DVD Backup softwares: complete tests!!

[Will Bailey]

I wanted to find the best way to backup my DVDs so I searched for the best way to do it. Some people prefer to use the "movie only" method (no extras, no fancy menus, etc.) and others prefer the "full disk" method (just like your original, including menus and extra features). I've test both and I actually didn't notice a big quality difference between the first method and the second one...Usually softwares compress extras and menus a lot more than the movie itself so you don't see a huge difference when you watch your movie. Of course it depends on the length of the movie, the number of extras, menus, etc. It's actually up to you.
I decided to use the full disk mode, on every soft I've tried out. I used DVD2One 1.1.3, DVD Shrink 1.0.3 and Instant Copy 7.0.1.114. DVD Shrink is the only one free and it's actually pretty good. I tried to backup two long movies: Vanilla Sky (2h16) and Gladiator (2h29). Most of the movies are not that long but it was a good way to check the compression quality. I've kept all audio tracks and subtitles to do complete backups. I did my tests on a Sony Vaio computer, with a Pentium 4 processor (2.4 GHz) and 512 MB DDR Ram.

- DVD2One: Pretty fast compression: about 45 minutes (for both movies). Really good overall quality (movie and extras): 8 or 9 out of 10. Size of the final VIDEO_TS folder: 4.36 GB. Issues with burning on DVD-R/ RW: once the DVD was burnt, the DVD player couldn't play extras (same thing using PowerDVD on the computer) but the movie played great. I will update that thread if I am luckier with other movies.

- DVD Shrink: REALLY fast compression: less than 30 minutes (for both movies). When you know Gladiator lasts 2h29, that's pretty amazing. Really good overall quality (movie and extras): 8 or 9 out of 10 -- the quality was REALLY close to 9 for Gladiator, mindblasting quality!! Size of the final VIDEO_TS folder: custom.; you can modify a few things and control the "compression level" for every title so it depends on your settings; I came up with a 4.30 GB folder. Weirdly enough, I had the same issues when burning on DVD-R/ RW: once the DVD was burnt, the DVD player couldn't play extras (same thing using PowerDVD on the computer) but the movie played great. I will update that thread if I am luckier with other movies.

- Instant Copy: SLOW compression: about 120 minutes (for both movies). Good overall quality (movie and extras): 8 out of 10 -- just a bit different than with the other soft. Size of the final VIDEO_TS folder: custom.; you can modify the total allocated size so it depends on your settings; IC acts kinda weird when it comes to folder size so I firstly tried the basic setting (4.31 GB) -- it gave me a 3.97 GB folder, then I tried 4.49 GB -- it gave me a 4.03 GB folder, I finally tried 4.7 GB and it came up with a 4.22 GB folder, which was ok to me (even though you can go up to 4.36 GB on a DVD-R, but remember compression times are SLOW when you use IC). No problem at all when playing the burnt DVD-R in my player (Toshiba SD-2815): the quality was great and it was an almost perfect backup of the original.

My conclusion is that there is no ultimate DVD backup soft., it really is up to you: D2O and DVD Shrink are really nice and fast but you might have issues when playing DVD-Rs in your DVD player -- but DVD Shrink is totally free; on the other hand, IC7 is slow as hell but it gives good results and its compatibility with DVD players is a really good thing. Like I said, I have to try more backups to be sure this issue is not just for Vanilla Sky and Gladiator -- I've read similar comments concerning that issue, though, with D2O.
I couldn't try DVDXCopy Xpress but I heard it's pretty good as well. If you don't care about the menus and extras, choose the free solution and go with DVD Shrink -- you won't have that extras issue. This thread is not supposed to be a reference or anything but something people could rely on to make their first backups. In the end, it depends on what you really intend to do and what is more important to you: quality? compression time? menus and extras?

