The Jury is in: IC7 vs. DVD2One

[Red96TA]

Alright...from everything I've read, bitrate is what everthing is all about...If that's the case, please endulge and comment about these findings:

When Harry Met Sally
Original: 4.8gb, 7567 avg. bitrate
DVD2One: 4.7gb, 7161 avg. bitrate

Independance Day
Original: 7.4gb, 6445 avg. bitrate
DVD2One: 4.7gb, 3800 avg. bitrate
Instant Copy: 3.9gb, 2600 avg. bitrate

*Average bitrates were gathered from Bitrate Viewer. All file size comparisons were for the MOVIE ONLY.

IMO, I think that Instant Copy has a better picture, but how do you account for the large differences in bitrates? Granted, the bitrate difference is because of file size, but how does one account for the quality changes (if any) between the two. Surely transcoding speed can not be the ONLY factor to play a part. This is the first objective look at the two programs (or attempt at subjectivity).

What do you folks think...

[Bob W]

I try not to "think" these days, it gives me a headache.

On the one movie I used both programs I can't see any difference but hey I'm no expert nor do I see well anymore.

[ivanolo]

Is DVD2One the only program that allows you to copy the DVD without menus or extras? Is an MPEG-2 stream always encoded at VBR in original DVD movies or could CBR be used instead?

[Bob W]

Is DVD2One the only program that allows you to copy the DVD without menus or extras? Is an MPEG-2 stream always encoded at VBR in original DVD movies or could CBR be used instead?

I believe you could remove the menu and extras using DVD95 Copy.
http://www.dvd95copy.com/

[ivanolo]

DVD95Copy will add this and other features in future releases. Since I still haven't bought a DVD-R/RW and probably won't be getting it very soon (since I don't have enough money just yet) I think waiting can't hurt me... Thanks for the input. Is this program at least as good as InstantCopy or DVD2One?

[The Limper]

Great to see those tests but I have a question.
DVD2ONE rips only the main movie unless you play around with IFOEdit etc. IC7 rips everything including menus.
If you don't play around with the settings and leave it default your main movie will have a much worse transcode because space is being taken up by the extra material.
For this test to be an accurate measure of the bitrate then you would be de-selecting all the extra stuff from IC7 and ripping only the primary movie and sliding up the quality bar to the most you can get.
Maybe you did this but I'm not sure.

[Bob W]

I don't know since I havn't yet bought the program. I emailed the author since I want to put the program on a computer without a connection to the net and his program requires a connection to get the code to activate it (catch22).

[tgferg67]

Could someone with experience also tell us "untrained" eyes what/where to look for quality differences when trying to compare visually. Dark scenes, Light scenes, water, explosions ect.

[CrappoMan]

You will see differences in dark areas, detailed areas and especially fire scenes.

Goto MrBass's site: http://www.mrbass.org/instantcopy and click on "Transcoding comparison screenshots of DVD2ONE vs. InstantCopy 7" at the bottom.

The three pictures look almost the same, but there are subtle differences, especially around the eyes and in the bottom right corner of the water.

The differences between the original and the instantcopy version's are so small that you have to zoom in to see them, whereas the dvd2one version looks fuzzy and out of focus even at normal size (1x).

[Bob W]

Blah on the movie I did using both programs I sure don't see any "fuzzy" picture on either copy. I guess If I looked at them both frame by frame and blew them up I might notice a difference but lucky for me that's not exactly how I watch a movie.

[tgferg67]

Thanks for the info. Those picture comparisons on MrBass's site show quite a difference in my eyes. Especially in the upper left chest area of his jacket(his left your right). You can clearly see a the pattern/direction of the material in his jacket in the original and IC where in the DVD2ONE the pattern is no longer visible and appears pixilated.

[jarvis1781]

I know the answer:

The reason IC 7 looks better with a lower bitrate is because it encodes with a variable bitrate. After analysing the video stream it decides where to allocate more and where to allocate less. Allocating more to areas where the video has more detail and more motion produces a much better picture. On still scenes it can use less and you won't notice a difference.

DVD2One on the other hand does not encode...it uses a compression engine to work. Thus you have a higher output but the quality may not be as good.