Im a bit of newb with all of this. I tried searching for the answer but am unable to wade through all the posts

I have the new Poseidon widescreen. It is a DVD 9. I am burning it to DVD 5. The first copy I made, I split the titles to keep the quality at 100% and to keep all the previews/behind scenes, etc. i don"t like the repurcusions of splitting it into 2 cd's, so on the next attempt I dumped all the subtitles, optional languages, previews, behind scenes, and even the menu and checked the box 'No menu's, play titles continually'. This brought my quality to 96%. If I add the behind the scenes and menu back, it lowers it to about 79%.

My question is, where in the compression % is a good area to be in? 90%+? 70%+? What am I losing? Audio clarity? Visual? Both?

I watched the 96% and tried to compare it to the actual movie and couldn't tell any difference. Would the 79-80% range be horrid to watch? Does it vary from movie to movie?

Thanks in advance for any help on these foolish questions

I find 80% or above with any good encoder, such as DVDFab, CloneDVD or DVD Shrink, seems to produce very good results. Depending on the app, even 70% still can look really good on a normal TV, also depending on what options you choose - like single or double pass, deep analysis, adaptive error compensation, interpolation, etc.

Sometimes you can lower the audio quality (by converting to MPEG or something) and that way have room for a higher level of video quality.

I guess side-by-side comparisons, or one right after the other comparisons on your own television with your own video player may be the best.

I know with my Svideo connection, I can spot things quicker than if I use a regular AV connection.

Anyways, my rule of thumb is about 80% or higher if I can.