What percentage of compression is exceptable? What is the upper limits for compression? I don't want to sacrifice the quality of my movie backups too much. I use 1click. Any comments and opinions are welcome.

This isn't a question someone can accurately answer for you .
There are too many factors to consider to give you a definitive answer .

The best advice I could give is for you to experiment a little ,
The best answer to this question is a preference that you must define .

If the 'standalone' player where the discs will be ultimately viewed
supports Rewritable Discs ...this will be an easy thing for you .
If not , You'll need to sacrifice a few DVDRs , possibly , in the name of science .
( It's a good cause : You can waste 'em now , or you can waste 'em later . )

Burn a few different Movies , trying different settings for each ,
Note the 'compression ratio" used in each case .
ie: "Movie Only" , "Movie w/ menus only" and "Movie , w/ menus and extras"
View each disc to determine which looks the best to you ,
on your main player -- this will dictate your preference .
Now you can establish a 'standard operating procedure"
and use this a a 'general rule' to back-up your movies .


I, myself ,
Have no problems with compressions as high as 40%-48%
I usually include "menus"+"extras"+"subtitles" as my 'standard operating procedure"
On my 36" FlatTubeTV , using a PS2 as my "main player" ( PS2 can be very picky )
I find it hard to distinguish the back-up
from the original , and all of my full back-ups @ max compression .
"King Kong" was the only title so far where I could notice a little effect of 'over-compression'
- so I used a DL .
One movie out of 2000+

Your results may vary .

Your Best results are dependant on several factors :
Great Media ( TYs/Verbatim) ;
Your Burner ; Your Burners Firmware match to the media used ;
The Speed used to Write ( burn speed - don't burn too fast )
Your Computer : Mainly the State of Defrag , and good working order ;
Your DVD Player Ultimately Viewed on ( and it's acceptance of the media used and the speed used to write )
The Screen Ultimately Viewed
HD Up-Scaling ( may greatly exaggerated any flaws )
Your Eyes ; Your Standard of Perfection and Your Distance from the Screen


Time to put on a "Lab Coat" and grab a "Clipboard" .....

Hope this Helps !

I made a backup of the movie signs at 40% compression. Thought that may be a bit high. I watched the movie on my stand-alone and I was amazed that the quality was really good.

Movie only with that amount of compression will probably be fine, but I have noticed that the extras on some with 40%+ compression did have a lower video quality. In that case I would recommend using DVD Shrink's deep analysis and AEC.

It depends on the DVD I have seen some DVD films heavily packed with an average bitrate of 4.5mbit/s....... even on a dual layer - So you have no choice but to use at least a 50% reduction, you WILL see loss...... No matter what rate you will see loss, don't fool yourself, just a matter of how much....

Also, there are lots of factors - the type of scenes, high motion, difficult scenes, etc....

For a normal 1 to 2 hour film, compression rates are usually over 7mbit/s sometimes more, so you can get ok results with 50% compression, although it is recommended 30%-40% reduction, but again that will depend on the DVD, in some cases you will have no choice but 50% or more reduction.

You could use something like DVD Shrink's adaptive error compensation which will help minimise artifacts, or mroe like fool your eyes

If you would like ,
Post a CopytoDVD log session .
One recent session would be adequate .
We may be able to offer some valuable critique
to improve on your burns ,
based on the info contained within your log .

Open 1Click//PRO
1Click = F7
1ClickPRO = F8
Copy and Paste in Reply

Ok just one thing I'd like to add to a poster's comment above:

You might want to view that DVD on a larger TV You might get away with high compression for your current TV, but as TVs get bigger, you *WILL* see the difference