The next step

[MHarner]

Just yesterday I finally set out on a mission to figure out how to copy DVD's. I followed the backup guide and can now successfully use DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink and Copy to DVD (the 20 day trial version). Now that I can do the simple task of copying a DVD....what are the next steps / tweaks / programs I should begin learning to IMPROVE upon what I just learned. I know the guides are there, but I'm not sure what guides I should be reading (there are 664 of them). It seems the jump between copying a DVD and really knowing how to do it right is quite a gap and I just need some guidance on what to start on now.

If ya can't help me with that....how about two short easy questions about DVD Shrink...On the quality tab you have the options "perform deep analysis before backup to improve quality" and "compress video with high quality adaptive error compensation" (with options of Smooth and Sharp). I saw nothing about these options in the backup guide and am wondering if the extra time needed for these are worth any gains in quality and if so, do most prefer Sharp or Smooth ?

Any guidance is appreciated !

Edit: Also, software recommendations are also always welcome.

[Krispy Kritter]

You pretty much have the basics. There really isn't a "next step", except to use current tools. DVD Decrypter is out of date, try a program such as DVDFab Decrypter. DVD Shrink is fine for most projects, but there is better software such as DVD2One.

[MysticE]

This totally free method works great. DVDDecrypter still has it's uses.

http://www.ripit4me.org/guide.html

[tinker]

It all depends what you want to do next.
If you want to get rid off some parts of DVD you do not like or do not care about, than I would recommend to get DVD Remake to clean DVD and DVD Rebuilder to compress DVD to DVD5 instead of DVD Shrink. Both cost money, but are little better than Shrink specially if compression is more than 85% of original file.
In Remake you will still get original menus, when reauthoring in Shrink all menus are lost.

[VegasBud]

MHarner,

You might as well start using ImgBurn to burn your projects. It's free and is arguably the best burning software available for dvd-video, whether free or not.

It shouldn't be long before you find a disk that DvdDecrypter can't deal with (on its' own), so another improvement would be what MysticE suggested...use RipIt4Me for ripping. It can handle the newer copy protections, and produces a very clean rip. It's free too.

The more stuff (you don't want) that you remove, the less DvdShrink has to shrink the material, which gives you a better quality end result. VobBlanker is free, and a fantastic tool for that job.

In answer to your DvdShrink questions, using "deep analysis" and "adaptive error compensation" is a good idea. Since viewing quality is subjective in nature, try both the "Smooth" and the "Sharp" settings and see which you personally like best. If you use a dvd-rw disk, you can erase it and re-use it for your testing, and not have to waste any disks.

I see this was your first post here, so welcome to VideoHelp.

[kush]

DVDDecrypter definitely has it's uses even now. For some reason my burner (NEC 3550a) and IMGBurn don't get along. I use IMGBurn to build images, DVDDecrypter to do the actual burn.

[MHarner]

Thanks for all the feedback guys...

I'm trying ImgBurn and when I try to make a copy, formatting the disk takes forever (I had the same problem with DVDDecrypter, thus I used CopytoDVD) ...anything to make that quicker? For some reason I thought unchecking the verify option did that, but maybe I am remembering wrong.

[guns1inger]

If you are using RWs just do a quick format.