Anyone try NERO RECODE?

[Slumpey]

I have Nero v6.0 and came across Nero Recode. This product looks promising and is being compared to DVDShrink. Of course DVDShrink is FREE, so that is always a plus.

Like DVDShrink, Nero Recode is highly customizable. You can adjust video quality for menus, extras, and the movie. You can also add or subtract what audio files you want. Unlike DVDShrink, Nero Recode will allow you to disable menus (I think), extras, and the movie if you don't want them on your DVD-R. This is great if you want a higher quality movie. Also, if you disable a title, Nero Recode will insert a "title has been removed" image letting you know during playback that the title has been removed. This will make it easier for your standalone DVD player to recognize the DVD and won't crash at those removed points. The "title has been removed" image can be changed to whatever image you want.

Here is a Nero Recode guide created by Doom9.net:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/recode-main.htm

Here is more information I found on Nero Recode:

http://nero.com/us/631943753993336.html (v0.97 included in Nero v6.0)
http://nero.com/us/632028719687858.html (v2.0 to be released in December)

I am curious to see what the results are. If anyone has tried this product please post a detailed review!

[Faustus]

Yes I have used it, Recode with Menuedit is what I use for my Episode DVD conversions. However I use it for little else beyond that.

[tig2002]

I posted a topic a few days ago when I discovered this tool as part of Nero burning software. I found it very useful, and as I stated, it may change the way I backup my DVD movies. Originally I was using the following steps:

1. Rip the DVD with DVD Decryptor.
2. Shrink with DVD Shrink.
3. Burn with Nero Express.

It actually takes significant amount of time for this process (depending on size of the original DVD. DVD Decryptor rips the DVD in 10-20 minutes, DVD Shrink shrinks the files in 20-30 minutes, and Nero burns the DVD in 20-30 minutes (2.4X DVD+R or 2X DVD-R).

After going through the simple steps in Nero Recode I found that the compression ratio offered by Nero for main movie is much better than DVD Shrink even with original menus, titles, etc. Nero Recode will let you remove all unnecessary contents (while DVD Shrink will allow you to shrink them to still frames only), and you will skip the process of actual shrinking with DVD Shrink, but Nero Recode will take some time to compile the files before burning. You still need ripping software (DVD Decryptor) for copy protected DVD's because Nero Recode is not able to read files from copy protected DVD's, but the entire process of backing up the DVD movie becomes much simpler:

1. Rip the original DVD with DVD Decryptor.
2. Open Nero Recode, load the video files, uncheck the contents that you don't need, and click burn.

Again, it will take some time to compile the files with Nero Recode, but I believe it takes less time than shrink the files with DVD Shrink, and you will get better quality of final video. Best of all, Nero Recode will make the files to fit exactly on DVD-5, while I always needed to adjust the size of the files manually in DVD Shrink (even in latest version with Auto compression) because after shrinking them for DVD-5 and proceeding to Nero for burning I was getting a message by Nero that the total size of files exceeds the size of blank DVD media.

Of course DVD Shrink is a winner as freeware, but if you own Nero Burning ROM Ultra Edition, you may get better results in quality and processing time...

[Arianos]

@Slumpey

Unlike DVDShrink, Nero Recode will allow you to disable menus, extras, and the movie if you don't want them on your DVD-R.

Not MENUS dear friend, not menus. And the menus contain all the nagging screens. Only Menuedit and DVDStripper can do that.
At the time writing this, DVDShrink with Menuedit with DVD Stripper can succesfully make a fully working custom DVD at a minimal price (30E in all)
@tig2002 and all:
DVDShrink and Nero Recode are both made by the same person. Doubt it? Google Recode shrink.
Especially the first hit:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22866
One is freeware, other is owned by Ahead.
Chances are, we'll see more updates in Recode than (if ever) in Shrink.

[Gurm]

AFAIK, there has been NO confirmation that Shrink and Recode are made by the same person.

For my money, the FIRST version of Recode was so terrible that I'm leery of trying newer versions. My review at the time:

Posted: Jul 27, 2003 10:10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok I take it back.

