DVDShrink - The latest in 9->5 software

[SVCDummy]

Amazing! Murphy's Law Prevails!

I bought Pinnacle IC last week and it sat on my desk un-opened until midnight last night when I finally decided I would not return it to the store. I opened it and installed it before getting too sleepy to test it.

This morning I got up to finish installing the IC updates and test it when I found this little gem here on this site! Needles to say... I haven't even bothered to test IC7 and am in the middle of testing this instead!

So Far X-men ripped and it is in the middle of a 1x DVD-RW burn. If it works (which Murphy almost insists) Then I have found my solution, even if it did cost me a copy of IC 7 that will sit idle!

I made it point to use ONLY the software as downloaded and then burn the files to DVD-RW with only the Nero Express that came with the drive. This will validate the true "FREE" tagline.

More news in about an hour when the burn is done.

[spudz2]

Do you know why I can´t see the right colors in the preview window? I´m trying to reencode Deep Blue Sea but all I see is purple and green in the preview window. Will it show the right colors in the burned DVD? Also, is there a feature to change widescreen to fullscreen? Thanks in advance.

Why would you want to convert widescreen to fullscreen? Most people that want fullscreen simply don't know much about what there missing with fullscreen.. Read the following 2 pages of this url and then come back and tell me you STILL want to convert from widescreen to fullscreen or even want to buy a fullscreen dvd over a widescreen dvd...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

[SVCDummy]

OK, so maybe it's not so great after all...

During the going into the transcoding process I had selected all of the regions (this was supposed to make it regionfree). After burning it and placing it in all of the stand alone players in the house it won't play.

It gives "Wrong Region" error on all of them!

I put it in the following players:

Apex 600
Apex 1200
Apex 1500
Yamakawa DVD218

I am going to try it with just 1 region this time. It just takes so long to burn the -RW format.

[MackemX]

just check the ifo to see what it did

[Faustus]

We did one and selected all regions and it works fine, not sure what the deal is there.

Apex AD-1500

[The_Hermit1971]

Hi spudz2. I already knew that we are not seeing the entire picture when converting widescreen to full screen. I just hate the black bars.

Just think about I´m going to say. We have been watching VHS for about 23 years. All of the VHS tapes are widescreen movies converted to fullscreen. I mean, for 23 years we have been watching our entire screen filled. It is not easy when somebody tell us that we have to pay 4 or 5 times the price of a standard tv (a price I can´t afford) just to see our entire creen filled again otherwise, we must see it with two black bars.

It is just a matter of tastes. I´ll change widescreen to fullscreen whenever I can.

[MackemX]

4 or 5 times as much?

what country do you live in The_Hermit1971?

[The_Hermit1971]

MackemX: I live in Puerto Rico.

I went to store A and the cheaper widescreen TV was abot $1,500. Then I went to store B and the cheaper 32" standard TV (the same height that the one I checked previously I think) was abot $400. Do the math, the standard TV is about 4 times cheaper than the widescreen.

[MackemX]

phew!, that is quite a difference

[porto]

I encoded Tripple X with it, had no problems with playing on a finlux and a panasonic standalone DVDplayer when checking all region codes.

One disadvantage with DVDshrink though:

I wanted to encode Blade II (movie only, 6.2GB) onto 1 dvd-r but level 2 compression gave me 4,65gb (too much) and level 3 gave me 3.7GB (too little).... so, why can't the compression also be altered manually when the automatic options don't suffice?

I had to do the movie with dvd2one instead, setting the dvdlimit to 4,37gb and it transcoded with a charm and with optimal quality for 1 dvd-r!

but my main opinion about this program: VERY COOL and I hope the author will keep up the good work and maybe implement some neat stuff in the future!

[SVCDummy]

Okay... finally determined that you cannot take the output files from DVDShrink and burn them with Nero Express 5.5.10.3 that came with the drive.

