Need better quality backup than DVDShrink

[VinnySem]

I just purchased a 50" DLP HDTV, all my DVDShrink backups look pretty lousy. What backup solutions are recommended for high-quality backups, both for main movie only and full disk backups?

[waheed]

Try DVD Rebuilder.

Or split to two disks.

[shelbyGT]

Or watch the originals.

[SoCalMK]

For a television set like yours, I would say that none of the full disc backups are going to be "good quality." People differ on movie only copies. In the end I think most programs (CloneDVD, DVD2ONE, Intervideo, Shrink, etc.) are pretty much the same when it comes to movie-only backups. Personally I can live with the quality that these programs produce, even on an HD set. If you want them to be really good, back them up over 2 discs or re-encode.

[pyscrow]

Buy a dual layer burner, if you can afford that TV you can afford the media

[BSpielbauer]

I just purchased a 50" DLP HDTV, all my DVDShrink backups look pretty lousy. What backup solutions are recommended for high-quality backups, both for main movie only and full disk backups?

I watch on a 65 inch carefully-calibrated CRT unit. I made the decision early on that all of my backups would have to use "no additional compression." Keep in mind that the original DVD you purchased in the store already is using compression, and that sometimes that compression is so bad already it compromises what could otherwise be a terrific image.

I split movies out to two discs, whenerever necessary. I also occasionally (very rarely) have backed up a film using dual layer media. But, I simply say "no" to any additional compression. Admittedly, I am picky about video quality, and I am also spoiled by a lot of high definition viewing. However, I also have wondered often how many people would "move up" in the total size of the picture they were viewing on, and then suddenly regret making backups which crammed way too much data on a DVD-R or a DVD+R, just because they did not wish to get up from their seat and change a disc after an hour or so. (Hey-- it is often the perfect moment to take a break, visit the facilities, grab some liquid refreshment, etc.)

My backups all look identical to the originals. Extras often follow at the ends of the films. My kids do not even mond, when they watch these in my wife's van, which has a DVD player. 15 months, and I have never heard a complaint or even a comment about switching the DVD to the second disc.

Of course,you have to find what works for you. But, I would urge others to think about that day when they might trade up in picture size, especially if they anticipate a major increase. Take a poorly rendered and overly compressed JPEG image, and stretch it out so it fills your complete screen on your PC. Will you be happy if your DVDs suddenly become noticably "artifacted"?


Just some thoughts...

-Bruce

[steve2713]

DVD-RB as mentioned above.

[lordsmurf]

Watch the original.

[hech54]

This sounds like another freeware bashing thread to me....rediculous.

[AlecWest]

This sounds like another freeware bashing thread to me....rediculous.

Or possibly a "Hey, look what I just bought!" thread. 8)

[VinnySem]

Now I remember why I stopped coming to this forum. I post a legitimate question and all I get are smartass comments or "watch the originals." What a colossal waste of time and energy.

[GeorgeW]

DVD Shrink is pretty good -- did you apply any of the advanced filters?

[ebenton]

They're not *all* smart-ass. I didn't think Bspielbauer's post was smart-ass, nor were some of the others.
Do you have a progressive-scan DVD player, and is it playing your DVD through the progressive jacks on the DVD or are you using the HDTV's own de-interlacer?
If you're only going to visit forums where you don't get smart-ass responses, I guess you won't be visiting any. Don't take yourself so seriously.

[hech54]

Did you walk all the way here?....

[cyflyer]

Come on Vinney, they're only kidding with ya. Look at the funny side.

backups look pretty lousy

in WHAT way do they look lousey ? How do you know its DvdShrinks' fault ? Do they actually differ from the original ? Give them something more to work on. Maybe you're expecting too much from a 50" picture.

[garrisonkw]

If you're playing a non HD source on an HDTV, it's not going to look like an HD source. Ever. There will most likely be little digital artifacts all over the place.

DVDShrink and other backup apps tend to work fine if you have an older/smaller TV. You simply don't notice the extra issues. On a big screen, you notice the extra compression.

Backing up to DL media or backing up using a "movie only" solution is probably your second best bet. Your best bet, obviously, is to just watch the originals. In my experience, the kind of person who buys a 50" set should have no problem handing his or her discs in such a way as to make backups unnecessary.

If I were in your place, I'd buy a bunch of DL media discs, and just use DVD Decryptor ISO read and ISO write. That should work well enough.

[shelbyGT]

Now I remember why I stopped coming to this forum. I post a legitimate question and all I get are smartass comments or "watch the originals." What a colossal waste of time and energy.

It's not smart ass, at all. You say you don't like the backup quality. Backups are for archiving. If you want to watch with the best possible picture, watch the original or backup with no compression (movie only, 2 discs, double layer media, etc. Tons of options). Seriously... what did you expect?

[seekninfo]

I had a similar problem. I stopped backing-up on one disc and went to two discs. My other problem was the TV was in my bedroom thus getting up to change and put in the second disc was a chore so I went out and bought a DVD changer and that has solved my problem. I back-up using either DVDShrink, the reauthor feature or DVDFab. The latter will split it for you but not always where you want the split. Also discs are now inexpensive. That is my $0.02.

[garrisonkw]

I used to use DVDShrink. Now I use Nero Recode. The whole Nero package is pretty powerful so long as you read the guides and figure out how to properly use every part.

