Fit to disc question

plasmavideo wrote on 8/8/2006, 6:19 AM

Using DVDA fit to disc option:

Does fit to disc use a form of analysis and recoding like DVD Shrink and similar products, or does it just re-encode your mpg files with a different bitrate (if mpg files are the source)?

From the brief description, it looks like it's more for a case where you have a DV or non-compressed file you're using and it encodes at a rate that will "fit the disc" with the right level of compression.

Thanks.

Comments

bStro wrote on 8/9/2006, 6:49 AM

Fit to Disc just determines the most efficient bitrate to use and then encodes the file(s) at that bitrate. Works out fine if your source is DV, but I would not recommend using Fit to Disc if your source is already MPEG.

Programs like DVD Shrink still baffle me; I don't know how they do it, but it's pretty darn cool.

Rob

plasmavideo wrote on 8/9/2006, 8:00 AM

Yes, it baffles me too. I know there are some descriptions about how that type of thing is done in DVD Shrink and Nero Recode, which I think was written by the same developer, floating around the internet. I need to google them.

I used Nero Recode to do a 50% shrink on one file that was very clean to start with, and the results were absolutely amazing. Granted I was not looking at the results on a huge screen where artifacts would stick out. It was very impressive on a 27 inch standard def set, tho. The worst thing I saw were some occasional motion artifacts which were hard to pick out. Once in a while I also saw a slight "cartoon" effect, but I was looking for them and was being quite picky. I don't think an average viewer would have noticed them.

bStro wrote on 8/9/2006, 6:32 PM

Indeed. At least a couple times, I've created a project in DVDA, let it prepare the files, and then used DVD Shrink to resize them before burning to a DVD. Never had to do anywhere near a 50% reduction, though. That's impressive.

Rob

Chienworks wrote on 8/9/2006, 6:53 PM

Kinda makes me wonder ... if DVD Shrink can do it, why doesn't the Main Concept encoder do it to begin with, or at least have the option to do so?

plasmavideo wrote on 8/10/2006, 6:59 AM

Rob,

I would not think of doing a 50% reduction normally, but I did try it on this very clean original sample. I've tried it on some less than great footage and the artifacts were quite a bit more noticable, I probably would normally only have to shrink something 10 to 20 percent.

Kelly,

In a discussion with someone on another user board he brought up the fact that he thought that DVD Shrink and Recode ended up making non-standard spec mpg files, and that they could not be used again for any type of further recoding or editing. That's one reason I'd like to find out how they work and what they modify. It would be a tremendous feature if incoporated into DVDA. * One thing that the Nero Recode won't do is open and work on regular standalone mpg files. It works only on an already authored DVD or DVD image. You can't even use it with a VIDEO_TS folder on the hard disc. I have no idea why this is so, or whether it is related to how the recode process works. With the file I was playing with I had to burn it as a video DVD image and mount it on the Nero virtual drive to work on in Recode! So, if it were somehow a feature that could be incorporated BEFORE you burned the actual DVD, that would be sweet!

So much fascinating stuff to learn about and play with - not nearly enough time.

Tom

A PS after writing this. Here's a link I just found to a discussion of this very topic, with links to some additional technical information. I'm going exploring this weekend for info!

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=2e94ae518f2ea08d8dec0292f9f4ac2b&threadid=58964

Another PS:

This looks like the best explanation I've come across so far, and a LONG thread, apparently written by the author of DVD Shrink.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=175960#post175960

* Actually, I'm not sure if this is true. In reading the documentation this morning it looks like in one of it's modes you can import hard drive VIDEO_TS folders and perhaps other files as well. I'll check tonight. Still would be nice to have it available within the original mpg encoding, though!

bStro wrote on 8/10/2006, 9:07 AM

Curious. 'Cause I'm almost sure I've read posts (elsewhere) from people who regularly use Nero Recode on files they've transferred from their Tivos. TiVo files are essentially just MPEG2 files with some extra info thrown into the header.

Rob

plasmavideo wrote on 8/10/2006, 9:35 AM

Well, just take what I say with a grain of salt until I play some more. I see some other ways of importing files other than "import disc" reading the docs this morning. I haven't had the program long enough to do more than throw a couple of DVDs at it.

I did find, much to my delight, that I can import VRO files recorded on my Panasonic desktop DVD-RAM drive into several of the apps in Nero for burning a standard DVD compilation or conversion to other formats.