Looking for better 1:1 backup solution

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  • Red Right Hand
    Junior Member
    Junior Member
    • Jan 2004
    • 4

    Looking for better 1:1 backup solution

    Hi! I'm fairly new to DVD-ripping/burning. I just purchased my first DVD±R(W) burner about a month ago, but I am a bit of a techie, so I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks reading and researching this topic and trying out various software solutions that are available.

    The first 1:1 copy utility I tried out was DVD-Cloner. I tried this upon the recommendation of a friend who was already ripping/burning DVD backups, and I was dissatisfied very quickly with the performance of this utility. I didn't realize how feature-rich DVD-Cloner wasn't until I tried out some other programs, but I sought another 1:1 copying solution very soon after trying it, because it ended up making coasters out of about 1 in every 3 DVD-R's.

    Next I came across Elby's CloneDVD. I was already a fan and registered owner of their CloneCD utility, so I was excited to find that they'd authored a 1:1 DVD-video copy program. I immediately liked CloneDVD much better than DVD-Cloner. I especially liked the ability to pick and choose which titles to include in order to minimize compression levels and maximize video quality. I familiarized myself with this very easy-to-use program, and in no time I had made backups of a dozen DVD's.

    I recently realized, though, that some of the DVD's I have made using CloneDVD have errors that prevent them from playing properly in set-top DVD players. There is sometimes a problem with the recoded video that causes them to glitch horribly in the DVD player -- the picture freezes, stutters, sound is intermittant. I can't seem to be able to predict which discs will have this problem, but it's a frustrating one.

    Next I tried out Nero Recode, which, so far, has consistantly made working copies which play smoothly in my DVD player -- but I am frustrated with one particular feature (or lack thereof). In CloneDVD, when I would remove unneeded/unwanted titles, they would be replaced by what seems to be a single frame of a blank black screen, which would play through instantaneously and unnoticeably. For example, if you have a DVD which automatically displays the FBI warning, a DTS splash screen, and some previews of other movies, all before the main movie starts, you can just remove them all, and the DVD player just effectively skips them all and jumps right to the movie itself.

    When you remove a title in Recode, though, it seems to replace the missing title with a still image -- either of a single color or a custom "This title has been removed" image. In my example above, then, instead of just playing through the missing titles (FBI warning, previews, etc.), the DVD player just stops on these still images. Sometimes, I can get to the main movie by pressing the chapter-advance button on the DVD player's remote control a few times, but other times this won't work and everything just freezes, not allowing me to get to the main movie at all.

    Another example of how this issue creates problems is with episodic-type DVD's. Using CloneDVD, I backed up the Complete Season One DVD for the BBC TV show, "Coupling." There are six 30-minute episodes on the original disc. I prefer to keep all the menus intact, so I made 2 backups. Both had all of the menus, but disc 1 had episodes 1-3, and disc 2 had episodes 4-6. If you choose to play an episode that is not on the disc, the DVD player just quickly displays a black screen and then goes right back to the menu, which is perfectly acceptable to me. If I make the same backup using Recode, choosing an episode that's not on the disc displays the "this title has been removed image" and freezes the DVD player -- to get back to the main menu, you have to shut the DVD player off and turn it back on again.

    The only solution I have come up with for this problem is to use CloneDVD to backup a disc to video files on the hard drive, then open those files with either Recode or DVDShrink and transcode the entire disc a second time. The resultant DVD does play perfectly in a DVD player, but it seems to be an excessive amount of work to get to the end result I want. Also, Recode/DVDShrink in "Advanced" or "Deep" Analysis mode makes a much better-looking movie at higher compression levels, so I wish I could just use one of these 2 programs for the whole 1:1 backup process.

    Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for reading all of this and offering any guidance you might have. I have a stack of DVD's that I want to back up, but before I spend hours working on them, I want to make sure I'm going to get the best quality backups possible.
  • ashy
    Super Member
    Super Member
    • Nov 2003
    • 253

    #2
    You can use DVDshrink in re-author mode, but you lose the functionality of the menu if you try and include it however if you select movie only you won't have a menu and playback will be fine.

    You are asking a lot trying to compress a whole DVD9 to DVD5 and still maintain any sort of quality. DVD shrink is good, but at the sort of compression level needed to produce a complete 1:1 copy the quality will suffer unless some titles and streams are removed.

