[DGalt]

I know that with any compression there a level of quality lost. However, when we're talking about SD content, there must be a balance between marginal quality lost and keeping file size down.


Have you all found a good rule of thumb for this? I'm currently re-ripping all my old dvds of tv shows and am finding 1 hr (well, 45ish minute) episodes to be around 2GB a piece.


When we're talking about shows that have 10, 15, 20 seasons, 2GB per file is going to have me pushing my storage limits pretty quickly (currently only have 4TB worth of storage). And when we're talking about marginal differences in quality due to SD's already limited quality, this has to be a consideration.


I unfortunately don't have a grand to spend on a dedicated media server right now (down the road probably, but not yet), so what do you all generally do about this?


(I know this is the third thread I've started about this general topic...last one, promise lol)

 

[andrew c]

For SD content, I'd aim for 350MB per 40 minute episode. That's probably all you'll need, IMO. How are you ripping/encoding the files? I'd experiment with different file sizes, resolutions, and encoding options till you get something you like.

 

[DGalt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew c For SD content, I'd aim for 350MB per 40 minute episode. That's probably all you'll need, IMO. How are you ripping/encoding the files? I'd experiment with different file sizes, resolutions, and encoding options till you get something you like.

It's ironic that you say that since most of my shows have already been ripped / compressed to be about that size (re-ripping to try and get higher quality).


I don't have my htpc set up yet, and I don't really know how to gauge how quality differences are going to scale up from a 23" monitor to a 55" hdtv

 

[Mrkazador]

Do a few test encodes and compare to the source. Only way to know what size is best.

 

[Somewhatlost]

HDD's are cheap... combined with something like unRAID, where you can 'stack' a bunch of HDD's, why bother compressing at all?

why not just remove the extra crap, just rip the main movie and live happily ever after?