DVD shrink

[exalted512]

Ok this is my last thread about burning dvds...i swear...
i am proud to say that i burned my first DVD yesterday:D
but i have a couple of questions
i would like to say that i have nero 6 ultra now
but at the end of the burn process...it said "burn process failed"
my roommate closed it out so i cant copy and paste what it said...but i read over the whole thing and it didnt have an error number or listed what went wrong or anything like that...weird
but i put the dvd in...and it still worked...everything...extras, movie..etc etc
so im not sure about that...
but anyway, the question is about the compression
i want as little compression as i can get...but im not sure im understanding the dvd shrink program
ok like right now i have matrix revolutions
looking at the dvd shrink program, at the top theres an all green bar that says 0mb on the left and 4,464mb on the right
under the 'video' part it has a selection for compression...i just have it an automatic
under where it says automatic it has a percent which is 61.9%
what does the green bar indicate and what does the percent indicate?
when i uncheck AC3 5.1ch French, the percent goes up to 69.3%
when i click no compression, the percent goes away and the green bar is red on the left side and says 6,195mb
at first i thought that the 6,195 was the size of everything on the disc, but if i uncheck everything under menus, main movie, and extras, the number is still 5,409
so if someone could lead me in the right direction about getting the least compression i can without losing all the extras...please enlighten me
-Cody

[jcaut]

Cody,

You need to leave the compression setting set to "auto". The lower the percentage shown, the more compression: 100% would be no compression, 50% would be compressing the information to on-half the original size. It's been my experience that anything lower than about 70% produces visible (to me) artifacts. Above that it's pretty good.

I'm probably leaving out some steps, but basically open your DVD you want to copy, click the "Re-author" tab at the top add the main title to your layout. Click the video compression tab and proceed to un-check anything you can live without: Additional languages, keep DTS or DD but not both, etc. The compression percentage will change as you uncheck things. If necessary, you can click the button that's got the arrows going left and right and choose the start and end frames: Cut out the credits, etc..

The amount of Mb on the left is the remaining free space available on a standard single layer disc. If you've got a "normal" DVD movie and the compression setting on "auto" this will be 0Mb. The number on the right is the amount of space the movie will use at the current settings. If this is above the amount that will fit on the blank disc (as it usually will be if you select no compression) the bar will turn red to indicate that you've got too much data to fit on the blank disc.

Pardon me if you already know this, but most commercially pressed DVD's are dual-layer discs. They'll hold somewhere around 8.5Gb of data. Most movies exploit this additional space, either with the actual movie, or extras that are included. Since you want to put the movie on a single-layer disc (since you're not using a dual-layer drive and/or dual-layer media, which is available but still quite expensive) You have to throw away extras and possibly perform some additional compression to make it fit.

A short movie might fit on a single-layer disc if you discard the additional soundtracks, menus, etc., (The widescreen version of "Shrek" will) but most won't.

Jason

P.S. Nero has the ability to try and verify what has been written (at least for data. Not sure about video) Perhaps the verification wasn't allowed to finish, which would result in a "burn process failed" message, even though the disc might be fine. Just guessing. Burning DVD's is tricky, because there's so much that CAN go wrong. It seems like you have to figure out what works best on your particular system.

[exalted512]

it can give me error messages all it wants as long as the dvd still works:D
thanks for the info though
i posted this on another forum and someone posted these links for those of you who are interested
http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/
http://www.dvdr-digest.com/articles/23_1.html
-Cody

[exalted512]

i made a back up copy of matrix revolutions and it worked great!
still made the error though...oo well
i see my DVD collection mysteriously growing...
-Cody

[faster100]

hey thanks, i also have been having trouble with my new dvd burner, after downloading the new dvd shrink 3.2, it worked flawless, burned 2 backups tonight and watched one, scooby doo 2.. nice picture/// removed the menu's and languages and it fit on one disk.. with the help of that link posted a few posts back.. Thanks alot

[exalted512]

if you take out the menu that means the only thing you can have is the movie correct?
no extras and stuff like that...
-Cody

[faster100]

yup, you dont have to do that.. but it makes it fit on one dvd+r not 2

[exalted512]

whats better to have:
DTS 5.1-ch or AC3 5.1-ch??
-Cody

[Sami]

Originally posted by exalted512
whats better to have:
DTS 5.1-ch or AC3 5.1-ch??
-Cody

Personal preference, most prefer DTS. It depends on the movie but I hardly ever compress at all, I will rather cut the extras and menus than PQ. Re-author, select main movie, cut out extra soundtracks and if necessary, divide the movie into two discs.

[exalted512]

if u click re-author and just select the movie and nothing else...will it have sound?
ive also heard that dts is not as universally accepted like ac3...?
-Cody

[Sami]

Originally posted by exalted512
if u click re-author and just select the movie and nothing else...will it have sound?
ive also heard that dts is not as universally accepted like ac3...?
-Cody

Some prepro's don't have DTS, DD is the standard. DTS is better so if you have it on the disc, I would leave it.

If you reauthor, soundtracks are all in by default. You can then deselect them just like with the whole movie.

[faster100]

yes it will have sound... i did 2 last night.. remove the 2.1 and the other languages.. and leave 5.1

[exalted512]

thanks everyone...im getting better at this now
XXX was so big that i clicked re-author, then under main menu i clicked Title 1 and clicked make back-up
so will that include the 5.1 sound or????

[reeltrouble1]

Holy Crap, seems like a lot trouble to burn a disc and then leaving things out, suppose might be good for a back up, but you still need the original dont you? Think I will just buy the disc.

RT1

[Sami]

Originally posted by reeltrouble1
Holy Crap, seems like a lot trouble to burn a disc and then leaving things out, suppose might be good for a back up, but you still need the original dont you? Think I will just buy the disc.

Of course but if I want to see a movie, I will use the burned discs. That way the chances of the original getting damaged are smaller. I hardly ever watch the extras so they are a waste of space to me anyway so I don't mind leaving them out on the backup that I will actually be watching.

I rent (Netflix) most of the movies anyway.

[exalted512]

someone that ive talked to say that he burns them when theyre compressed at like 55% and he cant see/hear a difference...
-Cody

[Sami]

Originally posted by exalted512
someone that ive talked to say that he burns them when theyre compressed at like 55% and he cant see/hear a difference...
-Cody

Most likely a small screen he watches them on. At 116" I can't afford to compress at all. Maybe to ~90% but I hate to do that.

[exalted512]

116"...holy ****...is it a projector or???
-Cody

[Sami]

Originally posted by exalted512
116"...holy ****...is it a projector or???
-Cody

CRT front projector. I just moved a few weeks ago and I am painting the HT room. I will go down on the picture size, propably to 100-105" or even less. It will be only a 13x11 room and bigger isn't always better, even with screen size.