Is there a compression technique that will preserve CC?

[QuaiBoy]

Hi. I'm looking for a way to compress DVD backups and keep the Closed Captioning intact. What are people using for DVDs and 5.1 channel sound? I was thinking H.264 w/AAC. I don't need to preserve the menus on the dvds, just the main feature itself.

If not CC, then how about preserving subtitles? I want to watch these files w/Beyond Media, which I'm not even sure has subtitle/CC support. If someone can recommend a playback solution as fully featured and compatible with Windows 2000/XP that would be great.

Thanks,
-Evan

[redwudz]

I can't help you much with CC, but subs can be handled by quite a few players. The most versatile may be VLC Media Player. Others should also do well.

For DVD backups, DVDFab HD Decrypter to DVD Shrink to ImgBurn is about the best, IMO. That gives you a DVD that will playback on most any player.

If you want compressed, AutoGK to Divx/Xvid would be a good choice. Use a bitrate that gives you about a 1GB file if you want good quality. IMO.

H.264 is great, but it takes a fair amount of CPU power to encode and the same for decode/playback. And also a fair amount of time for the encoding, even with newer CPUs to do the encoding. CC or subs, you would have to see what options are available for the encoding program and the software player.

Usually, I would go for Xvid/Divx, as when the encoding is properly set up, the file will work with many set top players. That just gives you a few more options for the future. Very few set top players can play back H.264. If you use a computer, OK. But you need a fairly fast one most times.

Hope that helps a bit.