I realise this is a fairly subjective question and what is acceptable to one will be unacceptable to another. I have been merrily compressing DVD quality videos with DVDShrink. I am concerned that whilst I am unable to notice any video degradation on my small screen, will the picture appear degraded on a larger screen (if I can ever afford one)? How much compression is too much?
With DVD Shrink if the files are compressed by more than 20% I use 'deep analysis' to render the best quality compression. Compression itself I find OK up to about 36%, although I have gone higher than this. If a movie will only compress by more than 36% for one disc after re-authoring then I use DVDXCopy instead to go on two discs. It really is a case of experimenting yourself. You can use an RW disc for that with no wastage.
Spoon1956, True, so very true "What is too much?" I've got me a 60" TV and I truly can't see much difference between the original and one I've compressed from 7.9GB to 4.3GB using my good friend "DVDShrink". Yes, I've re-authored it a couple of times and when I did used Deep Analyses each time but the only time I noticed anything in playback is in pause or slow-mo. As far as DVD X Copy goes - I only use their XCopy Xpress - compressing to a single disc. No noticeable loss there at all - I only wonder about Plasma or HHD TV - "P"
With about 35% compression, the movie usually starts to look rather nasty on my 18.1" TFT- monitor. Even on a large TV it might still be ok quality but I usually go for two discs like Discmania said if the compression ratio approaches 35% or so.
I'm not much of a tv person myself so i could be horribly wrong here but couldnt you (theoretically at least), play the DVD back on a highquuality CRT and if it looks good on that then say that it looks good on damn near anything? (it seems to hold for crts & projector screens i dunno about 50+ screns or plasma or nothing tho). Just a thought
personally i would keep the quality to a min of 60% of the original. 100% = good less than 60% = bad (try to stay at 70 min usually) I have gone lower and it depends really on personal experiences, but anything from 60% to 100% look's good on my 32inch widescreen
Hi, As I mentioned, I have a 60' TV, a regular one NOT a HDD screen. My monitor is a 19"er and as has been said, looks OK here too. On hi-special-effects movies there is a difference around the edges of the monsters, kind of "blockie". You'll know what I mean when you see it. Another member said to look at smoke, it gets "blockie" around the edges as does a real tight close-up - the edges look squared off. Aaah well - that's my 2 cents - "P"