I Used DVDShrink to transcode XMen DVD (complete with menus) and then tried to burn the output files to DVD using the Nero Express. When the burn is complete, the disk works in PowerDVD and WinDVD but all of the stand alone players generate the "Wrong Region" error. The transcoding was done once with all regions selected and the second time with only my home region selected and the results were the same.

If then opened Pinnacle IC7 and selected the same DVDShrink output files as the source, and let IC7 create the image on the hard drive and then burn it. This was the only way I could get a successful copy that plays in all the stand alone players.

This tells me the "Wrong Region" problem is introduced by Nero !!!

Does anyone know of a freeware burn program that can work with the DVDShrink output files and create working images or burns?

I tried to use DVDDecrypter but it only knows how to work with image files. It cannot handle the .BUP, .IFO, and .VOB files that DVDShrink generates.

Still looking for the simple 'freeware' answer. DVDShrink gets us over most of the hump. Now we just need a free burn package.

[MackemX]

just use Ifoedit and region free it that way b4 u burn if DVDShrink don't do it

I can't see Nero region coding the DVD, unless they have implemented it just recently

[Bob W]

I encoded Tripple X with it, had no problems with playing on a finlux and a panasonic standalone DVDplayer when checking all region codes.

One disadvantage with DVDshrink though:

I wanted to encode Blade II (movie only, 6.2GB) onto 1 dvd-r but level 2 compression gave me 4,65gb (too much) and level 3 gave me 3.7GB (too little).... so, why can't the compression also be altered manually when the automatic options don't suffice?

I had to do the movie with dvd2one instead, setting the dvdlimit to 4,37gb and it transcoded with a charm and with optimal quality for 1 dvd-r!

but my main opinion about this program: VERY COOL and I hope the author will keep up the good work and maybe implement some neat stuff in the future!

OK I have made five DVDR's with this program and I have to agree that there is a problem with DVD limit or level compression. In both cases level 3 was over the 4.38 limit and selecting level 4 would have produced a DVDR file of 3.9 and 3.6 GHz. That's leaving to much video on the table IMO. What I think the program needs is to either a slider to change the compression on the fly or five preset levels, or better yet have the program calculate one of the levels to come out 4.38GB every time.

[Bob W]

just use Ifoedit and region free it that way b4 u burn if DVDShrink don't do it

I can't see Nero region coding the DVD, unless they have implemented it just recently

I just selected region 1 and had no problems. Why would I want to check a bunch of regions in the first place?

[MackemX]

just use Ifoedit and region free it that way b4 u burn if DVDShrink don't do it

I can't see Nero region coding the DVD, unless they have implemented it just recently

I just selected region 1 and had no problems. Why would I want to check a bunch of regions in the first place?

eh?, try reading SVCDummy's problem

[boss]

svc dummy said...
During the going into the transcoding process I had selected all of the regions (this was supposed to make it regionfree). After burning it and placing it in all of the stand alone players in the house it won't play.

i thought that all the region boxes had to be UNCHECKED in order for the disc to be multiregion!
also, is there anyway to leave out video streams in the re-encode mode? i know you can do this in the reauthor mode, but if you use this mode then the menus won't work properly!

[MackemX]

from help file

Select the target regions in which your DVD will play. If you don't know what this means, select them all, which will create a region-free disk.

[Bob W]

from help file

Select the target regions in which your DVD will play. If you don't know what this means, select them all, which will create a region-free disk.

Might be a typo. Seems logical that if you un-check all the disc would be region free IMO.

[MackemX]

not a typo cos if you tick them all then open the IFO it says all regions enabled 1,2,3,4,5,6,7+8

if you tick 1 + 2, then it enables 1,2,7+8

[MackemX]

Okay... finally determined that you cannot take the output files from DVDShrink and burn them with Nero Express 5.5.10.3 that came with the drive.