[Will Bailey]

UPDATE #1:

I burnt the Gladiator backup made with DVD Shrink and it played great in my DVD player. There is no extra on that DVD (it's the first DVD from the Collector's edition) so I don't know if the problems encountered with Vanilla Sky are due to the movie itself or to DVD Shrink (and D2O).

I'm going to try a shorter movie with lots of extras (Shrek, region 1), still in full disk mode, and I'll let you guys know the results.

Btw, Vanilla Sky was Region 1 and Gladiator was Region 2.

[spicymeatball]

cool Will, sounds like you've done some pretty decent testing. i agree that dvd2one is fairly killer, although i am planning on trying dvd shrink, and with your recommendation will probably try my next movie that way.

here's my method https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157110 if you're interested. not too different from yours, but i'm anal, so i have EVERY step written out, haha.

good work...and don't forget to make them region free!

[xistan]

I did a similar test myself on Behind Enemy Lines where I forced the programs to do a little bit of extra coding by keeping the DTS audio track. I used IfoEdit to strip any extra material not wanted and used DVD2One, DVDShrink, InstantCopy, TMPG and CCE (authoring in IfoEdit).

I did a movie only backup, since I was not interested in any extra material what so ever.

So here are my opinion of the quality:

* DVD2One (version 1.1.3)
Fairly easy to use, but very inflexible. You don't have many options regarding stripping extra material or select different levels of compression on different titles. But the speed and the quality is great. Especially the speed. Using the same rating system as previous poster I would give DVD2One a Quality rating of 8 and a speed rating of 10. There is plenty of artifacts in the image, but most of them are quite hard to spot. The image is quite sharp though, so many artifacts are almost exaggerated.

* DVDShrink (version 1.0.3)
This is one heck of a layout. I don't think you could get a better DVD-backup tool, if it only had a decent transcoding engine. It does its job acceptable the results is comparable to DVD2One, the same character of the image a little blocky, flat color gradients etc. But it has some neat features that DVD2One is lacking which is the option to select compression rate for each title. This is good, however I didn't use it in my comparison. If you are doing a movie only backup, the default levels of compression might actually result in either a too large file or a too small file. You simply cannot get a perfect fit. I got a 4.23 GB disc. Rating: Quality 7-8 (8 because it produces fair quality even though it doesn't fill the disc). Speed 10. Not very different from DVD2One.

* InstantCopy (7.0.1.119)
I like this tool. It produces great image quality and you can select individual compression ratios for different titles. However it is extremely slow and it has some serious issues with size prediction. The image quality is much smoother than DVD2One and DVDShrink. No visible artifacts even though I got a 3.96GB disc using a file size prediction of 4.5GB (didn't have enough patience to do a second try). Rating: Quality 9, Speed 3. It is great to look at, but it takes too f***ing long.

* TMPG 2.511 (encoding quality and speed only)
This is the hacker dream. You can change almost every setting there is to change. However suffers from difficulties in size prediction using CQ. And it is slow. You first need to process the vobs in some way, then encode, remux and reauthor. I don't think I have enough spare time for this. Quality 10, Speed 2.

* CCE 2.67 beta trial (encoding quality and speed only)
Well another dream (if you can afford it). You need to go through the very same process as for TMPG. But if you master the CCE monster you will get very good results, as long as you don't lower the bitrate too much. Then TMPG is a better choice. It encodes about 4 times faster than TMPG. I always use 1-pass VBR using a video-information file (in reality a 2-pass). Well Quality 10, Speed 5.

If you have the patience and time to spare: Use Instant Copy. Couldnt tell any difference between IC7 and CCE.

If you like it easy, fast and flexible use DVDShrink. If you are doing movie only backups use DVD2One. It still rules.

/C

[Will Bailey]

UPDATE #2:

I burnt the Shrek backup. I made it using DVD Shrink. It came up with a great quality -- I always had a mindblasting video quality using DVDSh. The VIDEO_TS folder was 4.33 GB.
I had the same problem accessing extras: the DVD just stopped when I tried to access extras. I had the same problem with Vanilla Sky. I will try to backup other movies but I'm afraid the best way to make a perfect backup compatible with stand alone DVD players is to use Instant Copy.
I will let you know with other movies I'm going to backup with DVDSh.

