Gladiator on 1 cd?

[mrBullseye]

I have recently ripped gladiator, and decided to make it a 2 cd rip! therefore i used a resolution of 640 by 480, a video bitrate of 1000, 2 pass encoding and audio at 160 kbps.
It went in accordance with my expectations and the final filesize were 1,21 Gb. The only problem I had was audiosync, which, by my understanding, is pretty usual when using flask 0.6+ on longer movies. (gladiator 2h 30 min) I corrected this in virtualdub, and was pretty satisfied with the final result.
To my question. I have been playing with the idea to make gladiator a 1 cd rip. Is this possible, still providing a watchable result? If i lower my audio bitrate to 124, and lower the video resolution to 400 by 300 (or higher, I don't know, never tried it before) ,lower the video bitrate to somewhere around 700, and finally apply a filter to make it even smaller! Is this worth the effort? Are my new settings acceptable if I want the movie to have reasonable quality?

[setarip]

I don't believe you'd be pleased with the results...

[mrBullseye]

Gladiator

So I should leave the pleasant idea of having gladiator on 1 cd, with a reasonable quality. Otherwise, what settings should I use?
Generally, at what lenght of a movie should I draw the limit between 1 or 2 cd:s, if I want to have high quality??

[UncasMS]

a giant step towards a better quality would be CROPPING!

640 x 480 is most definitely not the best resolution for gladiator



in addition to cropping you should give nandub/gordianknot a try.

there will be no such thing as async avi no matter how long the title is!

[Enchanter]

I believe the Gladiator movie has an aspect ratio of 16:9, instead of the 4:3 you have indicated.

I would suggest that you use 512x() or just slightly higher. An MP3 bitrate of 128kbps would be ideal. If your ears aren't that sensitive, slightly lower audio bitrate would give you more space too. Lastly, if you used 1000 for your video bitrate in 2CD rip, logically you can only use about 500 for a 1CD rip.

Nandub would be a great encoding tool, but if you're not quite willing to learn its intricacies, Virtualdub/Flask + 4.12 will provide great results too.

[Echo147]

Yep, I'd agree with Enchanter on the resolution, 512x--- gives good results even up to 3 hour movies (no frameskips or blocky pixels). Leave the audio as it is

Before you resample, add a null transform filter in virtualdub then click cropping. Removing the black borders will help slightly with filesize, but more importantly looks a lot more professional when playing back. Also make sure you crop before resizing - filters at the top are performed before those under it, as you probably know.

[mrBullseye]

You misunderstand me!

Okay, yhe reason for me saying that I encoded gladiator in 640 by 480 is that I chose that resolution before I cropped the movie (to include subtitles in flask) In the end it became like 640 by 3xx something, I just don't remember, that is the reason why I wrote 640 by 480! But changing the bitrate to 500, won't that decrease quality to a grade of almost unwatchability?? Otherwise, I will give it a go!

[Enchanter]

A bitrate of 500 is still pretty good, provided it is in VBR mode that will make maximum usage efficiency at this low a bitrate value. However, as I stated earlier, a resolution of 512x() or just slightly higher should be used. There will hardly be any difference between this resolution and the 640x() one at this bitrate and also there is the bonus of lower CPU usage required at a lower resolution.

[mrBullseye]

Ok thanx! I'll just give it a try!
The idea of having gladiator on 1 cd really appeal to me!! =)

[Enchanter]

Remember not to use too high a resolution. I would recommend the use of bicubic resizing filter, instead of bilinear too.

[andreaskorth]

Just for curiosity:

Does anybody in this forum ever BUY DVDs? (Of course we all do, otherwise it would be illegal to rip them)

But seriously, if I really like a title I simply buy it instead of spending my precious time to make the perfect rip.

Gladiator is a perfect candidate since it comes with lots of bonus material: director's comments on the movie, interviews, trailers, removed scenes, etc. It's worth the money and very appealing to the movie enthusiast. And hey, after all, it fits on one disc

Or is ripping merely a sport for you that ends in itself? Can you possibly not afford to buy DVDs? Is society to blame?

Come on, share your thoughts, I'm REALLY interested.

[Enchanter]

The problem with me is that once I'm finished watching a movie, I tend not to watch it again and anymore. Hence, it's kind of pointless to buy the DVD which will just become another decoration on my shelf.

Yes. I rip DVDs mostly for the sports and learning of it. No harm intended. I usually rent a certain DVD and encode it again and again with different methods just to see how each of it works out. I probably have only ripped 10 DVDs for the past 6 months. I'm kind of bored looking at the same set of VOB files truly.

[andreaskorth]

The problem with me is that once I'm finished watching a movie, I tend not to watch it again and anymore.

It's the same with me. However there are a few movies so brilliant that I could watch over and over again (or at least let's say once a year). Pulp Fiction, Bladerunner, Dr. Strangelove, Harold and Maude, Fawlty Towers just to name a few.

If I'm unlikely to watch a movie more than once where's the point of ripping it?

I usually rent a certain DVD and encode it again and again with different methods just to see how each of it works out.

OK, well, sometimes admittedly it's just too tempting.

[Enchanter]

If I'm unlikely to watch a movie more than once where's the point of ripping it?

Let's just say that when you rent a DVD, you want to be able to keep parts of it, instead of just returning it and not having any possibility to rewatch it for free again. Much like recording TV shows to video tapes, back in the past, so that you can rewatch it when the mood comes.

The ripping and encoding part, though, is the most interesting part. It is always a joy to discover something you never thought was there, simply said.

[gchester]

buying dvd's

i agree with the above, whats the point of buying a dvd just rent it out and rip, yes this is illegal but thats whats it all about isnt it?
or are we just doing this because were bored? not likely there are plently of things i would rather be doing than watching my computer take 3hrs to rip a dvd and another 2 converting to VCD
i rest my case