    Having said this it is possible to compress the DVD more than DVDshrink is capable of yet produce better quality results. I regularly make 1:1 backups of DVD9 disks to DVD5 without losing too much quality, but it takes more time and is more complicated to do.

    If you're interested then the programs you will need are CCE for encoding, Doitfast4U, Reauthorist and Scenarist.

    These four programs work together as Doitfast4U and Reauthorist have been specifically designed to automate the process of using these programs.

    It takes more time, but the final result is much better. You will find guides how to use the programs at doom9:

    Comment

    • Red Right Hand
      Junior Member
      Junior Member
      • Jan 2004
      • 4

      #3
      Thanks for the link. I actually have been playing with CCE, etc., since you posted your reply. I ended up making a very high quality back up of a 7GB DVD, but it took way too long for that to be practical for me.

      I'm perfectly happy with my previous strategy of just putting the full menus + movie on one DVD5, and the full menus + extras on another DVD, but I'm still looking for a better utility that will allow me to remove titles without causing my DVD player to choke when you try to play the missing titles via the menu.

      Like I mentioned above, CloneDVD does a great job of this, but it sometimes creates unuseable discs, which is obviously not acceptable. Arghhh.

      Comment

      • nwg
        Left *****
        • Jun 2003
        • 5196

        #4
        Try out DCS (DVD Copy Suite).

        There is a trial available at



        It allows you to use the program a certain amount of time before you have to pay for it.

        You can just have the menus and film. When you press the button on a menu for a deleted item, it just shows a black screen for a second and then goes back to the menu.

        The picture quality is excellent. I did Daredevil with both DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 and 30% compression. I couldn't tell the difference with the orginal on a 28" widescreen TV.

        It will also burn the DVD for you.

        Comment

        • Red Right Hand
          Junior Member
          Junior Member
          • Jan 2004
          • 4

          #5
          Thank you so much for the suggestion! I'll definitely give it a try, and I'll happily pay for the program if it works as you describe.

          Comment

          • nwg
            Left *****
            • Jun 2003
            • 5196

            #6
            Look at picture 3 of the screenshots on the site.

            All the titles are listed and you just untick the ones you don't want. The word removed appears in the compress titleset to bit.

            But to keep the menus, select the compress to menu bit and select a compression. The title will be still be missing but all the menus will be intact.

            You can also select just the audio and subtitles you want.

            Comment

            • ashy
              Super Member
              Super Member
              • Nov 2003
              • 253

              #7
              Thanks for the link. I actually have been playing with CCE, etc., since you posted your reply. I ended up making a very high quality back up of a 7GB DVD, but it took way too long for that to be practical for me.
              You must have a fairly low spec PC.
              CCE is probably the best quality and almost certainly the fastest stand alone encoder there is.

              A 2 hour film will take only 45 minutes on my 2.8 P4.
              You can speed CCE up a bit if you turn of the quality filters. You don't need these because you are already dealing with a clean source.

              How did you feed the VOBs to CCE, through AVIsynth?

              Also here is a method I use which speeds up the process somewhat.

              I only encode the main movie with CCE then I just encode the rest of the files (menus, extras ETC) with DVDshrink then you just need to rebuild the VOBs for the main movie and use IFOupdate to merge the re-encoded main movie with the rest of the files from DVDshrink.

              Comment

              • nwg
                Left *****
                • Jun 2003
                • 5196

                #8
                I use CCE with DVD2DVD-R and with a Athlon XP 2000 it takes about 7-9 hours for a film. It does depend on how many passes I use though.

                I only do it on special films like The Fellowship of the Ring. That took nearly 12 hours !!

                Comment

                • Red Right Hand
                  Junior Member
                  Junior Member
                  • Jan 2004
                  • 4

                  #9
                  My experimentation involved using DoItFast4U! as a front-end for NuMenu4U, DoCCE4U, and Scenerist.

                  I have an Athlon 2400+, 512MB DDRAM, GB and GB of extra hard drive space on several different drives. For a single DVD9 ("The Others"), it took almost 8 hours. I pretty much followed this tutorial:



                  to the letter.

                  Comment

                  • FATBOYUK
                    Junior Member
                    Junior Member
                    • Jul 2004
                    • 13

                    #10
                    just thought u should know i have made perfect copy from DVD-9 to a DVD-5 using dvd shrink and dvd decrypter

                    perfect sound and picture

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