InterVideo DVD Copy 4 Platinum

[nwrigley]

I'm new to DVD back-up and was looking for opinions of the quality of this software compared to others. I'm interested in finding a program that provides the best quality of back-ups without a large workload. The speed of the program isn't a concern, just time involved to start the encoding/burning process.

[MovieDud]

@nwrigley, hello friend. Intercopy has an amazing copy quality, in my personal experience, second only to Dvd Rebuilder Pro/CCE Basic or HC by HAnks encoders. The problem that Copy 3 has and I heard copy 4 as well is the issues with re-authoring or customizing a movie. I have had only two occurances of audio issues with Copy 3 and it dealt with two Warner Bros. movies. , but beyond that I have like it a lot and found it fast, easy and amazing quality...I often suggest CloneDvd 2 or Recode 2 when sharing with others. Reason they both work great and no issues with re-authoring...I would suggest downloading Copy 4 for trial and see how it works in your set-up...I used Inter copy 3 for Polar express and it looks awe-some. Others had problems with this prog...Just wanting to say tri it before you buy it and even try the others as well. CloneDvd2 can be downloaded at www.slysoft.com for trial, works great and a great combo with Anydvd in the background. Hope this helps.
MovieDud

[nwrigley]

Thanks for the response. Could you expand upon the issues with customizing a movie that you refer to? Is Intercopy better used in the "full disc" or "main movie" mode?

[yoda313]

I've always had good results with dvd shrink. Also you can rip with dvddecrypter or dvdfabdecrypter in iso mode if dvdshrink can't decode the disc (it hasn't been updated in quite some time).

But its really easy to use for either a complete disc backup or movie only backup.

And its FREE (as are the two decrytper programs I mentioned)

[ghoster]

dvd shrink enough said

[nwrigley]

I'm aware of dvd shrink. I'm not sure how simply naming the program is saying anything at all.

[tonydead]

I just got DVD Copy 4. Apparently it is the first application to officially support the Divx Media container format.

Interesting article in Maximum PC on how to use this with Divx 6.

[MovieDud]

Some of the issues I mentioned are dealing with wrong audio streams that were processed, and when you do the re-author (movie only) or customize there have been cases where the movie would not play. Again, I have only had two occurances besides that I use it quite alot, along with those others that I mentioned. Download and try...if you like it then you might have a new prog. that is quick and provides an amazing picture. I use the customize a lot that way I can remove certain audio streams (other languages) and subtitles. You can also open up the movie file and see each chapter, and as long as the credits are a separate chapter then you simply unclick it...works well for me and matter of fact it hasn't failed when doing this...others have mention shrink and there is recode 2...cool thing with these is the ability to snip the credits more precisely...I will use this when dealing with a big compression movie and then run it through Rebuilder Pro with CCE Basic encoder ot HC by Hanks.
MovieDud

[nwrigley]

I downloaded the program to try it out and the quality I got was really good. So far I've just copied a dvd to my harddrive, haven't burned it yet. I can't get the preview feature to work though. I've tried it with two different dvds (both are saved as Video_TS files on the harddrive). Any suggestions?

Also, it sounds like Shrink is a good program to use for making the edits that I want. Since the preview of InterCopy isn't working for me, I was wondering if you can use Shrink to make edits without actually shrinking and then bring it into another program.

[MovieDud]

@nwrigley, the preview feature you mentioned should work...one thing to remember is that you have to highlight the movie or the desired chapter to see it....I usually highlight, then hit the play button and the preview begins in a few seconds...and yes, shrink or recode 2 or a great prog that I will use as well Dvd Remake Pro will allow you to edit and reduce the compression ration toa very acceptable level and then burn or open with the program you want to use to compress and then burn. I like shrink for ease...edit credits with the start/stop feature in re-author mode...then If I need to compress I use Rebuilder for under 80% compression, above that I will use Intercopy3, CloneDvd 2, or Recode 2. There are a lot of options, just try what you feel will work well with you and your system...again highlight the movie or particular extras and then hit the little play button to preview...it should work. Hope this helps. If you need anything else just let me know and I'll try to help.
MovieDud

[nwrigley]

Ok, I've gotten the preview feature to work, but only for some of my dvds. One thing I am curious about is that on the first copy I made using InterCopy, I used the costumize setting to get rid of the subtitles and compress the menu, but the final Copy ended up being 4.08 gigs on my harddrive. Why wouldn't it use all the space available for a single dvd? Is this common for the program?

[nwrigley]

MovieDud:

I was also wondering what your impression of the different "quality levels" were (1-6). I'm curious what is the lowest level that you personally found to be exceptable.