DVD Shrink Myths

[hech54]

Nitpicking. :P

You are WAY too diplomatic.....I'd go more for STFU personally...

[budz]

I have the LOTR ROTK but not yet DVD shrinked. Something like 2 hours 50 minutes, I will probably shrink it maybe next weekend see if Macroblocks exist.

I backed up LOTR ROTK with DVD REBUILDER & DVD SHRINK. DVD REBUILDER won hands down. The video quality in my eyes was very sharp and clear compared to the DVD SHRINK backup. DVD REBUILDER is a free program to use and you can use a demo/trial of CINEMA CRAFT ENCODER. As I've stated DVD SHRINK ok to use but for better quality backups for movies that are my favs I use DVD REBUILDER. Again this is my own opinion and based on my experience.

I hear there is a newer version of DVD SHRINK being released in a few weeks. Wonders how the quality will be!

[pyscrow]

> It's not always better. It's not really as though price is anyone's "primary concern". Maybe you're willing to accept the shortcomings of something because you can't afford something better, but that's not the same thing.

If someone is willing to accept the shortcomings because they can't afford something better, then price is their primary concern.

Maybe you just needed to define "better" better. A general desciption of "better" doesn't necessarily mean "the best quality in the end result.

To use your car example- is a $200,000 Rolls Royce "better" than a $30,000 Ford pickup truck? Maybe- but not if you're going to use it to haul garbage.

What short comings? Its a transcoder, it does its job well and its free. Does not matter if anything does it better, it does the job and the price it right.

[Sam Ontario]

I backed up LOTR ROTK with DVD REBUILDER & DVD SHRINK. DVD REBUILDER won hands down. The video quality in my eyes was very sharp and clear compared to the DVD SHRINK backup. DVD REBUILDER is a free program to use and you can use a demo/trial of CINEMA CRAFT ENCODER. As I've stated DVD SHRINK ok to use but for better quality backups for movies that are my favs I use DVD REBUILDER. Again this is my own opinion and based on my experience.


I hear there is a newer version of DVD SHRINK being released in a few weeks. Wonders how the quality will be!

Thanks for the alternative suggestion. I have downloaded DVD Rebuilder but not yet CCE. I will give it a try maybe early next month.

Another newer is coming? The existing version of DVD shrink automatically use DVD decrypter to burn if you press "Back Up". There is also a copy of Video_Ts in the HDD for further copy or trimming and cutting. Qualitywise is just as good on my 32" NTSC TV.

[Gurm]

_I_ am not nitpicking. _I_ am counteracting the rabid devotees of an otherwise good program.

Fact: DVD SHRINK HAS NO INBUILT BURNING CAPABILITY.

Fact: DVD SHRINK ONLY INTEGRATES WITH NERO.

Fact: NERO IS NOT FREE.

See how simple this is?

- Gurm

[fritzi93]

DVDRebuilder can also be used with QuEnc encoder, or in transcoding mode with Rejig. In practical terms, you can't get better quality when backing up and compressing a DVD.

Still, DVDShrink is an old favorite and fine when little compression is needed. Since I like movie only with no extra crap, I usually reauthor with Shrink and save with no compression, just because it's so easy. Then run DVDRebuilder overnight, it's worth it for long movies.

[ddlooping]

Myth #2: DVD Shrink is "free".
Not if you consider 'total cost of ownership'. You WILL sometimes need another ripper. That could be free (DVD Decrypter) or it could cost you money. Then you NEED a burning program.

Sure, someone could BUY a ripper to use when needed, but WHY do it when DVD Decrypter is available for FREE?

Sure, you will NEED a burning program, but why not use DVD Decrypter, Nero trial version, or the software that came bundled with the DVD-R drive?

"Myth #2" should be "Fact #2". :P

P.S: and I'm not rabid.
I'm not small, furry, with long ears and a bushy tail, and I rarelly eat carrots (maybe I should do it more often though, it's supposed to be good for the skin).

[ddlooping]

Myth #4: DVD Shrink lets you "remove" extras.
This will become partially a fact with v3.2 (available soon), as "Still Image" is now an option.

[Shocker Milwaukee]

@Gurm

DVD Shrink v3.1.7.6 has the option of integrating with DVD Decrypter. That option, if checked, will fire up DVD Decrypter upon creation of an ISO image, so that it may be burned.

