BIG DVD9 to DVD5 (50% compression)...what app(s) do YOU use?

[shaady]

So you pop in your DVD and open DVD Shrink, re-author to movie-only...and realize that your compresion is going to be around 50% or worse.

Assuming you have DVD Shrink, DVD2ONE and DVD2DVD-R (w/CCE) at your disposal (or any other app)...what do you use?

I haven't had much luck with DVD2DVD-R (can't find an up-to-date guide, the one I used created a weird looking backup). I've tried a few tests between DVD Shrink and DVD2ONE with DVD movies around 50-55%. I cannot tell the difference. However, I didn't have the right type of movie to test with. I should probably try my test on a 2.5hr+ action movie...but I don't have one.

So...what have you found to be the best method for a big DVD9 to DVD5, keeping the most quality?

[JohnnyCNote]

Bearing in mind that "individual results may vary", I've had no problems with highly compressed DVD files. I know that it goes against conventional wisdom, especially having worked in both broadcasting and video production, but the differences between any movied I've compressed and the original have been minute. Everyone I've shown them too agrees. The bottom line is if you're satisfied with it, who cares if someone else thinks it's not acceptable. You're the one who's watching it.

That being said. I've had very good and consistent results using DVDDecrypter and Nero Recode. So far I haven't had a a single title yield a poor result....

[dar dorn]

Pearl Harbor, Lord of the Rings-Two Towers, Gladiator are some of the bigger double layer ones that I have done, there are quite a few others. I currently use Nero to burn (6.3.02) DVD Decrypter, and DVD Shrink (3.0 Beta 5 then 3.1.4, both have worked fine)

Despite what others have posted, I still use DVD Decrypter first to rip the disk to hard drive, then open DVD Shrink (which is configured to use Nero to burn the DVD) uncheck the things I don't want such as foreign language audio files and I only keep the english AC-3 audio. Next click on backup and select deep analysis. Take your original disk out and put in a new DVDR or DVDRW, and turn it loose. (I only have one multifunction drive, so I have to use the same drive for all)

Turn on a TV show, read a book, or what ever, in a little while you should have a freshly burned new copy of your movie ready to watch.

Personally what I like to do is this proceedure on a brand new DVD that I have just purchased, then I watch the copy and get the benefit of making sure that it is a good copy at the same time that I enjoy the movie.

Dar

[FulciLives]

MATRIX RELOADED and THE HULK have the same running time ... something like 2 hours and 18 minutes if I recall.

I did a back-up of each using DVD2ONE and did just the main movie and one audio track (the 5.1 Dolby Digital track as neither had DTS)

MATRIX reloaded looked like shit.

THE HULK looked damn good.

I ended up redoing MATRIX RELOADED using CINEMA CRAFT ENCODER and did a 3-pass VBR with an AVG of (if memory serves me well) something like 3800kbps ... I also cut off the black from the top and bottom and replaced it with "fresh" black with an AviSynth script.

Quality was still (at times) noticeably less than the original but was more than acceptable overall and MUCH better than the DVD2ONE backup.

So in short if the transcoder you are using doesn't "cut it" then you have to do it "manually" with an MEPG-2 encoder such as CCE or TMPGEnc

Otherwise you can use something like DVDFab to retain 100% quality but split the movie out over 2 DVD-R blanks.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ghoster]

i also used dvd2one to back up the hulk and matrix 2 and they both looked just like the orginal.....

[Zetto]

I tried DVD X Copy express, and could see the difference. The compression ratio was about 50%, and so far movies look just fine.

[shaady]

MATRIX RELOADED and THE HULK have the same running time ... something like 2 hours and 18 minutes if I recall.

I did a back-up of each using DVD2ONE and did just the main movie and one audio track (the 5.1 Dolby Digital track as neither had DTS)

MATRIX reloaded looked like shit.

THE HULK looked damn good.

i also used dvd2one to back up the hulk and matrix 2 and they both looked just like the orginal.....

Could these two contrasting opinions on DVD2ONE of Matrix Reloaded be attributed to the display that's used? I know if you have a large RPTV (50"+), or sit too close...you can see a lot of quality loss. A tube TV might look great. I have a 65" big screen rear-projection.

FulciLives/Ghoster, what are the specs of the TV you're using to watch your DVDs?

[Doggiedaddy]

The big three, with a tweak or two.
IC 7/8 as second choice.

