2 Years of screwing around with encoders - What I Do Now

[Ang]

OK, I am not one of those guys who knows all the terminology and the technical ins and outs of various process. In other words I don't know what makes an automatic transmission work, but I sure know how to drive good! I have spent WAY too many hours trying and testing the following:

Instant Copy
DVDShrink
Nero Recode
DVD2ONE
Intervideo DVD Copy
Clone DVD 2
DVD Rebuilder
DVD2SVCD
DVDXCopy
DVDRemake Pro
VOB Blanker

I won't go into details of each program because that would take hours and hours. I included the 2 main CCE apps in there too. I have found that it just isn't worth the time and hassle. I have tried EVERY conceivable method to backup DVDs and they have led me to this conclusion. So this is what I do:

1.) I use VOB Blanker to strip warnings and trailors. ( A hint: If the main movie is VTS_01_*.VOB, just SKIP it for super fast processing! But remember to copy the same VOBS to the VOB Blanker output folder.)

2.) I use DVD2ONE to encode the entire movie at variable rate.

That's it!
The easiest, most straight forward and fastest method with excellent quality.

[Ang]

SORRY!
Forgot to mention that I use DVD Decryptor to get the VOBS on my hard drive and remove protection!

Cheers

[shelbyGT]

I'm glad you found a way you like!

[Super Warrior]

I use:

#1- Smartripper.

#2- DVDshrink. Awesome in its ease of use for editing,removing and or downsizeing extras and other stuff. I leave the main movie/episodes untouched though with no compression.

#3- DVD2One. Once i've edited what i want with shrink, i process down to 4.36GB with DVD2One.

#4- Nero burning rom, to burn.

#5- Ritek media. Its cheap and of high quality, unlike other lower brands such as that princo garbage that'll degrade over a measily 6 months time and be unplayable.

[Ang]

Hello Super Warrior:
I notice you said you use DVDShrink to edit, resize and downsize extras etc.
From my experience you can use slide shows, still pictures or colors as placeholders for whatever video you want to remove. I personally have found this to be very ineffective because of 1. the size of the placeholders and 2. I hate the fact that the DVD goes to those pictures and colors and just hangs there.

If I may be so bold as to suggest that you give VOBBlanker a try. It will actually completely blank out the VOBS so you get a ton more room for encoding the parts you want, resulting in better quality AND when you press the menu buttons corresponding to the blanked parts you just get a momentary black frame and right back to the menu.

Cheers

[Super Warrior]

Meh i'm pretty set in my ways and am comfortable with it.

Besides when i use a still image to,say, remove some preview trailers thats 450MB in length. The result of the still image may only be about 12MB,probabley less. So going from 450MB to 12MB is a worthy tradeoff and i won't fret over the 12MB.

Although having it to where it just plays the still image quick then ends, instead of it continueing to hang around for the same length of time as what was removed, would be neat. However i don't mind simply pressing forward on the chapter button to get past it.

So thanks, but i'm set.

[steve2713]

I have only looked at VOB Blanker briefly, and I like the idea of being able to blank certain trailers, warning screens, etc. But in the end I take basically the same route as Super Warrior, except I just use DVD Shrink to do my transcoding as well, the latest version does a great job when you do deep analysis and use AEC properly.

The problem I have with using VobBlanker is that I SELECTIVELY like to keep certain parts of the discs, depending on what it is. And you have no visual ability to see what you are blanking out with VobBlanker, with DVD Shrink I can see exactly what I'm going to replace with a simple black screen, etc. For example, I typically like to retain any docs, menus, and the trailer for the actual movie on that DVD, but I generally don't give a crap about the other trailers not related to the movie, warning screens, etc.

DVD Shrink is really only a couple of added features away from being the near perfect program, if it added the ability to blank different parts instead of just inserting blank screens, it'd be near perfect.

[Ang]

Actually...VOB Blanker has a preview funtion that I use on everything!!

Am I starting to sound like a VOB Blanker salesman or what? but since it's a free app,...

