Hi Guys, I admit I'm a newb when it comes to backing up my DVD's and reading through all the posts I seem to get more and more confused as to which burner app I should get to start backing up dvd's. Everyone has their favourites and I can't decide. I'm sure this type of question has been asked but I can't find a post like this so forgive me if I'm asking stuff that has been posted. I have just bought a Pioneer DVD-A11XLA (and updated the firmware) and I want to get started in backing up. I want to make the highest quality 1:1 backups. Which program(s) should I use? A lot of people suggest AnyDVD and CloneDVD Other people suggest InterVideo DVD Copy 4 Platinum with AnyDVD Then I read the guide "High Quality DVD-9 Backups With DVD Rebuilder & CCE Basic" Others say DVD Shrink with Nero Recode etc I don't mind going through a huge tutorial if it means getting the best quality. I'm just confused. Which is the best? Is there a clear winner or does one app sometimes before better but then another does it better depending on the movie? Any help on this would be most appreciated. Thanks
Hello gobakes, There are so many choices out there it can be a bit confusing. I burn dls on occasion but have opted to use the dvd 5's whenever possible. DLs used to be about 5-6 bucks a pop now you can find them for 2 bucks on a regular basis if you keep your eyes open. The single layer (DVD5) are about 45-75 cents each depending on what you buy and how many at a time. !!!!DON'T BUY CHEAP/CRAPPY MEDIA!!!!! Start with rewritables till you get the hang of it. I have a small arsenal of programs I use. Here are my favorites. DVD Decrypter if you can find it. Free Any DVD cost $$$$ Vob Blanker Free IFO Edit Free Vob Edit Free DVD Shrink Free DVDFab Decrypter Free I suggest you get a hold of as many programs as you can and see which ones work for you. Then don't stop looking for new stuff. As you get better at backing up you will want to do more things and will need new programs. Good luck.
Hi travalon, Thanks for your reply. So I spent all yesterday playing around with different programs and settings, reading tuts etc. Thanks for your advice on using re-writables first, that has saved me a lot of coasters. I used AnyDVD and Nero Recode and I liked that. I have no idea if that is a good combination but the end result was a DVD-9 to DVD-5 +RW and the quality was suprisingly good. The quality was reduced to 65% and I thought that would be crap, but it came up really good on my T.V. What is the best program for backing up DVD-9 to DVD-9? No compression, no cutting out audio, special features etc, a near to perfect copy. Is DVD Rebuilder with CCE good? Any others? What do most people seem to use for DL? It's all a little overwhelming but thanks to people like you, I've made a start. Thanks for your help.
For a 1:1 copy to a DL disc I recommend dvd decrypter iso read, iso write. For compression to a dvd5 anything more than 80% then dvd-rb/cce or other encoding app. (hc encoder, procoder) is by far the way to go for video quality. You will sacrifice time for quality though. Well worth the wait.
Mort81, thanks for your reply. Yes it seems a lot of people are saying DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink and ImgBurn for DL. I'm a little confused to what you mean by "more than 80%"? When recode (or any other program) after I've omiited what I don't want says 70%. Does this mean that the dvd title will be compressed to 70% of the original? Or does it mean 30%? If the program reads 100% is this near perfect or should it read 0%. ie no compression. Does that make sense?
gobakes, I did kind of say that backwards. It was late. I recommend rb with cce, hc, or procoder on any project requiring more than 20 - 25% compression. I seldom mess with any backup utilities other than rb/cce. I'm sold on it and time is not an issue since I want the best video quality possible (other than using DL media).
Mort81, I've been reading up on the guide for DVDRB with CCE and it's really outdated. I have the latest pro version of RB (1.09.3) and CCE SP but all the menus have changed since the guide was made and I can't get past the second page. Do you know of an updated guide I can follow. This method seems the way to go but it all looks a little confusing at the moment. Cheers.
