I'm still learning the processes of video encoding/ripping/burning/etc. What i'm trying to figure out is once i've ripped a movie to my external hard drive is there a way to compress it into another format to save on the hd's overall space? Once this is completed does the same software reconvert it back to the VIDEO_TS status without loss in quality? Now with that question in mind, is it possible also to playback the video in the smaller size? I'm sorry if this is scrambled, but I don't know how to explain it. I guess what i'm asking is once the video is in VIDEO_TS format on my external I want to compress without loss in quality and also be able to play back the movie...
Ok so if I want to save space and I do compress what software should I use? Can I watch the movie after it's compressed? Trying to preserve quality, how much of a difference will be detected?
1) dvd shrink or nero recode or dvd rebuilder 2) Yes 3) depends on how much compression, greater than 20% see los
If you want better quality there's a few ways to accomplish this. The easiest way is to rip main movie only. Then, there's less to compress. Run through FixVts and/or VobBlanker before Shrink. Use Analysis before hitting Backup! Or one could learn the fine art of Dvd Rebuilder.
One thing though is I like to have all the features, menus, etc. Either give, or just sacrifice right?
ha2fb, For every compression there's always a corresponding loss of quality. The best way to compensate for this is to reauthor and encode just the main movie.
Since you should own the orignal pressed movie, you have all of that stuff already...no need to copy it for the backup.
@ha2fb DVD Shrink and DVD Rebuilder don't do what you want, they just "shrink " the movie to a smaller size,keeping it in DVD format but loose a lot of quality(depending on how much you shrink it). They don't compress to a different format.Nero Recode can convert to MPEG-4, and the quality is pretty good. You can compress to a much smaller size( 700-1000MB, or whatever you choose), and still retain good quality using a codec, like Xvid, Divx, x.264...whatever. You convert to an AVI/mpeg4/RMVB... You can use many free software, like AlltoAVI , FairUseWizard, StaxRip, AutoGk....You will loose the menus and extras though(you can always go back to your original DVD if you want to enjoy those a second, third, fourth time around!)