Too bad IC7 is slow as hell...

Thanx for the comments guys!! Much appreciated!

[MackemX]

people's opinions regarding quality are greatly affected by the image that is produced by the playback system and that is the main reason you get so many disagreements rregarding quality

one of my opinions posted HERE

[stimpleton]

look at it this way, dvd converted to SVCD = 4.7+gb reduced to 2 SVCD disk = 1.6gb, DVD 6+gb reduced to DVD4.3 GB the comression ratio speaks for itself, they are always going to look good. i have some some awsum quality SVCD's which i would be happy putting 2 or 3 onto 1 dvd

Its only my opinion and i am entitled to it

[Will Bailey]

UPDATE #3:

I tried to backup What Lies Beneath (region 2), still in full disk mode. I used IC7 this time, and weirdly enough, I got some issues again when I burnt the DVD.

I do my tests on a Sony DVD-RW. IC7 made a perfect backup with Vanilla Sky and Gladiator but WLB is messed up: the menu intro played fine then I got a black screen with an orange dot and that's all. I really wonder what's up with those menus and extras issues. I guess "perfect backups" are not 100% sure, as for now. That's why I will suggest that you always try your backups first on a DVD-RW.
Anyway, I set the DVD size to 4.7 GB in IC7, and it came up with a 4.27 GB VIDE_TS folder. The 4.7 GB setting always worked for me. I will let you know when I try to backup other movies.

I'm going to try WLB with DVDSh and another movie with IC7. I will keep you posted.

[FulciLives]

Hello

I read on another forum that a user was having problems when the DVD size specified in DVD2ONE was at the max size of 4472MB. His problem was some DVD players couldn't read the DVD-R back-up, especially towards the end of the movie, where the info (data) is near the very outside edge of the DVD-R disc. This person's solution was to set the size to 4350MB which solved all his playback problems. I read this post just prior to getting DVD2ONE so I have used that setting (4350MB) for all my back-ups (all of which have been FULL-DISK mode) and I've never had a problem playing back my DVD-R discs ... including accessing extra materials through the menus. So you guys might want to try that setting.

Also, I followed the Doom9 guide on DVD2ONE which tells you to use ImgTool (the "classic" version which you can download from doom9) to make an image file from the VIDEO_TS foler of files made by DVD2ONE. Then you can burn the image using DVD Decrypter. Supposedly this makes a DVD-R disc that is more compatable for stand alone DVD players.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

RELATED LINKS
Doom9 website

[nerdboy69]

I don't believe your problems with extras is necessarily anything to do with the software you are using to do your DVD9 to DVD5 compression. I think you have a problem with your media or burner.

This is a quote by txpharoah on another thread.

... are like any other cheap DVD-R. They have balancing issues. So when burned, they may wiggle a bit too much and cause data to write outside the range where it needs to be.
Hence files will not open. Video breaks up. usually ONLY after th 3.9 gigabyte area. It's the narrow 4.0 - 4.38 area where all hell breaks loose.

To verify this, use PowerDVD to try the converted DVD image from the hard drive (ie. before you burn).


As for quality comparison, I think the DVD Shrink quality is subject to the level of compression it needs (ie level 1 to 8 ). What level did it have to use on the main feature when you did Gladiator?

I found that when I used DVD Shrink on a source DVD that was already reasonably compressed with source footage that is not Hollywood #10's million+ budget (eg. BBC Documentary which has 3hr+ on one DVD), the results were noticably inferior (level 5) when compared to DVD2One. Instant copy of course was good, but I simply cannot wait for it to do it's job. DVD Shrink is an excellent product, but I think it shows weakness at higher compression, especially on lower quality source.

