What's the best program for backing up episode DVD's?

[Bob W]

Should I use DVD2one, DVDshrink, or DVD95 and what version? Also any tricks or tips for backing up episode discs?

[jdizzy40]

Bob W i find it hard you asking for help having seen all your knowledgable help on this forum. Hope this is the same Bob W. But what I found to be best having backed-up my Band of Brothers and South Park disks is DVD Shrink. It allowed me to chop and cut out the long intros, throw away the uneeded languages and then choose a compression level to get all the episodes on one disk. I then burned the resulting ISO file using NERO. This is my experience.

[jar5000]

You should use neither one of those.

Why compress and hurt the quality of the picture when you can just re-author 2 DVDs with your episodes on them? I useDVD Decrypter to rip the whole DVD9 to my hardrive then I use TMPGenc DVD Author to re-author 2 DVD-Rs by choosing the seperate episodes/VTS files. If the DVD9 has say 8 episodes on it, I'll create 2 DVD-Rs with 1-4 on one, and 5-8 on the other. No compression needed.

[Bob W]

Bob W i find it hard you asking for help having seen all your knowledgable help on this forum. Hope this is the same Bob W. But what I found to be best having backed-up my Band of Brothers and South Park disks is DVD Shrink. It allowed me to chop and cut out the long intros, throw away the uneeded languages and then choose a compression level to get all the episodes on one disk. I then burned the resulting ISO file using NERO. This is my experience.

Hey thanks but I for sure don't know it all. Actually I have never backed up episode discs and I remember seeing a lot of people having problems doing just that so I figured I had best ask before I even tried. Normally I don't care for TV series but while at my local market today I picked up two DVD's of the Andy Griffith Show for only $6 each and I wanted to back them up.

[jdizzy40]

I need to go get Andy too. Yes I had trouble trying to back up episode disk (Dual Layered) with DVd Decrypter and DVD X Copy Express. Because both search and find the largest movie file. DVd Shrink allows you to select the Movie only file which lists all episodes and then you can edit cut and save and recompress. However after saying all this, you might find that those disks are single layered. Load it up in DVd Decrypter and go to ISO read and see. If it is, hit read and then use DVD Decrypter ISO Write to burn your media.

[Faustus]

A friend of my does exactly what was stated. DVD Decrypter to pull the video and audio out then reauthors with a self made menu in the DVd authoring software of your choice.

I've stayed away from episode disc because of the problems involved. I'd love to see a good solution come out someday....

[mrbass]

You should use neither one of those.

Why compress and hurt the quality of the picture when you can just re-author 2 DVDs with your episodes on them? I useDVD Decrypter to rip the whole DVD9 to my hardrive then I use TMPGenc DVD Author to re-author 2 DVD-Rs by choosing the seperate episodes/VTS files. If the DVD9 has say 8 episodes on it, I'll create 2 DVD-Rs with 1-4 on one, and 5-8 on the other. No compression needed.

Explain to me how this is any different than using DVDShrink in Re-Author mode and adding a couple episodes per dvd with no compression? I don't think it is.

[jar5000]

explanation......

I like TMPGenc DVD Authors simple menu creation option. Its nice to not have to guess what episodes are on what disk. It takes an extra 30 seconds to create the menu and the software is just as easy to use as DVDShrink if not easier.

[mrbass]

menu creation...very good point. Yes that would be an advantage. Thanks for the tip jar5000.

edit: except if you do use TMPGEnc you'll lose subtitles so I guess it boils down to if you want a menu or subtitles as to which program to use.

[DeadLamb]

not saying this is the best way of course but it sure is a lazy/ez to do it.. heh

I was just at a friends house and he backed up a episode DVD by taking DVDshrink and the main disk with 2 eps on it with around 8+ gigs of data.. He makes one dvd-r with part one with no compression and hits part two with the "still pictures" option. Then takes another dvd-r and of course makes that disk with part one the slide show and part two no compression.

So in the end he has a back up of the orginal disk on two dvd's now. Menus and everything works and looks like the original (well sep the slide slow part).. Again, sort of cheesy but really ez.. I just threw a DVD from the Angel box set into the drive to see if it this would work with it.. 4 eps on the disk.. 8+ gigs of data and knocked eps 3-4 into still pictures took the disk down to with in a few megs of the "target" size..

[Faustus]

The DVDshrink still pictures thing works fine. Also you can use the new Clone DVD with full copy mode then just turn off the PGCs that have the episodes in them. (assuming its a episode disc with the episodes in pgc, but most are). The output is basicly like DVDshriks but after a second or two the video blanks almost completely out. I've not tested yet to see which uses less space, that would likely be the best to use.

When your down you can use menuedit (in the tools sectionhareware) to disable the buttons that goto the episodes not on the disc. It works pretty great actually.

[Don2050]

How come no one likes to use IFOEdit anymore ..... ? No re-encoding no re-authoring....

[lordsmurf]

DVD2one does the trick for me usually.

However, every now and then, quality is hit too hard. In that case, the DVDshrink (using alternating still pictures) method works nicely.

Avoid DVDxCopy. The discs are loaded with their junk and don't always work.

BobW: You're spending $2-$5 in blanks for backing up a $6 set?
Just buy two and they'll even come with a backup of the pretty case.

[vance43211]

don2050 quote

How come no one likes to use IFOEdit anymore ..... ? No re-encoding no re-authoring....

i second that notion

i would never compress episode discs because they are already compressed

way before dvd shrink came out

i would do episode discs one of two ways

rip the main vob files

split the vobs into 2 folder (make sure u rename them correctly)

then i would create ifo and get vts sector with ifoedit to both folders

then i burn 2 dvds


or


i would rip the disc in backup mode (everything)

open ifoedit , open the main video_ts ifo

then click on the split to 2 disc option

then i burn it


if u find the quality acceptable

i would use dvd shrink 2.3

just beware going past the 6.5 gig limit with dvd shrink

as the quality goes to unacceptable

althrough u can shrink it at a level 3 or 4 and when the files are done, u can shrink it again at a level 3 or 4, as the quality will be better than just doing a level 8 at one time

[wulf109]

My preference is DVD95COPY 1.4. It corrects the ifo file to reflect the streams I actually use. The Star Trek disks for example have 448bit and 192bit audio streams. By selecting only the 192bit stream you can put 300-350MB's more into the video stream. DVD95COPY 1.4 will write corrected ifo files so that the 192bit streams autoplays in my DVD players.