I Used DVDShrink to transcode XMen DVD (complete with menus) and then tried to burn the output files to DVD using the Nero Express. When the burn is complete, the disk works in PowerDVD and WinDVD but all of the stand alone players generate the "Wrong Region" error. The transcoding was done once with all regions selected and the second time with only my home region selected and the results were the same.

you must have unchecked all the boxes cos if you do you get just regions 7 + 8 in IFO

[mosh]

@SVCDummy

This is a bit of a long winded way but it may help you overcome the region problem. You could use DvDdecrypter to either put a image of dvd and then mount with Daemon tools has a virtual disc or copy all files and this will make the movie region free then when you use dvdshrink it has no region encoding so it might bypass this option of setting the region.

[PumpkinKing]

Yeah, I'm well pleased with this program so far. As above, the only thing I would improve is to add a slider bar so you have more control over the compression, just like the one on TMPEG.

I'm just glad I've found something that can compress DVD's in less than the 12 hours TMPEG used to take on my PC!!

[MackemX]

I'm just glad I've found something that can compress DVD's in less than the 12 hours TMPEG used to take on my PC!!

so I take it you've been in the deep forests of wildest borneo for the last 3 months?

what about IC, DVD95copy & DVD2One?

[PumpkinKing]

Yeah, I haven't been on the scene for a few months as I all but gave up on this DVD lark after waiting half of my life away using TMPEG...

Then all these "do it in one" programs pop up, luckily DVDShrink was the first one I tried.

Anyone used Level 3 compression on anything? I did Blue Crush using Level 2 but there were a few too many artifacts for my liking. Level 1 looked great though (just had to take off the commentary tracks - so no great loss)!

[MackemX]

Level 3, is not so good if you are a quality fan

Level 1 is supposed to be OK but I can never get there , as I keep more than movie

no doubt it will improve as it's just upped the stakes in the DVD Backup tools war as the late entry

[SVCDummy]

Ta Dah!!!

Finally got it!

It turns out that the problem really was NERO!

I used Nero Express 5.5.10.3 that came with the drive and got coasters

I upgraded to Nero Express 5.5.10.20 with the free upgrade from the Ahead Nero website and now have 2 successful burns!

Nero Express 5.5.10.3 screws up the region data!!!!!! Don't Use It!

Thanx for all the help folks.

Now I'm happy.

[MackemX]

so what do the IFO's say that you burnt with 5.5.10.30 when you open them?

surely it can't be messing with them, or even worse region coding them to the same as the burner's setting

[nerdboy69]

About to give this baby something to sink its teeth into ...
The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy

It's a 7+ giga-bugger-mother. 6 episodes of 32+ minutes.
This is rather an extreme case, but stuff it, i want to try.

LOL, when it did its calcs on its highest compression, it was still 4.46 Gb.
I was forced to remove secondary audio tracks to make it fit ... just.

Co-incidentally, I only read about this DVDShrink thingee whilst I was bored waiting for InstantCopy to do this very same DVD. InstantCopy has been at it for an hour, and still has an hour to go (not counting the time it took me to RIP to HD. This little baby reckons it can do it in less than 30 min.

We shall see the results. Chances are I will see stick figures and block men making wise-cracks, but i gotta know. I actually expect it to turn out like one of my young daughters finger paintings, because this is a really unfair test, but wtf.

Will post results ... probably tomorrow because i have to wait for #@$# InstantCopy.

[MackemX]

that's one of the funniest posts I've read all day

no doubt that slight sizing hiccup will be sorted out soon tho

could you not just run it through again?, if the 1st was just over and reduce one of the naffy extras more to fit?

it will fly thru cos it should in theory just copy the majority of the files over

so keep your main title to level 2 and rerun the extras again, they may be naff, but at least the main title will be ok which is what you see 99% of the time you play the DVD

[sammie]

I had the same region code problem as SVCDummy. Won't play on standalone (using my old RCA which plays pretty much everything), but plays fine on computer. I even went back with IFOedit and ran regioncode free. No deal. It's doing something wierd with RCE. Other than that (it didn't work, Doh), it looks and feels great.