Undocumented Redistribution settings

First post here, so please be gentle. I have looked at the other threads about bitrate redistribution in here but they get very technical very quickly and they lost me. I'm using DVD-RB PRO v1.26.1 and notice there are a couple of undocumented options under the MODE menu pertaining to bitrate redistribution. I guess my question is a pretty simple one really. Is this a good thing? Will it improve the quality of my 9->5 conversions? Also, is this a different thing to the documented but hidden setting "redist_all=1"? As it stands right now, I'm doing an encode with Half-D1 for extras checked, Enable bitrate redistribution checked & I have the hidden setting "redist_all=1" in the INI file as well. I also have the following two lines in the INI as well (just as a test to see if my DVD player has a shit with either of them or not) TargetSectors=2267500 CCEAQM=1 I'm using CCE SP2 v1.00.00.15 as the encoder. Thanks

Remove the "redist_all=1" or set it to "redist_all=0" in the INI. If you are setting extras to Half-D1, it's obvious you are trying to apply less bitrate to them. The "redist_all" function sets a common quality level across the entire DVD -- meaning you will be probably applying more bits the to extras. The real purpose of "redist_all" is for series discs (where you have multiple VTSs that may contain feature content). If you turn it off the redistribution will occur only within the feature VTS.

Good point. If DVD-RB sizes perfectly to the target specified in your INI, you will end up with an image that is 4.39GB -- too big to fit on a DVD-5.

Okay thanks, I get it. The menu option is just for the largest VTS and the hidden option is for the special case of episodic discs where you want it applied to all VTS. Is this bitrate redistribution a good thing in general? Obviously I don't understand the full-on technicalities of what it's doing (and neither do I particularly want to I suspect because I think it will get very technical in a real hurry), but I'd like to know if it's generally a good thing to have happening from a picture quality perspective? It sounds to me like it's a good thing, which is why I checked it, but if it's a good thing then why isn't it enabled by default? Are there some good reasons why you wouldn't want bitrate redistribution performed? I guess I'm basically asking for the pros and cons. Anybody?

On the next release I've added an option that allows you to set/reset "redist_all" from the menu also -- I found myself changing it a lot...

does this new method apply to multiple pass encodings for CCE?

Yes. Take a look under the FAQ sticky in this forum and you'll find a little background.

@canuckerfan It does the redistribution pass first and then continues as usual with the number of passes you selected. 2 passes are normally sufficient. I only do 3 passes if I set CCEAQM=1, however I wouldn't even recommend to set CCEAQM=1 with redistribution because it jeopardizes the Q / matrix principle in a way.

hmm... quite interesting. I'm going to dig through the big thread and see if I can use this method for manual CCE encodes since I don't use RB too often. thanks. and I am correct that this method is adapted for CBR sources, but won't harm VBR sources?

^ u cant do it manually mate. even if u can, it wont work properly AFAIK.