Quality loss problems with dvd shrink.

After getting great advice from people here, I was able to rip and burn a DVD using DVD Shrink and burnatonce. Very easy to use and set up. Even with compression set at 7, the video and sound quality on my home theater system was excellent. I also downloaded a trial of DVD Express, which worked perfectly as advertised and as easy to use. So I guess it's a matter of paying $$ or using a free product which gives a little more flexibility but maybe takes a couple of minutes more to set up...

 

Just my two cents....
A lot of people on the forums have been dissing DVDXCOPY and the only thing I can come up with why their dissing is that they cannot afford it.
The program works great and Express kicks ass.
I backed up Pirates Of The Carribean and noticed the quality was better with Express than DVD Shrink. Shrink showed more pixelation and I just did the main movie.
Add how much time is saved with Express and its a no brainer.
I think half the people making comments never even used the Express program to tell you the truth or having technical difficulties.

 

True that I heard many were having problems with DVDXCOPY but I have a feeling a lot of it was user error.
I just notice more pixelation in Dvd Shrink in some movies.
Shrink used to be the only app I used until I discovered DVDXCOPY Xpress.
Whatever works for you I guess.
I just dont like the people coming down on DVDXCOPY so hard, when its a great product.
Now if PsiDOC could only get the Platinum edition to work with 321gone.exe that removes the warning screen.
8)

 

Forbidden -

When I used DVD Express trial version, I don't recall having an option to select just the movie. I recorded a movie from a disc that had well over 7 gigs and the program automatically copied just the main movie. Is there an option to select just parts of the disc?

PS - maybe my eyes are bad, but even at a 70% compression, the movie I copied looked great on my TV.

 

cobruh2k:
I think you misunderstood my post.
I was talking about DVD Shrink being able to select the main movie.
You are right that Xpress automatically backups the main movie or if you select "whole disc" (not sure if thats the exact title) it will backup the entire disc including the menu and special features.
You dont have the option in Xpress though to pick and choose what parts you want like the full version does.

 

Hi all.

I've lost interest in DVDXCopy a while ago, when DVDShrink v2.3 came out to be precise.
(after I finished redesigning http://backuplist.dvdxcopy.com/ )
I don't mean to say 321 softwares are bad, just that DVD Shrink does exactly what I need and with great results.
As some of you might know, DVD Shrink development has unfortunately been stopped, and the latest release v3.1.x will only go through the bug-squashing process and making of help files and translations.

I'd like to list some of DVD Shrink features, hoping one of you might list DVDXCopy ones, just to make a quick comparison:


- Built-in decryption with options to remove Macrovision, RCE, layer-break, PUO ("Prohibited User Operations": what stops you from skiping FBI warning, change audio and/or subtitles on the fly,...).

- Full-Disk: this mode enables you to backup the whole disc.
You can select any or all of the audio/subpictures streams.
You can manually apply different levels of compression to each title (Menus, Movie, Extras,..), including "No Compression" or "Still Pictures", or let DVD Shrink make some or all of the adjustments automatically.

- Re-author (no menus): this mode enables you to make "movie-only" backups or compilations from one or more DVDs ("movie + extras", "movie + movie", etc etc).
The "Start/End" feature enables you to crop titles (removing of end-credits for example) or even to use multiple levels of compression for the same title (applying "Still Pictures" to end-credits, apply less or no compression to a demanding scene, etc etc).
It also enable you to split a DVD to one or more discs, albeit while losing menus.

- Video preview including a full-screen mode.

- Audio preview.

- Burning if Nero is installed (using Nero SDK in the background).

- "Deep Analysis", to increase quality for backups requiring a fairly high level of compression.

- Custom target size.

- "Low Priority" mode, to facilitate heavy multi-tasking while analysing/processing with DVD Shrink.

- Automatic preselection of audio and/or subpicture streams.

- User selectable toolbar (5 available so far, but more will be available from DVDShrink.info).

- User selectable "Backup complete" sound.

_X_X_X_X_X_[small]~ ddlooping~
For DVD Shrink and related softwares guides and downloads, please visit http://www.dvdshrink.info[/small]

 

It's available only in the Platinum release of X Copy and Xpress.

 

Well I might as well jump in. Shrink is a very good program. Been playing around a bit with ver. 3.1.2 and I like it, pretty much a one stop solution now. The way it automatically burns with Nero (if you have it installed) is a nice touch and eliminates a lot of user error/confusion. But if you are willing to spend $40 InstantCopy 8 (with DVD Decrypter) is the way to go. On a major shrink the video quality is the best of all the above mentioned programs. It may be slow, but the end result is worth it.

 

MysticE, after having read how good IC7 was (it was a few months ago), I decided to download and register it.
I think it was $69 as I was not untitled to the then available rebate.

