[KustMichaels]

Originally Posted by u2rulesmyworld

Why does Traders Den ALLOW DVD sharing?

Which in the video world is the eqivelent(sp) of what MP3 is to Audio

Not really. DVD Mpeg2 is the industry standard for commercial distribution, which is something that can't be said about MP3s.
If you are looking for a video equivalent for MP3s I say it's a well-encoded 512x288 H264.

Besides, any digital audio is compressed. You are transfering a infinitely complex analog audio wave into a finite digital value space. I hate to break this to you, but even the source video is compressed before the DVD. In my case I am compressing a HD Mpeg2 based TS into Mpeg2 based VOBs. What do you expect us to film with? Movie cameras? REDs? Vipers? 35mm film?

Originally Posted by u2rulesmyworld

I'm not saying stop sharing DVD's, it is a widely used format

Of course you say that, what's the point of this thread then?

Originally Posted by u2rulesmyworld

But the reality is there are much better alternatives for high quality storage of Video data in smaller file sizes(H264 and Divx)

It is indeed true that H264 will reproduce the quality of a DVD at a smaller file size. However, in reality H264 encoding is a science on itself while Mpeg2 encoding has become a one-click adventure over the years.

Why are you implying DVDs look bad? Did you watch a commercial DVD recently? Encoded in the right way Mpeg2 compression is not too bad. The largest influence on your encoding result is the source material, nothing else.
Above 6 MBit/s there is hardly any encoding app that won't produce good looking results.

For some people upscaling is an issue. Scaling a SD DVD up to a large screen vs. scaling a H264 up is not really an issue, DVD upscalers are extremely good these days.

Originally Posted by u2rulesmyworld

There are Divx comptible DVD players that will play these files to your TV and even programs to create DVD style menu's and chapters, and it will look better than ANY mpeg2 DVD would

The installed base of DivX ready players can not be seriously compared to the base of DVD players. And by the way, DivX has never been more dead, given that DivX is moving to H264 in the future and given that stage6 is down.
Menu and chapter authoring is a friggin joke in DivX, I couldn't even name a single app that does that. Besides, DVD authoring apps for free are everywhere, why should I look for something else?

What do you think I should do?
My original recordings are ~30 GB in size. I produce a SD DVD and can be sure everyone is able to play it. I'd love to produce a HD H264 and handle data sets to people. But truth is people are so f****n dump they won't be able to handle them. What player do I need? Why does my stand alone player not take them? Can I play them on my PlayStation 3? How do I rip a mobile version for my iPod from this one?

I'd love to produce a BR D but Apple won't give us the tools.

And again, I don't know a workflow on the Mac. What am I supposed to do, convert my HD stuff to 80 GB files, buy an expensive encoding app and then still have no menu and chapters + the problems described above?