menu shrink

[sandenscot]

I am new to the dvd shrink/decrypter world...have been playing around making various copies to see the quality difference....question I have is , is there any benefit to menu shrink? the reason I ask is that i downloaded the program and it seems to do the same thing as when I (in dvd shrink) select "still pictures". it seems as though they both give you moving pictures with audio...(or without audio as is the option) thanks

[blutach]

Menu shrink gives you stills (with or without audio) and saves you HEAPS of Mb. Still pictures saves only a fraction of what Menu Shrink does.

Regards

[sandenscot]

let me ask you a follow up question.....how do YOU do YOUR movies. do you, say run menu shrink.....then still pictures for the extras to try to bring the compression low or do you just run dvd decrypter and copy the movie only?...thanks again

[sandenscot]

as another follow up...I ran menushrink on bourne identity and it only saved 80 mb without audio.....probably changed the compression from 75 to 77.....obviously it depends on the size of each movies menus???

[blutach]

How I do my DVD backups

1. I kill ALL my extras - I only ever watch them once and if I wanna see them again, I see them on the original DVD. I use PgcEdit to kill these stone cold and replace them with a 10k stub (none of this still image crap, which doesn't save as much space). Sometimes PgcEdit can't kill some extras, so I use VobBlanker to kill them. I also blank out the FBIs and other studio crap (usually found in VIDEO_TS.VOB) and replace them with 10k stubs. I remove all unreferenced material.

2. I MenuShrink if necessary. Your conclusion is correct - if the menus are little to begin with you won't save much. Look at the MenuShrink home page though - the record is 1.8Gb!!!!

3. I then use JUMP2PGC to make the movie jump straight to the main menu. Interested people - look for new version of PgcEdit soon which will have this incorporated as a macro!!!!

4. I keep the English audio (no director's commentary) and 1 English subtitle.

5. If necessary, I kill the credits and replace them with a still. Sometimes I even cut the bits off the start where the studio and producer's intros go for a minute or so.

6. I then use DVD Shrink.

7. I fix my sectors up with PgcEdit, create an ISO and burn with DVD Decrypter.

8. The only time I will split a disk is if the average video bitrate goes under 3.5Mbps - this will usually be on a 2.5 hours movie or longer.

Links to all this stuff can be found in my sig or the FAQ.

Regards

[sandenscot]

thanks for the info....another follow up...if you dont mind...why not just dvd decrypt first...then just drag only the movie over?...I did one of those and the decryption was next to nothing.....point being why bother editing all the other stuff if you can just drag over the movie?.....I am sure i am missing something?

[blutach]

Sorry. I always rip first with DVD Decrypter.

By dragging the movie over you can't keep the menus, however, if you use my guide, you can put them back.

http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides/VobBlanker/adding_menus/index.htm

Remember to blank everthing you don't need first. This take next to no time.

Regards

[sandenscot]

ok...thanks...last question for now.....is there a forum that tells you exactly what all the files are.or do you preview them?...in other words how do you (after usind decrypter) know what all the vts's, vob's, etc are so you can delete/keep them?.....and I apologize for questions that may be elsewher...but I could not find them.....THANKS

[blutach]

I use PgcEdit, which sets out everything in PGC order. PGCs are ProGram Chains and they make uo the structure of the VTSs. In PgcEdit, you can actually trace through a DVD, step by step to see what plays (and preview it while tracing!). This is very handy.

Get it from my sig.

Regards