[DVD_Ripper]

For a FREE piece of software it cannot be beat... What drives the programmer to make fixes, edits and enhancements without any monetary compensation is applauded...

Agreed, some are better at certain compression settings. Personally I've noticed that below 85% I like Shrink.... but above 85% I like the speed of CloneDVD2. To each his own...

[petar]

...I rarelly eat carrots (maybe I should do it more often though, it's supposed to be good for the skin).

I thought it was good for the eye-sight?
Fact#1: Carrots are good for the eye-sight. Proof? Even seen a rabbit with glasses?
(all right, silly old joke)

I think what Gurm was trying to say is that DVD Shrink is not be a free backup solution (though it can be if you couple it with DVD Decrypter). There's no question that it's a free transcoder.
Well, actually, it's not free. I still need to pay my ADSL provider to get DVD Shrink .

This will become partially a fact with v3.2 (available soon)

How soon?

[ddlooping]

In terms of output quality, the improvement between v3.1.7 and v3.2 has been considerable, and v3.2 could have been released a few days ago.
However, dvdshrink is not fully satisfied yet, and decided to try and make it even better.
No-one, even him, knows the exact release date.

I'd guess it is a matter of days now, as opposed to weeks.

[LanEvo7]

I was prompted to do this by someone posting how they had used DVD Shrink to back up a disc to a DUAL LAYER +R MEDIA.

My response was "why bother?" - why bother wasting your time running the DVD through shrink when you could pop it in, hit "copy" (or Read and the Write) and be done with it?

Decryptor seems to have issues burning dual layer discs(I think it has something to do with the layer breaks). If you search, there are threads of people using decryptor as the burning engine and out comes a faulty disc. The only software on the market right now that doesn't have this issue is Nero. Of course you can still rip with Decryptor, but just to play it safe and not get a $15 coaster, you should use nero to burn.

[SatStorm]

The only fact I see, is that DVD Shrink has not build in burning capability, because it is not for this job
Also, it is not a perfect ripper, because this is also not the job for it. It is the only way to deal with the law issues.

DVD Shrink's job is to transcode. Anything else it does is extra.

And as a transcoder, is free
Not the best transcoder out there, but free.

[smearbrick1]

I was recently looking at some of my old VCDs I created. It's amazing what people will accept as "quality" when few things are available. At the time, the quality of my VCDs (then SVCDs) was quite good for using nothing but freeware. Of course I could have spent some money and bought the cinema craft encoder ($1000.00 at the time I think) but tmpgenc did the job that I thought was satisfactory. Point is... it's all relative to your view of what's acceptable and what's not. Maybe some people do not notice macroblocking like others. Maybe others (due to environmental differences) don't experience the type of macroblocking others experience. It's all in what you consider satisfactory. For me, I could care less. As long as the quality is decent enough on a backup to watch without much issue, I'm happy as a bearded clam. If I want quality, I always have the original. Bottom line: Shrink is way cool. Sure, it doesn't have integrated burning capabilities, a totally fault-proof ripper, dvd cover designer, FBI warning removal capability, or movie only feature that keeps the original menus... Still very functional, and very easy to use.

Footnote: By environmental differences, I'm not referring to the weather (barometric pressure, dewpoint, temperature) in particular area. I'm referring to PC hardware/software environments and/or the condition of the dvd being backed up.

[MackemX]

[Sam Ontario]

Myth #4: DVD Shrink lets you "remove" extras.
This will become partially a fact with v3.2 (available soon), as "Still Image" is now an option.

Looking forward to try it out!

[MackemX]

Myth #4: DVD Shrink lets you "remove" extras.
This will become partially a fact with v3.2 (available soon), as "Still Image" is now an option.

is that Still image as in same pic throughout but keeping original play time with as many images needed to fill it in the same way Still Pics does now?

[ddlooping]

Yes it is. You can use the default image, or choose a custom one.

Some are gonna ask "Why not shorten the length of the titles that have been replaced?".
Well, that way the DVD structure is not messed with.

MackaDude, if you know exactly what would have to be changed in the IFOs to ensure total compatibility (when a title is shortened), please let me know.
I'll try my best to convince dvdshrink to implement it.

[rfielder]

Good, interesting, and informative post. Thank you.

