DVD Shrink 3.0 - avoiding two passes for deep analyis

[Ronaldus]

Those who are familiar with DVD Shrink know DVD Shrink makes two read passes if you want to perform Deep Analysis when ripping and encoding from a DVD. This is double the wear and tear on your DVD drive. How about the following process:

Step 1: Select Open Disk. After DVD Shrink has performed its quick analysis and presented you with the DVD structure, select the top level of the DVD and choose "No Compression" on everything. Then select Backup and continue past the warning message saying the resulting files will be too big.

Step 2: After the DVD files have been copied to your HD, select Open Files on the VIDEO_TS.IFO file in that directory. At this point you can then fiddle with your compression levels to make the files fit, select Backup and then check Deep Analysis. Now DVD Shrink is working off the HD for its Deep Analysis and encoding (transcoding).

My question: is there a loss in video quality doing it this way vs. doing it all in at once from the DVD drive in the normal two-pass process? I'm hoping there is no transcoding or manipulation of the data happening in step 1 when you select "No Compression" and copy the files to the HD. If that's not true, then has anyone found a better way?

It would be cool if future versions of DVD Shrink would optionally do this automatically to save wear and tear on the DVD drive. My other main feature wish is for DVD Shrink to allow a "Blank" option after "Still Pictures" which would substitute a single blank frame of the smallest size possible so you could keep the DVD structure without having to waste lots of space using "Still Pictures" on parts you don't want at all.

[mazinz]

im just curious why dont you rip the disc to your hardrvie to prevent that wear and tear on your dvd-rom drive?

[matthewmalay]

you know you can just rip it to your hard drive in either file mode (open the video_ts.ifo file with dvdshrink) or ISO mode (then you mount it img file using daemon tool, then open disk with dvd shrink) using DVD Decrypter. Thats how I usually do it.

I don't think choosing no compression will affect the quality in any though

[Ronaldus]

mazinz, I guess my post wasn't clear. I thought the steps I listed did exactly that -- they ripped the DVD to my HD so the DVD drive only has to be read once rather than twice for Deep Analysis.

matthewmalay, thanks for that tip. It sounds like your DVD Decrypter and daemon tool mount method are alternate ways of accomplishing the same thing. Your method and my method only reads from the DVD drive once.

Hopefully others can confirm what you said that choosing "No Compression" does not affect the video quality on step 1 (i.e. no encoding/transcoding of the video stream occurs).

[ddlooping]

Ronaldus, I can confirm "No Compression" will leave the video streams untouched.

[Thunder In Paradise]

Is doing it the "2 pass way" really destroy the drive? It would seem to me that copying to the HD, then dropping everything and encoding it would take somewhat longer then just ripping and encoding straight from the disc on the first run.

[ddlooping]

Is doing it the "2 pass way" really destroy the drive?

Well, I'd say "destroy" is a bit of an overstatement, but it obviously makes your drive work harder and more often.
If you do a lot of backups, it could significantly decrease its "life expectancy".
How much so is hard to tell.

It would seem to me that copying to the HD, then dropping everything and encoding it would take somewhat longer then just ripping and encoding straight from the disc on the first run.

And you would be right.

[jimmalenko]

Is doing it the "2 pass way" really destroy the drive? It would seem to me that copying to the HD, then dropping everything and encoding it would take somewhat longer then just ripping and encoding straight from the disc on the first run.

You really only want your drive working for as long as it has to. The method specified in this post makes the drive work a bit harder than it has to. Also, the data transfer rate will be quicker directly from your HD than it would be from your DVD Drive.

My method is as follows:

Rip using Smartripper/DVD Decrypter
Use DVDShrink (Open Files)

This way I am only using my DVD drive for minimal amounts of time (10-20 minutes) and then Shrink works a lot faster also because it can analyse the data off my HD a lot quicker than from DVD-ROM.

[tryn2lern]

do you guys see a big difference in quality when you do that double pass?

a lot of people on here were saying they dont see a difference.

[jimmalenko]

A rule that has worked for me is:

Any DVD with compression less than 85% do Deep Analysis on.

Works for me on a 68cm TV !

[jimmalenko]

do you guys see a big difference in quality when you do that double pass?

a lot of people on here were saying they dont see a difference.

Unfortunately quality is pretty subjective and different people will accept differing levels. The best way is to try it for yourself and make your own mind up based on what is good for you.