With or Without?

[graylion08]

Do you burn movies with or without the special features and bonus materials? I'm asking because I hear that the quality of the DVD diminishes the more it's compressed. I hear you can't tell the difference on a tube TV, but it gets really grainy on a wide-screen TV and progressive scan DVD player. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!

[ormonde]

"Do you burn movies with or without the special features and bonus materials? I'm asking because I hear that the quality of the DVD diminishes the more it's compressed."

Burning without "Extras" as well as unwanted audio streams (French, German, etc...) will enhance the quality of the main movie if you are using compression.

[graylion08]

OK. Having said that, is the difference noticeable enough to where you forego the special features/bonus materials? Anyone? Anyone?

[ormonde]

"OK. Having said that, is the difference noticeable enough to where you forego the special features/bonus materials?"

That depends on the particular situation, such as how large the original movie is. A DVD-5 is considered to be anything up to 4.7 gig (4.484 is what you can burn on a recordable disk). A DVD-9, which encompasses most of the commercial DVDs on the market, are usually dual-layered and anywhere from 8.5 to 9.4 gigs in size. Then there are much larger capacity disks (DVD-10 up to DVD-18). Using a program such as DVD Shrink for example, you can easily compress the DVD-9 category without much visual quality loss, however, there are other factors involved in making a successful backup such as the quality of media used, and what software programs are incorporated. Most often, it is a trial and error process. That, of course, is where the dedication of the individual comes in.

[ormonde]

"(4.484 is what you can burn on a recordable disk)."

I meant 4, 484 mgs or 4.37 gigs. Sorry, that was not clarified well.

[Quality's Proof]

graylion08,

If you are expecting to watch a movie back-up several to many times within the next ten (10) years, good advice is : rip the movie only and with one audio stream only and with your native language subtitles,

Further, it is best to crop (using DVDShrink v. 3.0 Beta 5 and later versions (v. 3.1.5 Beta 4 now) the movie @ the end of film, foregoing the film's credits (unless there are scenes in credits which you enjoy, as there are such on some films), also to crop @ actual beginning of film (a few seconds before actual beginning of film, unless there is a talking narrative immediately prior to the beginning of movie). This usually save a few to sometimesseveral 100's mb of space which can yield better video quality on back-up. The cropping feature is in the Re-author window of DVDShrink v. 3. 0 Beta 5 and up.

The audio stream to save is still somewhat divided as most usually keep only the best stream or the next best (when DTS is on disc).

The writeable D-9's are to hit the market (supposedly this March) and Splitting to 2 Discs now to retain 1 : 1 quality (when looked @ realistically) is not a good idea, as you can always back-up the D-9 to a D-9 in future for a 1 : 1. and use the compressed discs as frisbees for trapshooting.

[cyrano]

Quality's Proof said just about what I was going to say. I would only add that some trial and error (using RW media) can let you know when it is necessary to get the utmost out of a backup. Some films are more worthy than others.
Sometimes it is possible to choose one excellent special feature that can be compressed heavily and not take up much room.

However, I am new to this. It is always best to go for the best quality. Removing credits is not what I like to do (even though I don't always watch them completely.). Often the music on the credits goes with the film and feels integral (to me). It would be nice if one could "ride" the compression ratio and squeeze the credits area more tightly.

Experiment.

BTW, I view my results on an Infocus X1 DLP projector using an 80" 4:3 (or 72" 16:9) screen so the differences in compression ratios are very evident. I don't think one can see these differences as well on most PC CRT's. I can't on mine.

[Quality's Proof]

cyrano,

"...ask and thou shalt receive." "credits being compressed " more than main movie is on a thread at this forum entitled ('undocument dvdshrink feature") in the dvdshrink section (many functions not yet documented (reminds me of an "easter egg" hunt when I was a boy......seems like that was only last century), an easy to understand guide to using this undocumented feature is at dvdshrink.info (ddlooping's site). This is the site for the very easy to understand dvdshrink guides.

On the credits (unless there is some extra footage you want to see at the same compression as the main movie) the compression can be set at maximum as it is not fast motion, etc. and of course the audio is not compressed.

Quality is always better when the transfer is 1 : 1, so, when the D-9 writeables become $2.00 ea................As I said "........some D-5 back-ups will be frisbees for trap-shooting.".

We all know, we are going to buy some D-9 writeables when the price falls enough on the -R's. (if you buy the +R D-9's, you are playing into their marketing scheme as there are mostly -R dvd standalone players) in US and Canada, so we may have to boycott their scam to have us buy +R players to play the D-9 writeables which are first available.).

[cyrano]

Thanks for the info and the always helpful advice, Quality's Proof. I'll check it out.

Edit: Just checked it out and your advice is excellent. I'll do that from now on.

When do you think -R D9's will become available? (Economically available will be a few months further on, of course.)

[Quality's Proof]

cyrano,

You are welcome.

If we (enough of us (we do buy the most of such discs) boycott the +R D-9's, the -R D-9's will happen sooner and cheaper......really all they are is 2 pieces of cheap plastic with some cheap dye and some type of adhesive to hold the two pieces together somewhat.

Doom9.org says +R's scheduled in March.....April or so is reasonable also. so? -R's?, Pioneer, really ought to speed that up.