[LanEvo7]

I've tried the most popular DVD shrinking tools, dvd shrink, dvd2one, and ic7.

I feel that DVD Shrink wins for the best all around solution. This program has a feature that neither of the other two have, you don't have to decrypt the movie with smartripper or dvd decryptor before you use the program. This saves me tons of time since my dvd rips at 2x only. The conversion time is fairly fast, dvd2one seems to be a bit faster, but IC7 is slower. But you can customize it to select what you want and what you don't, dvd2one doesn't let you do this.

[Will Bailey]

UPDATE #4:

I tried WLB with DVDSh, the menu played fine but once again I couldn't access extras...
I then tried Pearl Jam's DVD (Touring Band 2000) with DVDSh, it worked great, good quality and I could access extras!

I did two more tests: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, with DVDSh: perfect backup, no problem accessing extras, good quality (not excellent because I kept both full screen and widescreen versions, so picture is more compressed than usual).
Road to Perdition, using DVDSh, once again: perfect backup, no problem with extras and very good quality!!

I now stick to DVDSh because it's a saving time process: I don't have to first rip the DVD and in less than 30 minutes I can get a very good quality backup (on my DVD player, and in my opinion).

Thanx for your comments guys.
Concerning my extras problem, I don't think it comes from my media (Sony DVD-RW and Verbatim DVD-R, not exactly cheap DVDs) or the size: I always get a 4.36 GB VIDEO_TS folder (or very close to that) and sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. When the DVD-RW screws up with extras in my DVD player, the same files (from the HDD) played in PowerDVD screw up with extras as well.
nerdboy69, I'm sorry I don't remember the compression level I used when I tried Gladiator...I did so many tests I should keep notes of stuff like that somewhere...lol If I remember correctly it was something like level 6. D2O gives really good results as well (maybe superior to DVDSh) but I really like the fact that DVDSh does that ripping part itself, so I can do my backup "on the fly".

The fact that you can customize the streams on DVDSh is really interesting as well!! I will do more tests but I think right now DVDSh is my preferred solution. D2O is pretty close though...but IC7 is really too slow, even with a P4 2.4 GHz and 512 MB DDR Ram. I don't know how it goes on a faster machine though.
In the end, it depends on the quality you get on your DVD player and if it's good enough for you or not...

[SnoopX]

Firstly thank you for a very informative post on your results. However I am confused why you would be having issues playing the extras on the DVD's you have backed up. I have a collection of around 120 Original DVD's, all which I have backed up onto DVDR.

Like yourself I tried the 3 apps (DVD2One - DVD Shrink - IC7) and after my initial tests on all of them, I stuck with DVD2One. I backed up all the movies in Full Disk Mode. After reading your post, I went and tried 20 randomly selected backups and found that all of them, including Gladiator, played all the extra's. I even played through the last chapters to see if the movies finished OK, which they did.

My setup is an A05 using the DVD Decryptor --> DVD2One - RecordNOW DX...

[MackemX]

same as SnoopX really

I've used and abused (Ifoedit stripped) all my DVD backups using a mixture of most backup tools in the process, and only get the occasional issues when I make the odd self inflicted Boo-Boo which are still fixable

[Renegade6]

I like Dvd2one. Very fast. This is the only one I used, I see no reason to
change to something else thats works for what I want it to do. I haven't tried dvdshrink though alot of people praise it. I like to back up dvd's without the fancy menus and subtitles and I only use movie mode. I would rate dvd2one 9-10. Speed=8 Easy to use=9. Can't burn directly back to dvd is the only bad part about dvd2one but the other features out weight the con.

[letgoofmyears]

I totally agree with file size possibly being your problem. I (still)have a bunch of Princo 1x and 4x media, that for some reason, have trouble playing the end of any movie, regardless of length. This, of course, is with the 4.36g file size reported by D2O. After manually setting the file size to 4350m, this problem has gone away. Don't get me wrong, Princo media is still garbage, but at least now I can finish my movies.