[HARRYSPADGE]

Nero Recode is apparently now developed by the author of DVDshrink

[DTSL06]

Or u can build a HTPC and rip the originals to the harddrive. And then rescale to what ever size u want. I am currently resizing to 1080i (seems better then 1080p on my setup) and letting my Sony rescaled back to native screen rez. The Sony XS series LCD RPTV has a very good built in scaler. I did the same when I had a Samsung DLP but scaled top 1080p instead. Sony is 60" and the Sammy was 61". PQ is almost as good as HD sources (almost) with the resizing and other filtering being done.

[SCDVD]

Your original DVDs are produced at a lower resolution than your HDTV can display. Anything that you do that shrinks it will only degrade the DVD even more. Shrinking is simply removing video quality in exchange for making the movie smaller. If preserving the best quality possible is your objective, you really have just two choices for your backups: Double layer or two discs if the original is greater than 4.7GB. If the original is less than 4.7 GB it will fit on one disc; just don't "tweak" it. There is nothing you can do to put pixels (resolution) and bit rate back that aren't there to start with. When Hollywood converted their masters to MPEG2 (DVD), they had to meat ax the resolution to make it fit onto one disc. All the kings horses and all the kings men can't put the full resolution back. Newer technologies in the future will allow for higher resolution but until it is generally available, we're stuck with standard DVD resolution. Everyone has their own idea of what acceptable quality is. In the end, only you can decide what is best for you.

[smearbrick1]

Stuck with DVD resolution? I wouldn't necessarily put it that way. Compared to the previous formats, DVD is the cat's ass! Hell, most movies look good even at half the bitrate of the original. I had a 55" Sony RP LCD and the movies looked fine even with as much as 70% compression through DVDShrink.

I guess some people are more picky than others. Of course, they are only backups...

[hech54]

Nero Recode is apparently now developed by the author of DVDshrink

Yep...same person....same software.
DVDShrink was first though....

[cyflyer]

Stuck with DVD resolution? I wouldn't necessarily put it that way. Compared to the previous formats, DVD is the cat's ass!

Well said !

[VinnySem]

The DVDShrink backups I made of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles were very pixelated, unwatchable. I reprocessed Incredibles with the advanced filters, I tried both sharpen and smoothen, sharpen was more pixelated during high motion scenes (100 mile Dash) and was very blurry with smoothen. The DVDShrink backup I made of LOTR:FOTR was similar.

I'm not bashing Shrink, backups look great on my old 32" panasonic CRT. I'm not doing any upscaling of resolution on the movies, I'm showing them at 480p. As a comparison, I played Incredibles on a friend's 30" Sony CRT HDTV, it looked the same as on my DLP.

I was asking for opinions on backup solutions that use CCE as the re-encode engine. I wasn't bragging about my new TV or bashing freeware.

[lordsmurf]

Your tv is too big. The bigger the set, the easier to see flaws. Even commercial DVDs are not perfect. They only get worse when you start to mess with them ("backup").

You may not like the advice, but in order to retain full quality, either buy extras, watch the original, or invest in DL media.

If you want to zap the bitrate lower, you may need to drop the res. But on such a huge tv, the next thing you'll complain about is it's "softer" than the original. They don't use high bitrates on discs because it's fun, they do it because that's often what is needed for high-res MPEG-2 to be flawless or low-flaw.

You'll never be pleased with DVD9->DVD5 methods.

I've seen this song and dance hundreds of times in years past. It won't be any different now.

It may also be an issue with you LOOKING for errors instead of just enjoying the show, or the fact that you're too super-uber picky. I've seen people that like 6-hour mode DVD recorders discs, blocks and all, and I've seen people that complain endlessly about commercial discs (as if they could do any better!). I don't know where you fit in. You may be experiencing real troubles, or you may just be whining, I cannot tell.

That's my advice and observations for this situation every time I see it.

[CBC]

DVD REbuilder or DVDREasy for the backups, using "movie-only" mode, no extras.
Also look into buying an upconverting DVD player *that works well with your set*. Some brands improve the PQ, others will actually make it worse,depending on your set, so you'll need to do some experimenting.

[garryheather]

Move the TV further away from your viewing position...

Sorry, couldn't resist it.

One of the earlier posters mentioned a carefully calibrated set. If you don't want to go to the expense and bother of "real" signal generators, get a DVD that's got the THX optimiser on it. Even something as relatively basic as that may demonstrate how perhaps your contrast and brightness are too high, and that's why you're seeing flaws such as macroblocks so easily.

It amazes me how many people try and get sun tans off of their TV's or monitors - when set up properly a lot of complaints people have disappear. If you're watching it how it arrived you're probably in this category - out of the box the set is configured as per test specs and / or conditions in the factory. No doubt the lighting in your room is different if nothing else. A bit of time with the settings menu may well work wonders here.

[VinnySem]

The TV is 10 feet away, which is optimal for the size of the screen. I used the THX optimizer on The Incredibles to calibrate the brightness and contrast.

I have the Samsung DVD-HD850 DVD player. Yes its is an "upconvert" player, but macroblocks appear even at 480P, with no upscaling set on the TV.

I'm off to try DVD Rebuilder, DVDREasy, and DVD2DVD. Thanks to those that actually answered my question.