DVD Shrink - AEC - Sharp vs. Smooth

[xoADAMox]

Under the quality settings tab in DVD Shrink you can choose the adaptive error compensation (AEC) option. You have the option of - Maximum Smoothness, Smooth, Sharp(default) and Maximum Sharpness. So which one is the best to use? And does enabling this option (which I have never done) really make that much of a difference in picture quality?

[FulciLives]

I always use the "smooth" option. Why? I would rather have a picture with less detail if it means less compression artifacts.

Although I hardly ever use DVD Shrink these days and if I do I try to use it with no more than 85 - 90 percent compression (or 10 - 15 percent reduction).

If I need to compress more than that then I use DVD Rebuilder or sometimes I re-encode the main movie and put it in my own simple TMPGEnc DVD Author produced menu.

I find with a lot of movies these days ... if you use VobBlanker to remove the extras and the languages you don't need (i.e., just keep the 5.1 DD track) ... then use MenuEdit to "fix" the menu of the things deleted with VobBlanker ... you often are left with something that will either fit onto a single layer DVD disc and if you do need to compress then DVD Shrink usually can be used since the required amount of shrinkage needed is usually very small.

However even if only doing a bit of Shrinkage with DVD Shrink I still use the "smooth" setting.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
When I do use DVD Shrink I only use it on the main movie and other videos (if there is like a making of and I want to include it etc.) but I never use it on the menus. I heard that this might cause issues. Not sure how true that is.

[fritzi93]

Ditto Fulci.

All transcoders I'm aware of (with the exception of Instant Copy) work like this:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?&threadid=63587

Since you must lose DCT precision data (error correction), it seems to me sharp would accentuate jerkiness under "heavy compression". The term is necessarily vague, as the source file bitrate has a lot to do with how much "compression" is tolerable. Also, whether it's talking head or action, etc. My own rule of thumb is Shrink at default for single-digit reduction (again, depending), and DVDRB otherwise. YMMV.