My first trial with the unpatch version yelded an oversize backup.
That wasn't great considering I had to wait more than 2 1/2 hours for it to be done.
My second trial was with the patched version.
After 2 1/2 more hours, the backup size ended up being a ridiculous 2.5GB.
In both cases I used the "IC7 registry tweaking" program.

I then decided it wasn't worth the agravation considering my DVD Shrink backups looked fine on my EIZO 17" LCD at 1280x1024 (better resolution than most high-end plasma screens), my 32" widescreen tv, and a few other TVs and plasma screens from local shops.

Since then, Deep Analysis has been added to DVD Shrink, resulting in even better quality.
So much so that some Instant Copy users have decided to switch to it (I'm not making this up).

_X_X_X_X_X_[small]~ ddlooping~
For DVD Shrink and related softwares guides and downloads, please visit http://www.dvdshrink.info[/small]

 

Well I was was talking about InstantCopy 8, which is available as a $39 download from Pinnacle's site. Many things have changed/improved since ver 7 (speed being one). Forget about the tweaking program (IC Hidden Settings) it should not be used and it's attempt to hit the target disc size of 4.36G just causes problems. IC 8's Movie Only mode is quick to start and needs no intervening steps to get to the finished disc like Shrink does (although Shrink 3.1.2 has narrowed that gap if you have Nero installed, but you still have to play around in re-author mode a bit).

Although not perfect (what program is?) it is the only program that can drop below 60% and still have decent video quality on a 32 in. set. In full disc mode it is very easy to drop trailers, logos etc, seamlessly. It does sometimes still undershoot the disc size but they are addressing this. We'll see where Mr. Shrink takes Nero Recode 2 (he certainly has made many improvements over the original) but for now I still prefer IC 8's resultant video quality.

 

Ok, thanks for the info.

 

Haven't posted for a while, but just wanted to throw my hat into the ring...

I've used dvd x copy express and gold, dvd2one, dvdshrink and dvd decryptor, and for me hands down the only one i'd spend any money on what soever is the free dvdshrink, i love this program, it's fast, the quality from the tests i've done are better than the others, not always a great deal or at all, and it only take at most 15 minutes to rip an uncompressed movie of 4.4gb, and 15 minutes to burn using record now dx. Half an hour i think is brilliant.

Different strokes for different folks tho, have been having a look at tmpenc, and don't know if the time it takes is worth it over dvdshrink, tho i haven't backed anything up that would really benefit from it.

Bailey

 

From a real test at CD Freaks:

 

Where did you find this test, MysticE?
I could only find the following poll:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?threadid=75145
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]~ ddlooping~
For DVD Shrink and related softwares guides and downloads, please visit http://www.dvdshrink.info[/small]

 

Why do some of you say that you use DVD Decryter and then DVD Shrink? What does Decryter do that Shrink doesn't do? I have the latest Shrink and when I Re-Author, I don't recall seeing the deep analysis thing. Is it automatically done? Oh, and one last thing, when I copied "Saving Private Ryan" I got the subtitles even though I Re-Autored just the movie, any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

How are you guys getting shrink to rip so fast? I have a Sony DRU510a with the Sony speed up program and it still takes me about 30 minutes to just rip a DVD. I have a 1.8ghz P4 and a 7200RPM HD and 512MB RAM.

What am I doing wrong? Any help is appreciated.

 

Because sometimes Shrink will have problems on a particular DVD (no software is perfect). Mr Shrink himself then recommends the use of Decrypter. Decrypter is also useful for a quick look at the various file sizes of a DVD.

How can you tell how long the ripping takes? Unless I'm missing something there is no actual ripping phase. The initial analysis takes about 3 minutes and the encoding might take about 50 minutes.

You could try DVD Decrypter to see how long an actual rip takes. With my burner a full 8G DVD takes around 16 minutes.

 

To tell how long it takes to rip, all I do is look at the temp directory where I told it to store the files. My last burn just completed minutes ago took 64 minutes start(copy of DVD) to finish (burned and finalized). The actual rip of the DVD took exactly 41 minutes and the burn 23.

Anyone know if shrink supports disk to disk reatime on the fly copy and compression? I have both a DVD burner and DVD reader in my PC.

Thanks again!

 

It isn't. You either have to click on the "Analysis" button, or check the "Perform Deep Analysis..." on the backup window.

This sounds about right for a DVD that requires a fair amout of compression, especially when ripping/processing with a DVD writer.
The less compression a DVD requires, the faster the whole process should be.
If you had a DVD-ROM it should in theory be faster too.

I'm affraid it doesn't.
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]~ ddlooping~
For DVD Shrink and related softwares guides and downloads, please visit http://www.dvdshrink.info[/small]