Nero Recode is a useless piece of crud. It allows you virtually NO control over things, disabling titles doesn't REALLY disable them, and it defaults to not including ANY audio tracks. ARGH!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Gurm

[Slumpey]

I did a backup of "The Matrix" to my harddrive. I didn't want to burn it, just to see how this program held up.

Everything turned out really good except for the fact that Chapters 15 and 34 were missing from my final product. The sound was there for the chapters, but not the picture. Can you say "Bug!". I want to let you know for my product I DISABLED extras, which may have something to do with the missing chapters. If you want to have the automated menu buttons, you have to make sure you leave the subtitles ON for the menus. I changed out the "video title has been removed" picture to a plain black JPEG. The Black JPEG is around 7000 bytes while the default "video ttitle has been removed" picture is around 1 Megabyte. This helps increase the video quality because Nero Recode doesn't actually remove menus/extras. It replaces the file with the "video title has been removed" picture.

As for video quality, pretty darn good. I haven't really processed the final product yet, but from skimmy through it, I couldn't find any real problems.

[Viper10000]

Here is my experience with Nero Recode (October release).

About replacing a title, Recode does what Slumpey said, but it does not really save you a lot of space. It still generate a smaller VOB file, but not an extremely small VOB file such as the FBI screen. Let's say, I want to strip out a trailer which take up 120MB with a duration of 3 min. Yes, Recode will replace that trailer with a VOB file that only display "title has been removed", but it still last 3 min. And the VOB is now about 40MB, but not 1MB as I expected like the FBI screen. It's pretty much like "Still Picture" compression in DVDShrink. Recode should only display this screen about 5 seconds, and that way we even have a smaller VOBs.

In some DVDs with multiple angle such as Hayao Miyazaki DVDs (i.e. Spirited Away, Grave Of Fireflies, etc.), Recode does not detect there's a second angle. For example, in the DVD Grave of Fireflies, it has 2 angles imbedded in the main movie VOBs which accounted for 7GB. When I used DVDShrink's reauthor mode, DVDShrink will automatically grab Angle-1 which is only about 3.5GB, but in Recode, it does not show it, and so there's no way to disable the angle you don't want.

About MenuEdit and DVDStripper, I'm not sure than can do what I describe. As far as the free version of MenuEdit, it definitely cannot strip the 2nd angle of Grave of Fireflies movie.

I end up using IFOEdit, but then again IFOEdit is not as user-friendly as Recode or Shrink.

[tig2002]

For regular DVD backup (without removing anything) don't you guys think that Nero Recode is a better program than DVD Shrink? And if yes (or no), why?

[Viper10000]

tig2002,

IMHO, DVDShrink 3.0 Beta 5 with "deep analyses" produce better quality than Recode. Especially if you have to shrink 60% or less.

Cheers,

[Arianos]

In some DVDs with multiple angle such as Hayao Miyazaki DVDs (i.e. Spirited Away, Grave Of Fireflies, etc.), Recode does not detect there's a second angle. For example, in the DVD Grave of Fireflies, it has 2 angles imbedded in the main movie VOBs which accounted for 7GB. When I used DVDShrink's reauthor mode, DVDShrink will automatically grab Angle-1 which is only about 3.5GB, but in Recode, it does not show it, and so there's no way to disable the angle you don't want.

I quote only the above, but I want to say some clarifying things, for the benefit of all:
I did Spirited Away with DVDStripper, Menuedit and IC7 (it was big, so I went for the extra mile in quality). Removed the stuff I wanted in 5 minutes (there is a linked cells option), edited the buttons and the whole process took me 20 minutes. Agreed, I could do the same things with Menuedit alone (if I knew which cells to remove) , or even Ifoedit alone IF I KNEW HOW..
In fact, my daugter wanted to watch it again yesterday, so we watched the backup. Perfect. What can I say?
The thing to pay attention to:
I REALLY DON'T KNOW HOW Ifoedit works, yet, I do perfect custom DVDs. With DVDStripper and Menuedit (OK, and DVDDecrypter and ifoedit). I don't waste time, I DON'T have the endless blanks nor a 'removed item screen' on my DVD-Rs (DVDStripper has 0 playing time of blanks, which are close to 0kb) and I manage to save an average of 500MBs of space per DVD. Sometimes more.
I can understand people searching for the perfect custom DVD-R, but sometimes, REALLY the truth is out there!!
It's just people don't know it...yet