See if either of these will help http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=54897 http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=55302
Mort and the others are right on the Rebuilder, great app for DVD5 backups (at least in my opinion). If you hang around long enough you get to where you understand what people are saying about compression levels by the context. When a person says the backup was at 80% compression, that usually means the backup was compressed 20% and the output is 80% of the original. We're just talking ratios. The 1:1 you mentioned is an uncompressed copy. When we say something like the compression was 70% or the compression ratio was 70%, we mean the source was compressed 30% so the output is 70% of original (70:30 or 7:3). Normally you will see the numbers above 50% as the percentage the original was [bold]compressed to[/bold] (70% of original) and the lower numbers as the amount of compression ([bold]compressed by[/bold] 30%). When in doubt ask. If you do like most of us, you'll be compressing to DVD5 due to cost constraints. Rebuilder is an easy app. The old guide was mainly for the manual setup. The installer now makes that unnecessary. As for the old settings, most of those are still applicable. The app runs well at default till you learn the tweaks. L8 is working on a beginner guide posted on http://www.dvdhounds.com/ He's been compiling as much updated info as possible from AD and some other forums. For those tasks 75-80%, needing to be compressed less than 20-25%, the transcoders can be used with decent results. Several have been mentioned here, mostly good. Some of the ones I have are DVDCopy 4, Recode 2, CloneDVD 2, DVDFab Platinum, and DVD Shrink. (By the way, for those who don't think DVDCopy 4 has burn speed control, check the Disc Tool.) A lot with these depends on user preference for the interface. DVDCopy 4 has a broader range of formats than most, a little clumsy at custom editing, but has edit features and the easy movie only setting. Once one reviews the settings and gets the feel, most of these are simple and easy to use. Spend the bucks and get the AnyDVD to use for copyright protection. Background decrypter (driver type), includes a ripper with FixVTS (records cleaned files to the hard drive and processes for compliance at the same time), and is usually the first for needed updates addressing newly released copyright protections. DVDFab Decrypter is a good freebie, it's a ripper. DVD Decrypter as a standalone tool is now obsolete for ripping but still does a lot of releases, just not a sure thing. Besides being a decryption tool, DVD Decrypter is a burner and a good freebie. The new ImgBurn is the updated version of Decryter's ISO W function. If one relocates and renames ImgBurn's exe file, they can have ImgBurn burn automatically instead of Decrypter. If you like the Recode for transcoding, then you have an excellent burning suite to go along with it in the Nero 7 suite. There's lots of good burning software. So VSO supporters don't get upset, There's CopyToDVD and other software that does a good job.
Thanks to travalon, Mort81 and brobear for all your help. I feel like I'm getting somewhere now. I've managed to piece together info on DVD DB with the links provided and feel like I've set it up fairly basic with CCE but that should be enough for now. I'm sticking to RW for now and practicing with the features. Can DVD RB cut out entire features (ie a special feature I don't want) or can it just reduce the quality? How much quality do you usually reduce it? 10/25/33/50%? What program should I burn with? I'm using the latest Nero but is ImageBurn or Decrypter better quality with DVD RB? I'm all about quality over speed. How can you tell how much DVD RB will reduce the quality of the main title (80%, 70%)? I can't find this window. If I have a T.V series (The Office) how do I split it up to two DVD-5's? I saw some sort of guide on this but I can't find it anymore? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just keen to learn. You don't have to answer them all, I understand how busy you all are. Thanks for the help again. Much appreciated.
gobakes, I highly recommend upgrading rb to the pro vs. ($25 I think). It will allow you to edit out parts of the folder you don't want (previews and extras) although in order to do this you have to use 3 click mode (prepare, encode, rebuild). A lot of us use utilities to edit the folder prior to loading it into rb. I use a retail app called dvdremake but there are other freeware apps that will edit also. Vobblanker and ifoedit are a couple. The pro vs. will also build an iso file if you choose and then you can burn it with imgburn or decrypter or set rb to burn it automatically when done. Iso's or video files are really just a matter of preferance neither is better than the other. Personally I prefer video files since I occassionally have playback problems on my set top player with iso files. I can't answer your question about splitting onto 2 dvd5 discs since I have never done so with rb. Rb will tell you the reduction level in the text document when it has completed. Some ppl use other apps such as dvd shrink to analyze and get an idea of the reduction level prior to using rb. I've done many backups that the reduction level was 55 - 60% and they turned out great. I could never say that with any other app.
