Steal space or Half D1 for extras?

[DarskX]

hi, Im a little confused by some of the settings in DVD-Rebuilder. I have recently been trying to back-up a copy of recently brought movie that has lots of extras, and requires quite a bit of compression (69%). Is it best to use the steal space from extra - 25%, separately from options like Half-D1/Half space, or can they be used together? When should they not be used together?

[edit]Ive been reading through the various guides again and came across this, that helps explain the options better. But im still not sure whether it is a good idea to use 'Half-D1', combined with steal space (25%), or separate. 'Half Space' seems to much of a reduction in the extras.
How does the reduced resolution affect the main title?

thanks for any help... darsk

*Steal Space from Extras reduces the bitrates of all VTS sets except the largest one. It then takes the space recovered and allocates it to the largest VTS set. This option is intended to increase the quality of the main movie, at the expense of the extras.

*Half-D1 and Half Space for Extras encodes all VTS sets except the largest one at half normal DVD resolution and at 50% their normal bitrate. The space saved will be allocated to the largest VTS set. Half-D1 is part of the DVD standard, but some DVD players may not fully support it.

[UncasMS]

well, i always used steal space 25% in combination with half-d1

the reason is rather simple: half-d1 reduces the resolution and thus the 25% decrease in bitrate distribution will NOT look as bad as it might when keeping the full resolution because the alocated bitrate has to be distributed to way less pixel in a half-d1 resolution

on the other hand you may consider that in those days when dvd rb was written the average size of the tv used at home was smaller than it may be today

so when you reduce the resolution but may watch the final result on a rather large screen now or in the near future then of course the content will have to be upscaled to fit the tv and of course upscaling from a half-d1 resolution will not be as good as keeping the original dvd resolution

it's a bit of a no-win situation nowadays using dvd material on recent (larger) tvs

[DarskX]

the reason is rather simple: half-d1 reduces the resolution and thus the 25% decrease in bitrate distribution will NOT look as bad as it might when keeping the full resolution because the alocated bitrate has to be distributed to way less pixel in a half-d1 resolution

Thanks for explanation, im leaning towards just doing a movie/menu back only.

Regards Darsk