[scubasteve2365]

This may be a newbie question, but do you all find it faster/better/more efficient to rip the movie to the HDD then run DVDshrink on it ... or just run DVD shrink straight on the DVD it self .... Im gonna go search for the DVDdecrypter now ... is it freeware??

[johns0]

I find it better to let dvdshrink rip and shrink.

[klintman]

before buying the nero6 bundle i used dvddecryptor/ifoedit/dvdshrink3 beta/imgtool/then burn with dvddecryptor. some dvd+r's i ripped in this method start to studder and pause towards the end of the films when played on my denon. using recode/nero to recode and burn i have had no such issues and have gone back to redo the problem disks sans dvdshrink. the redone titles are flawless now. we will see if this holds true with more experience. compairing titles like the shogun series , starwars ep2, and gladiator i believe the picture quality to be superior to the deep analasis in dvdshrink.

[tig2002]

Here are my test results of backing up Finding Nemo after ripping DVD with DVD Decryptor, and then using DVD Shrink and Nero Recode:

I tried to backup the DVD (ripped files) using Nero Recode first. After analyzing the files it took 60 minutes to compile the DVD before the actual burning. The suggested compression rate was 72% with Spanish and French languages disabled in both audio and sub-titles. I had the box "fit DVD disk" checked, but after compiling Nero suggested me to replace the inserted DVD because there was not enough space on the blank TDK 2X DVD-R media. I inserted different disk (same brand and type), but got the same message. At this step I gave up on Nero Recode and proceeded to backup with DVD Shrink (V3 beta 5). After un-checking the French and Spanish languages and shrinking the extras manually to 50% I got 71% compression rate for the main movie. The green bar showed 4.47GB total size of the files, but I shrank the main movie to 68% to decrease the volume to 4.3GB. It took almost 80 minutes for DVD Shrink to backup the files with deep analysis, and when the files were ready for burning, I opened the Nero Express, loaded the files, and got the green bar partially turned to red - not enough capacity on blank media. Windows Explorer also showed the total size exceeding 4.7GB.

I gave up on DVD Shrink and went back to Nero Recode, unchecked "fit to DVD" and manually decreased the compression of the main movie to 68% bringing the volume down to little over 4GB. 60 minutes of compiling DVD, and the disk was burned successfully. The playback on xBox, Samsung stand alone DVD player and PC DVD-ROM drives was good, and the quality of the main video was good (some artifacts on fade-in and fade-out parts of the movie).

P4 1.4GHz CPU
512MB SDRAM
30GB WD main and 120GB Maxtor for backup
Optorite DD0203 for both ripping and recording
TNT2 M64 Video with 64MB

P.S. I was able to rip the original DVD on Optorite with upgraded firmware at 4X average.

[MysticE]

Decided to try Nero Recode after reading these posts. Used Brotherhood of the Wolf and did a complete disc (8G) burn with InstantCopy 8 and Nero to see. The compression was pretty steep. I do like Nero's interface and setup, but the end results were rather disapointing. Looked pretty much like a VHS tape, no comparison to IC 8's which blew it away quality wise and on a 27in. TV is virtually indistinguishable from the original... even with the radical squeeze..

[rcmpayne]

i have backup 34 movies with nero record

this works like a charm i use to open the dvd and delete the extras to bring quality up on the movie (i never did watch the extras on a movie) then i burn to a image on my 250 Gig HD and make one copy and if i ever scratch the burnt one i dont have to go through all the encoding again

i have not used much other dvd programs but i will rate this 8 out of 10

teh only thing that i will say is if you want a movie on one disk this is the program for you

If you want a dvd on 2 disk use 321 Studios