Hi Mort81, Thanks for your reply. I've managed to get a little further thanks to your (and others) help. I now have the pro version of DVDRB and I have changed it to 3 click mode using CCE. When do you get a chance to edit out parts? I can see where to edit out the audio and subtitle options before I click "prepare" but nothing else. I click prepare and it does it's thing and then it shows all the vob files (i think that's what they're called) and I see the "preview/edit" tab on the far right (next to options) but when I click on one of the files nothing previews. I can't tell what each file is and if I need it. If I double click it blanks it out, then slideshow, then no compress etc but I can't view it. Am I doing something wrong. How do you view the files? If I bought DVDReMake would that solve this issue? You do all the editing there and just the encoding in DVDRB? The other question is time. I backed up my copy of The Office (the first DVD with 6 ep's and nothing else). I have AnyDVD running in the background, pointed DVDRB to the Video_TS folder and clicked, prepare, encode and rebuild. I didn't output to ISO. This took forever. Propbably about 3/4 hours. Is this a normal time? If I ripped the Video_TS files to harddrive first would that be faster rather than straight from the DVD? What do you do? Now I'm extremely happy with the results (the picture quality is fantastic), I'm patient, I don't mind waiting that long for quality results but what program to do you burn the final results to? I have Nero and ImgBurn. Nero can burn VIDEO_TS but I think ImgBurn can only do ISO. Is this correct? Should I output to ISO next time? Is one better then the other for VIDEO_TS burns? Or doesn't it matter? Thanks for all your help. I feel like I'm very close to understanding all this and I couldn't have done it without people like you so cheers.
gobakes, It should show up in the preview screen when you click on each vts. I don't know why you're not seeing anything. May be because the dvd needs to be ripped to your hdd. I always rip it to my hdd using the rip to hdd feature in anydvd but you can also use dvdfab decrypter or dvd decrypter. I recommend ripping the dvd prior to using rb/cce. In the long run it will be faster. I do all my editing using dvdremake and then load the edited folder into rb/cce. Remake though is retail. $35 I think for the reg vs. You can also use vobblanker or ifoedit which are freeware apps. I just prefer remake. Since you have the pro vs of rb you can burn the finished folder with nero or similiar burning rom or you can select create iso and then burn the iso with imgburn or dvd decrypter. You can even have rb automatically burn the iso when it is done if you so choose. You will need to have a blank disc loaded into your dvdrw drive.
Mort81, Geez, you must be sick of me by now. Sorry for all the questions, believe me I'm trying my hardest before I ask you. I owe you big time. Maybe if I actually learn all this, I can help someone here as well! 1. When you insert a DVD to backup, right click on AnyDVD and select the "Rip Video-Disk to Harddisk" option do you tick the box that says "Remove unreferenced and blank cells"? What does this option do? Should I tick it or not? I've noticed that if this box is ticked sometimes the rip is slightly smaller in size to the original. Is this normal? Are the bits it gets rid of just junk or something? 2. I assume that after I've ripped the DVD to my Hardrive, the copy protection, region etc is removed. Do you still run AnyDVD in the background when using DVDRB? 3. I still can't preview anything in the Preview/Edit tab in DVDRB. I have the latest version but I can't tell what each file is. I can preview them in Recode fine but nothing with DVDRB. When I look at the VTS files in "My Explorer" the icon representing all the VTS files is Nero Showtime icons (I have the Nero 7 Premium). Could this be disagreeing with DVDRB? What icon do you have when viewing VTS files? 4. My mate has an older version of DVDReMake (3.4) and I tried it out. Got everything working, cut all the stuff I didn't want. It was really easy. Exported. Seemed fine. Went to load it up in DVDRB, seems ok, the stuff I want is still there. Go to prepare - fine, encode - fine, go to backup and it gets all the way to the end (like the last file) and has an error. Try to load it with Nero and it has an error like "relocation of files error". What am I doing wrong. I tried this twice (like 5 hours of waiting) Has this ever happened to you? If I don't use DVDReMake I'm fine (I have made two backups with DVDRB and their great) but I can't tell what to cut cause I can't preview anything. Do you see my dilemma? Thanks in advance.
Goodness, your having quit a time with rb/cce. I'll try to answer your questions. 1)check the box. 2)either way. Won't make any difference. 3)I still don't know what is wrong here. Try a fresh install of rebuilder. My vts folders are powerdvd icons. 4)Not sure on this one either. Try a different dvd/movie. Try using vobblanker to edit. Sorry about the short undetailed answers. I've had a frustrating day.
