Pinnacle Systems -Instant DVD --Encoder--

[pcexpress-guy]

I have been using this software for awile. It takes awhile to get the encoding done when compared to say ShrinkDVD, but it works better then ShrinkDVD for my videos.

My question is can anyone recommend another encoder software which does better then shrinkDVD, and better then Instant DVD? I have tried ShrinkDVD, InstantDVD, & Intervideo's DVD copy.

What is the ultimate encoder? (Or is there such a thing?)

THANKS!!

[cellmaniac]

I think if you want to deal with the hassle is to do the following:

Rip the movie to individual audio .ac3 and m2v files. Make sure not to separate the files if they exceed 1gig. Using TMPEGenc to re-encode the m2v file to a lower bitrate. Once that is completed, use DVD Maestro 2.9 (only version that works on Windows2K or XP) to re-author the video and write them into a "VIDEO_TS" folder.

Using Nero or Primo DVD burn. I would add an "AUDIO_TS" folder for compatibility on the standalone dVd player.

This whole process could take many hours depending how fast your processor is....but the output is very good quality but should only be done if the movie is much larger than 4.36 gigs. If you can strip out much of the extras, foreign languages, etc. I think Instant copy or dvd shrink 3.0 are pretty good.

[dicktheprick]

use clonedvd and anydvd. easiest and good quality, and fast

[pcexpress-guy]

Question: On dvd's I always wanted to know if the audio was a compressed stream or if it was something else.

So is AC3 a "compressed" audio format? Is it loseless or more like MP3 in that some quality is lost?

what is an m2v file format? is that standard MPEG-2. I guess so.

Thanks for help!

[MackemX]

use clonedvd and anydvd. easiest and good quality, and fast

doesn't DVDShrink do that for free instead of $90?

you are splitting hairs when comparing the 2 in most fields as it will be down to user preference. The only thing that isn't closely decided by user preference will be that $0 compared to $90 is a major difference for most I guess

[pcexpress-guy]

Does anyone know if AC3 is comprese audio stream? Also, I can't speak about clonedvd, but there are differences in quality between instant dvd and shrinkdvd. (i have tried highest settings on both, and instant dvd comes out better with little digital artifacts.)

I use shrinkdvd to edit segments when needed, and then send it to a folder (uncompressed) then have instant dvd compress it to a image file, then burn the image. It works great and is superior to shrinkdvd compression scheme. (no knock on shrinkdvd, I think this is great software and does compression ok. Just not as good as the other title)

By the way: anyone know if AC3 is compressed audio stream?