[Ang]

Meant to attch to last post

[steve2713]

Nice, I didn't see that when I was looking at it before. Thanks for pointing it out, I've gotten so used to doing everything with ISO images, this may throw a wrench into that, now I'll have to rip as files :P (some backups I rip the full Dual layer disc as an ISO image, then split the ISO with WinRAR and burn them to two discs, I know way too much work)

[henry_nettles]

I use DVDDecrypter to rip in ISO mode, then ReAuthor in DVDShrink, thus keeping only the main movie. Then I allow DVDShrink to compress (if still necessary), and create an ISO image. Then DVDDecrypter writes the resulting ISO image back to a DVD-/+R.

Very simple, very straightforward, and as I have no interest in menus, suits me to a T.

[steve2713]

I agree that's the way to go IF you only want the movie (actually you could just skip the first step you listed, ripping to with DVD Decrypter).

[djelimon]

dvdrmpro is not an encoder...

[Ang]

Yeah, neither is VOB Blanker. I guess I should have made that clear. I liked DVDRemake when I first tried it, but it screwed up the DVD structure too much. I had lots of DVDs that wouldn't play in my computer or my standalone. NEVER have that problem with VOB Blanker. You can't remove menu buttons like you can with DVDRemake Pro but who cares if it messes up your DVD!!

Cheers

[lordsmurf]

1 - Rip: DVD Decrypter
2 - Shrink (if needed): DVD2ONE or DVD SHRINK
3 - Burn: Nero, Decrypter, DVD Shrink

Not hard.

[Ang]

I find the "not hard" thing a little smug dude! It's like anything else in this world, it's not hard once you know how, but very confusing when you don't.

So do you remove extra stuff with Shrink or just leave everything the way it is?

Cheers

[lordsmurf]

Well, to be quite honest, copying somebody else's work is not super-science. There is limited skill involved, and most of these one-click programs are so simple a monkey could achieve DVD backups. Call it smug, but it's simply the truth.

I do what is needed in Shrink. Use deep analysis. Remove when needed. Usually just strip extra languages. Shrink is not real good on movies (IPB degeneration), so I use DVD2one. Shrink is just for medium-bitrate things like "episode" discs.

[djelimon]

I liked DVDRemake when I first tried it, but it screwed up the DVD structure too much. I had lots of DVDs that wouldn't play in my computer or my standalone. NEVER have that problem with VOB Blanker. You can't remove menu buttons like you can with DVDRemake Pro but who cares if it messes up your DVD!!

The problem with DVDRMPro is it gives you enough rope to hang yourself with. You have to do your homework a bit if you start editing buttons and navigation instructions. And also, if you're using a certain verison that got cracked, there were some issues that were long since fixed (the way Dimad works, if you report a bug they can reproduce, they'll issue a fix within days). The current version is pretty much bulletproof. The other problem people have with DVDRemake Pro is it costs money.

Editing menu buttons and playing with the navigation isn't neccessarily simple, which is why, when I do that, I export a trial burn first.

That said, I guess this is about burn process, so here's mine:

1) With AnyDVD running in the background (mine is configured to run on startup), open the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD disc with DVDRemake Pro.

2 a) If the main movie fits on one disc without recoding, or can fit with a 95% shrink, and has one PGC (no BOV links to extras), then blank the extras with DVDRM in one project, and blank the movie in another. export. Shrink with Nerorecode with all passes on.

2 b) if the main movie is bigger than the disc, blank the last half of the title's PGC in one project, the first half in the other. Import 'switch disk' cell into the last chapter, add and assign cell commands to the first cell of each chapter to link to the 'switch disk' chapter on project one. Blank out first half in project 2, link chapters to first non-blanked chapter. Export.

c) for multi-PGC movies, do same as b), but for both PGC's. Trim out extras carefully so that footage referenced by BOV is present on disc. Export.

Burn each project with Nero. If need to test first, use DVD-RW, test export.

Since I adopted this prcess, I've backed up maybe 100 movies with no coasters.

[MackemX]

@Ang, as you mention you had lots of issues with DVD's, did you ever try the support forums for DVDRemake issues?

did you get the latest version? If you are having issues then post them at the support forums and complain . Doesn't paying for software gives you that entitlement to complain?

[Ang]

Have you had good results with DVDRemake Pro?

[Phantom Of The Opera]

Have you had good results with DVDRemake Pro?

I have. (I know your question was directed to Mack, but I thought I'd chime in ). It's a good program.