I am new to this and thought everyone here would have insight from there vast amounts of experience I am sure.
What is recommended to keep the SAME qulaity when backups are made?
Do you rip the extras to fit the DVD to a single DVD-R disc or do you use compression?
If using compression, what amount is TOO much compression and what is safe or close to being qulaity reducing?
Just wanting to know what everyone else uses in order to keep the same video/audio quality as the original as I don't want to lose any quality if possible.
Quote:What is recommended to keep the SAME qulaity when backups are made?
Consider that when a film is compressed there will always be some sort of quality degradation but this depends the amount of compression and the software being used. Most people can't tell a difference when a film is moderately compressed.
That being said you can easily make a 1:1 copy of a DVD-5 since it will fit a single layer blank DVD.
When backing up a DVD-9 you have two choices, one is to split the film across two single layer blanks if you have a single layer burner or if you have a dual layer burner you can make a straight 1:1 copy.
Quote:Do you rip the extras to fit the DVD to a single DVD-R disc or do you use compression?
This comes down to personal preference and the equipment you'll be watching your copies on. My best advice is to use some rewritable discs and experiment to see what works for you. Personally, unless the film will fit a single layer blank with little to no compression I'll remove the extras.
Quote:If using compression, what amount is TOO much compression and what is safe or close to being quality reducing?
Heavy compression such a 50% or so can cause serious quality loss and even playback problems.
Quote:Just wanting to know what everyone else uses in order to keep the same video/audio quality as the original as I don't want to lose any quality if possible.
This thread is a monster but most of the pertinent information is within the first several pages:
My killer sig came courtesy of bb "El Jefe" mayo.
The Forum Rules You Agreed To!http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487 "And there we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" - Numbers 13:33
If little or no compression is used, then the quality will be the same as the original. Bear in mind that as soon as compression is used, video data is being lost. At what point you can notice it depends on your playback equipment and your eyes.
A standard way to reduce or eliminate compression is to remove extras during the rip process. A normal DVD-9 will usually need compression after this is done, just a bit less though. Some movies, such as the Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, have very little in the way of extras so removing them might get you a 10% improvement. Not enough to get a movie with a resonable amount of compression.
About the easiest way to handle this is to just split the movie into two discs. This way no compression is needed.
I prefer to have my movies above 75% compression using Shrink. (Shrink compression numbers indicate that NO compression = 100%)
Shrink has features that help improve quality at the expense of speed.
Some folks here use DVD Rebuilder and CCE to get really high qquality backups. I don't though. There are quite a few posts and a good guide for this method as well as others in the guides section.
The best thing you can do is just get started and let your eyes judge your work. You will probably find that even a DVD with lots of compression is better than a typical VCR tape.
My killer sig came courtesy of bb "El Jefe" mayo.
The Forum Rules You Agreed To!http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487 "And there we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" - Numbers 13:33
Conventional wisdom indicates that with 20-30% compresson you shouldn't see any tangible difference when wacthing if a good transcoder is used. DVDshrink does a good job if all the quality settings are used.
With DVDrebuilder and CCE I have extremely good results with up to 50% compression, although I will remove some extras on most movies to maximize quality.
While you technically can't get a perfect compressed backup I have yet to be dissatisfied with any of my DVDrebuilder copies.
I have a dual layer burner but the media prices will need to come down a lot before they make sense.
