Apologies in advance for the long post. A bit of background first. I am in the camp of suffering macroblocking problems with Intervideo DVDCopy2. I use DVD Decrypter, all files mode, to create the "input". I generally send the DVDCopy2 "output" to the hard drive so I can check out the extent of the macroblocking with a software player before burning. If I do burn, the same macroblocking that I see with the software player shows up when playing the burned disk (TDK DVD-R) on a set top player. Although I have seen posts indicating that DVDCopy2 has macroblocking issues with "old" movies, about the worst I saw was from a "recent" movie - a backup of Lost in Translation R1, movie only. Besides the macroblocking, the movie-only backup wouldn't auto-start (the main movie was in title 16 or something, and I could only get it to autostart after editing first play "commands" in IfoEdit). Now the point. I had an email thread back and forth with Intervideo support, who said that, using AnyDVD, they had no problem backing up Lost in Translation, movie only - no macroblocking, no autostart issue. I have a hard time believing this, but it makes me wonder whether using AnyDVD could make a difference. I don't have AnyDVD, don't see how it could make a difference, and don't want to buy it (or add more clutter to my system to try it) unless someone out there suggests that I may be wrong. Speaking of clutter, I also wonder whether DVDCopy2 is "impeded" by all the other stuff I have on the system. e.g., Nero 5.5.10.56, DVDXCopy 1.52. Again, however, there are no obvious conflicts - just too much macroblocking. Thanks!
Seems that the latest update of ver. 2 is supposed to solve many problems. I use ver. 1.2 and have not experienced any macro blocking. For a true Movie Only in 1.2 (no menu etc.) I always 'Select Main Movies' in Decrypter and rip to disc. Maybe that will also work for ver. 2.
I also use DVDcopy2 and I backed up over 40 moivies before I experienced the Macro blocks. The problem seems to occur mostly on older movies but it is a problem with the software. I've emailed Intervideo and sent them snashots of the Macro blocking and if they don't answer shortly then I'm going to start a thread that will deal with the issue. Keep an eye for it. The good news it that DVDcopy2 at its best is a great transcoder.
Sophocles - I've been following some of your related posts. Good luck in leading the charge on the "macroblocking" issue. Maybe you could also get Intervideo to fix the autostart issue with "movie only" (which, my guess, occurs when the main movie is not in title 1). Thanks also to MysticE.
lcymru Some things work better in numbers and if you tried to contact them with no results then keep checking the threads.
I did go back and forth via email with an Intervideo support person who hung in there for a while. His first recommendation was to uninstall DVDCopy2, delete the Intervideo program files folder, reboot and reinstall. This was no remedy. When I suggested he try backing up Lost in Translation, movie only, and he told me that his backup was perfect (see my first post) I got the feeling that he was saying, in effect, that he had nothing more to offer.
lcymru Thanks for sharing that information, I know that Intervideo is looking forward to our visit. Keep in touch. This isn't settled. _X_X_X_X_X_[small] "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930)[/small]
Icymru... I dl'd DVDCopy2 (Platinum trial) and AnyDVD (trial) this past weekend to do some tests. I was trying DVDCopy2 as an alternate encoding tool for Remake Pro files. (Remake is a re-authoring tool whose files are first prepared by Decrypter). Most folks run Remake files through Rebuilder/CCE - which takes me 3-1/2 hours - and I wanted a quicker solution for movies not needing a lot of compression. I've used Shrink and DVD2One for this, but because of the positive Copy2 reports, I wanted to try it. I tried all sorts of variations with Copy2 using old and new movies. I did not notice any difference at all in the output between opening with AnyDVD, starting with Decrypted files, or with any minor editing of Remake files. Output was the same. All these were viewed from the hd on a 17 inch monitor. So, in my opinion, I would say AnyDVD is more of a convenience. I also expected to see quality comparable to RB/CCE, but it wasn't there. In fact, IMHO, I think DVD2One does a better job than Copy2. I also had a chance to try the Shrink 3.2 beta, and right now its my opinion that it runs a very close second to RB/CCE. Still more testing to do on the beta, but as such, it doesn't make sense for me to purchase Copy2 - especially with the rash of recent complaints. BTW, I also got severe macro blocking with the initial AnyDVD method. On a hunch, I defragged my 120 HD that was still 85% free. This was the last I saw of the macroblocking. The defragging did not improve the overall visual quality, though. _X_X_X_X_X_[small][/small]