Big Three!

[FulciLives]

MATRIX RELOADED and THE HULK have the same running time ... something like 2 hours and 18 minutes if I recall.

I did a back-up of each using DVD2ONE and did just the main movie and one audio track (the 5.1 Dolby Digital track as neither had DTS)

MATRIX reloaded looked like shit.

THE HULK looked damn good.

i also used dvd2one to back up the hulk and matrix 2 and they both looked just like the orginal.....

Could these two contrasting opinions on DVD2ONE of Matrix Reloaded be attributed to the display that's used? I know if you have a large RPTV (50"+), or sit too close...you can see a lot of quality loss. A tube TV might look great. I have a 65" big screen rear-projection.

FulciLives/Ghoster, what are the specs of the TV you're using to watch your DVDs?

Well I have a cheap 13" TV in the room that the computer is in and it is my "test" TV so yes I was able to tell the difference between DVD2ONE and CCE on MATRIX RELEADED using that small TV.

My "big" TV at the moment (groan) is only a 20" TV and THE HULK using DVD2ONE looked great on that 20" TV.

As for MATRIX RELOADED I only ever watched my CCE back-up on the 20" TV having thrown out the DVD2ONE back-up after seeing how bad it was on the 13" TV

The CCE back-up of MATRIX RELOADED looked good on the 20" TV but there were moments (mostly when there was something RED on the screen) when you could see the lack of bitrate. One moment I found that made the difference easy to see was the RED DOOR that Trinity opens when they come for NEO to say it is TIME.

You can always count on the color RED giving video a hard time

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[shelbyGT]

i backed up matrix reloaded using shrink and only kept the main movie... plays on my 32" flat screen and I can't tell a difference. Don't know why yours isn't lookin so great.

[JohnnyCNote]

i backed up matrix reloaded using shrink and only kept the main movie... plays on my 32" flat screen and I can't tell a difference. Don't know why yours isn't lookin so great.

It just proves my point: "individual results may vary"...

[gameguru1360]

I've used Instantcopy 8 with Anydvd, Dvd xcopy platinum when that fails, Intervideo dvd copy when xcopy fails and now trying dvdshrink. IC8 works great with excellent quality if you just do the main movie. I've had success backing up the entire movie with menus and special features, but have been getting errors when trying to copy Badboys 2, Underworld, and Swat, mainly because they're close to 9gb.

[FulciLives]

i backed up matrix reloaded using shrink and only kept the main movie... plays on my 32" flat screen and I can't tell a difference. Don't know why yours isn't lookin so great.

Because I have been working with video as a hobby for a long time and I have a good eye for it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[DeadLamb]

depends on the film...

if the movie or tv show is something I'm not that hyped about I'll just crush the heck out of it with DVD shrink and be done with it..

Movies that I really like, I'm willing to break out DVD fab and span it over two disks.. I mean in most of those cases those films have extras too. So I could have the movie only on one dvd-r, no extras, one audio track and super crushed.. or I can span it over two, keep every audio track and all the bonus stuff but deal with keeping track of two disks.

Pros and cons to both ways, just depends on what the film is and what my needs for the back up are..

[shelbyGT]

have a good eye for it... well, i guess. But i seriously can't see a difference, and neither can my 4 roommates... so i'm gonna look into getting glasses

[mike_rach]

I haven't tried DVD2one, but compared to DVDShrink and DVDClone, InstantCopy definately gives the best results. But depends on what you are playing on. I have a 47" HD projection TV, and with progressive scan it's quite easy to spot even small compression with DVDshrink. I was absolutley amazed when my fiance said an episode I used DVD shrink didn't look as good - I didn't say anything about it. I used only 10% compression, I could see it but I just didn't say anything.

Bottom line if quality is a concern and a big screen is on your horizon I'd say IC8 is worth getting.

[shelbyGT]

it's all in the eye of the beholder. my tv is hd and progressive scan and all that crap, and i can't see any difference at 25% compression.... so yeah, whatever you found that you like, use it i guess.

[mike_rach]

Is it a large screen, or like a 27" or 32" TV?
Not trying to bust on anyone's equipment, just bigger the screen, easier it is to see the artifacts.

[shelbyGT]

the hd is 32", the other one (which i dont really use because it's all the way downstairs, geeze) is a forty one or something? i dont know, its my roommates.