, while better than the old Shrink, seems to have some of the bad habits of the old, just not as pronounced.

Yeah that's what I have found thusfar with the new version as well. I think it really helps. Perhaps someone should run a few side-by-sides with the new versions of shrink and dvd2one to get a fair comparison now?