One minor issue:

Myth #2: DVD Shrink is "free".
Not if you consider 'total cost of ownership'. You WILL sometimes need another ripper. That could be free (DVD Decrypter) or it could cost you money. Then you NEED a burning program. None of those are free, or very few. The only one that integrates with Shrink is Nero, and while that might have come with your drive, that can hardly be considered to be "free". Maybe it's better to say that for some people DVD Shrink has a low additional cost incurred.

I have Nero installed on my PC. It was the demo version, which I did not have time to really try before the demo version ran out of time.

However, as long as it is on the PC, DVD Shrink will use the Nero engine. It does not seem to respect the expiry of the demo version.

I found this out the hard way. Figured having expired software was useless, so I removed Nero. Suddenly, DVD Shrink would not work! Reinstalled Nero, have never used it - but DVD Shrink is happy.

I hope they don't decide to fix this "feature" in the future.....

[MackemX]

cheers ddlooping

I thought that is what you would say as Recode worked (still works?) the same way. Sadly it still wastes some space, even with the blackest of black images but not as much as a variation of pics but it does save more space than various images

this is one way I know the studios could cripple this method unless a program completely strips the information. Lion King is an example as it has 600MB of blank menu's. Even with a black still image its compresses to something like 250MB which is over 5% of the disc! So you could imagine what would happen if the studios realise this :P and fill a DVD to the brim with 1GB of black, it would have a great affect on quality due to the 400MB needed to any program that leaves the original nav pack structure

as for the compatiability thing, fixing IFO's is probably simple in comparision to the navigation that would need updating in the VOB's but I don't think it's impossible, it's just that I can't program. Of course I can help with it and would love to but can he do it even if he wanted to and I don't mean programming skills

[Sam Ontario]

You guys can figure the .ifo out. At the moment, DVD shrink cannot rip my home made DVD done with my Philips recorder if I have more than 2 recordings on one disc or dividing titles non sequentially on the disc with DVD+RWs. DVD shrink said navigation error. I cannot even make a copy out of it. I resort to DVD decrypter to rip it and burn a copy. Again same navigation error, these particular files ripped by DVD decrypter cannot be imported to DVD shrink for further processing.

I look forward to that DVD shrink V3.2 or later version will solve this problem.

Thanks.

[MackemX]

@Sam Ontarios, try using Ifoedit and clicking Get VTS once the files are ripped and see if it gives you any popup windows with values in them

this simple fix sometimes works. If it doesn't then dummy stripping the IFO's increases the chances if it working as it also updates the IFO's more along with the nav packs in the VOB (it's a simple process, just time and HD space consuming)

I would look at why the recorder is creating non-compliant discs

you don't necessarily need to rip a DVD you have created with a DVD recorder as it has no protection. Just copy and paste them using Windows Explorer if you want

p.s. this is off topic so maybe it's best to start a new thread if you want to look at resolving this issue as it may get lost in this thread

[ddlooping]

Sam, I'm afraid v3.2 will not fix this issue.
I do not know about future DVD Shrink versions though (if there are any).

MackaDude, I've just asked dvdshrink and I'm waiting for a reply (could be a long wait though ).

[MackemX]

MackaDude, I've just asked dvdshrink and I'm waiting for a reply (could be a long wait though ).

that cool dude 8)

I guess the only way is to keep at him but I'm pretty sure there would be a few 1,000's of DVDShrink users also waiting behind us

here's to hoping it happens

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

DVD Shrink is a good program. Actually, it was the first program I used to rip/copy dvd's and I'm kinda attached to it. I think it's pretty easy to use, and should be the first program everybody uses to start backing up dvd's. Then, when you have more experience, maybe you can start exploring some new options.

[Sam Ontario]

@MackemX,

Thanks and thanks for advise. I will try it out after I digest it.

[MackemX]

@Sam Ontario, no probs
just start a new thread if you need help on how to dummy strip with Ifoedit to fix navigation etc

[mmasw]

_I_ am not nitpicking. _

- Gurm

Fact:
*if you act like a nitpicker.....
* and if you talk like a nitpicker.....
* and if you respond like a nitpicker.....

>then R. Lee Emery say: "you're a nitpicker"

[Shocker Milwaukee]

Nitpickin', flower-sniffin', kitty-pettin' cotton-picker!