DVD backup questions

TKK

I've got a couple of DVD's with cracks in the centre ring (stacked wrongly during a move) which, luckily, have not yet reached the data section which I want to backup.....

I've used DVD Decrypter and SmartRipper to rip the DVD's in question to my hard drive but now I need to find a good transcoder....

I know a lot of people swear by DVDShrink but from reviews and tests I've read it's not really the best....now I'm something of a quality freak....ie. I would get annoyed if the quality is not fairly near-perfect....I'm open to but not keen on disk spanning....ideally I would like to put the movie only onto a disk thus keeping the quality....what do ye think? Any recommendations for software?

Also I've got a NEC ND2500-A burner which I'm led to believe through research I can firmware upgrade to a region-free, dual layer burner....does anyone know if this is true?

RuggieBear

TKK wrote:

Also I've got a NEC ND2500-A burner which I'm led to believe through research I can firmware upgrade to a region-free, dual layer burner....does anyone know if this is true?

Yeah...seemingly it's possible but can be hit and miss whether it actually works

mayto

yeah you can add dual layer support,removes rip lock ,region code and get higher burning speeds on most discs. dual layer discs are about 8 euro each so i would not be buying them at that price. flashed my 2500a months ago and working fine. link is here for the herrie firmware i used http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=96333&page=1&pp=25

TKK

mayto wrote:

yeah you can add dual layer support,removes rip lock ,region code and get higher burning speeds on most discs. dual layer discs are about 8 euro each so i would not be buying them at that price. flashed my 2500a months ago and working fine. link is here for the herrie firmware i used http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=96333&page=1&pp=25

Yeah that's the firmware I was looking at alright....I may do this next week to see if I can get any improvement....I'm also looking at getting a DVD-ROM for ripping....

blorg

I use Pinnacle Instant Copy for discs that need a lot of shrinkage. For smaller shrinkage (say 85%+) DVDShrink is very good, if you use the latest version (3.2, which has major improvements) and turn on all the improve quality options in the Quality Settings tab in the backup dialog (this slows it down but improves quality). Most of the comparisons/reviews on the net use older versions AFAIK. Also DVDShrink is free.

TKK

blorg wrote:

I use Pinnacle Instant Copy for discs that need a lot of shrinkage. For smaller shrinkage (say 85%+) DVDShrink is very good, if you use the latest version (3.2, which has major improvements) and turn on all the improve quality options in the Quality Settings tab in the backup dialog (this slows it down but improves quality). Most of the comparisons/reviews on the net use older versions AFAIK. Also DVDShrink is free.

I am aware that DVDShrink is free....thanks for the info on the advanced settings....I really don't mind it slowing down a bit as I'll gladly sacrifice a bit of time for better quality....

Mutant_Fruit

Well, if you are a quality freak, the last thing you want to use is a transcoder. (unless you're only doing extremely low compression).

I'd advise taking a look at DVD-Rebuilder, in combination with CCE (Cinemacraft Encoder). Encoders offer far higher quality than transcoders when you go above a 20% reduction in size, and are comparable in other cases.

www.doom9.org has the DVD-Rebuilder forum, so take a read of it.

MisterAnarchy

Clone DVD is the top man.
I've used all the transcoders and it is the fastest by far.
Its also retains excellent picture quality.

greglo23

here( http://tdb.rpc1.org/) is your best bet for firmware that works !! to get the closest to an uncompressed copy ,eg, the film only , try this. in dvd decrypter click edit ,main movie files and ifo`s and rip . open shrink and click reauthor. navigate to the folder created by decrypter. you should have one big file there and maybe one small. the small one is usually only the opening logo but you can view it in shrink anyway. click on the files in the right hand pane until they move to the left pane and click backup. it will do the rest itself. depending on the length of the film you should get an almost uncompressed copy of your damaged disk. by the way you need nero for shrink to burn properly. i`d definitely upgrade your firmware as since i`ve done mine (medion dvd recorder, pioneer 107 d inside ) bought in aldi for E99, i can now burn 4x dvd - at 8x.!!!!

TKK

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Well, if you are a quality freak, the last thing you want to use is a transcoder. (unless you're only doing extremely low compression).

I'd advise taking a look at DVD-Rebuilder, in combination with CCE (Cinemacraft Encoder). Encoders offer far higher quality than transcoders when you go above a 20% reduction in size, and are comparable in other cases.

www.doom9.org has the DVD-Rebuilder forum, so take a read of it.

I should clarify....I do like good quality and would like to get the best quality for the job in hand....having read several reviews and the likes I was led to believe that DVDShrink does a good job but is not the best, quality wise, at what it does....

In other words what I'm looking for is the best quality transcoder....

Your suggestions for DVD-Rebuilder merits investigation though....

blorg

Quality is relative; if you can't notice the difference even when you are looking carefully during the course of a film then I think the copy is good enough! I'm watching the output of Instant Copy (and DVD Shrink on films that only need a slight shrinkage) on a ten-foot wide HDTV 720p projector and I really can't see the difference with the originals.

You are probably better off 'transcoding'* rather than decoding/re-encoding when the shrinkage required is very slight. I'd only look at DVD-Rebuilder/CCE (which isn't free either) if you have to shrink a very large/long movie.

*this isn't really the right term for what DVD Shrink et al do, as a transcoder suggests something that will decode and re-encode in a different format, e.g. MPEG4. DVD Shrink AFAIK fiddles with the actual MPEG2 stream without actually decoding and re-encoding at all.

TKK

Thanks for the replies all....

I'm also currently looking for good quality RW's (I'll also need R's too once I get down to creating my backup DVD's) that won't break the bank for data backups if anyone has any good links....

Mutant_Fruit

blorg wrote:

You are probably better off 'transcoding'* rather than decoding/re-encoding when the shrinkage required is very slight. I'd only look at DVD-Rebuilder/CCE (which isn't free either) if you have to shrink a very large/long movie.

I agree with that, but the point at where shrinking (transcoding) becomes less good than re-encoding from DVD into DVD is always open to debate.

Personally, anything more than 15% has to be reencoded. Anything less than 15% can be shrinked, depending on how much time i have. Anything less than 10% always has to be shrinked (transcoded).

Transcoding just cuts out extra bits from the Mpeg stream, encoding recompresses the bits. Thats the simple way of explaining it.