DVD2One / DVD Shrink / DVD2DVD-R / movie clip test

[ddlooping]

No more captured frames; too many peeps complaining about their innacuracy.
We're talking 17 second clips here!!

This idea came from a suggestion by Swin.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=164026&start=40

"The Majestic, R2, PAL".
All the backups were made in the exact same conditions:
Movie-only (6.85GB); AC3 5.1 English only; English, Italian, Spanish, French subtitles; no start/end cropping.
The DVD2DVD-R/CCE backup was made using 2 vbr passes.
DVD Shrink 2.3 at 30% compression.

Using DVD Shrink's "Start/End" feature in the Re-Author mode, I cropped the same 17 second clip from both backups.
It took about 5 second to re-author, as no compression whatsoever was applied.
The resulting files can be viewed with WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc etc, as they are fully DVD compliant.
I guess you could even burn them to CD for viewing with your set-top player.

I tried to apply the same procedure with the backup I had made with CloneDVD, but I couldn't re-author it in DVD Shrink.
I guess it was not fully compliant; I noticed that the audio and subtitle streams I had chosen to remove when I did the backup were still there, even though showing 0Mb in size.

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/trun...c-original.zip 12.5MB
http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/trun...ic-dvd2one.zip 9.35MB
http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/trun...tic-shrink.zip 8.76MB
http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/trun...c-dvd2dvdr.zip 11.2MB

I will soon post the same clip from the IC7 backup, and the CloneDVD backup if I get it to re-author in DVD Shrink.
(I'm on a modem connection so it takes a while to upload them)

Edited: added the same clip from the original DVD.

[mrbass]

I'm too lazy to download all those. For the record just state in order what gives the best quality. Also for IC what percent was used...dvdshrink what level was used?

[ddlooping]

mrbass, you lazy monkey.

I cannot tell you about the IC backup as I need to do it first.
The level of compression that was used with DVD Shrink is 30%.

The original "print" is a bit noisy.

The DVD Shrink's backup tends to very slightly smooth this noise.
This result might be perceived by some (me included) as an overal improvement, even thought it's at the expense of a tiny loss of sharpness.
The same effect on another movie might not be as beneficial.

The DVD2DVD-R/CCE's backup goes the opposite way.
It doesn't smooth the image but tends to add more noise.
The overal effect is somewhat not as pleasant as with DVD Shrink.

The DVD2One's backup smooth the image to a greater extent than DVD Shrink.
To the point where macroblocks becomes clearly visible at times, and the loss of sharpness much more pronounced.

If the previous test I did with IC7 is anything to go by, I do not expect much of it.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21272

But I'll reserve my judgment until I make a backup of the same movie with it.

These observations were made using WinDVD, on a 17" EIZO LCD monitor at a resolution of 1280x1024.

Stay tuned.

[dgsgc]

simply amazing results dvd shrink blows them all away, it looks better than the original to my eyes

awaiting the IC7 comparison

great work m8

edit:i agree with dd's results, tommorow ill burn them and test them on 32" WS see how they look there

[setarip]

To ddlooping

Still having a problem finding the DVD Shrink sub-forum?

[dgsgc]

Re: To ddlooping

Originally posted by setarip
Still having a problem finding the DVD Shrink sub-forum?

erm isnt this a dvd backup test, including many dvd back up programs, shouldnt it be right here in the dvd backup forum

[ddlooping]

Re: To ddlooping

Originally posted by setarip
Still having a problem finding the DVD Shrink sub-forum?

Why??
This thread is not about DVD Shrink, contrary to what you might think.
It's a comparison test between several backup softwares.
It was made for people who are interested in these softwares, so as to help them make up their own judgment.

It wasn't really my intention to post my own observations, but mrbass asked for them.

P.S: FYI, I also made a post in the "DVD Shrink / General Discussion" forum, to inform DVD Shrink users and people who are interested in DVD Shrink of the existence of this thread.

[dgsgc]

just burned all 4 and the results were as expected

the dvd2dvdr and dvd shrink were very close to the original, dvd2dvdr exhibiting a tiny amount of graining over that of the original. Shrink still had the graining of the original but to a lesser extent when compared to the dvd2dvdr version. dvd2one however had a considerable amount of movement and grain

this was on a pioneer dvd454 and 32" WS tele

original shrink and dvd2dvdr the difference was hardly noticeable really

[ddlooping]

Thanks for the feedback, dgsgc.

My guess would be that the difference between the original, the DVD2DVD-R and DVD Shrink backups might only be seen on TVs (Plasma / HDTVs) or screens with a fairly high resolution and good contrast ratio.
I think it would still be barely noticeable during normal viewing though.
But I might be wrong.

[dgsgc]

Originally posted by ddlooping
Thanks for the feedback, dgsgc.

My guess would be that the difference between the original, the DVD2DVD-R and DVD Shrink backups might only be seen on TVs (Plasma / HDTVs) or screens with a fairly high resolution and good contrast ratio.
I think it would still be barely noticeable during normal viewing though.
But I might be wrong.

that sounds about right, i might take a backup down to a local shop and ask to try out my backups on a nice big plasma

[ddlooping]

Hi all.

I have just done another test, this time with "Armageddon, R2, PAL (Bruce Willis)".
I wanted to see how DVD Shrink would fare with explosions/effects and at a higher level of compression, 35%.

I also used DVD2One and CloneDVD as part fo the test.

On action/explosions heavy scenes, macroblocking is now much more apparent.
To see a difference between the 3 different backups I had to capture frames and zoom at 400% in Photoshop.
At that level of zooming, DVD2One and DVD Shrink might have a slight edge (almost identical, pixel for pixel), but in normal viewing conditions, even on the best TV/HDTV/Plasma screen in the universe, I don't think anyone could differentiate between the 3 of them.

My conclusion would be the more you go over 30% compression with DVD Shrink, the less difference in quality you will find with DVD2One, and even CloneDVD.
Above a certain level you might even find that its quality is not as good as the others (test coming soon).
But then again, the degradation would be so important that I would normally use DVD2DVD-R/CCE.

Keep in mind that due to the nature of compression-levels selection in DVD Shrink, about 3% of the available space was unfortunately lost.

My next test will be to crop some of the film companies animations at the start and the end credits.
This will enable me to compress the movie to a lesser 30%.
I will then be able to confirm, or not, the results from my test with "The Majestic", which was that DVD Shrink is better than DVD2One and CloneDVD for compressions equal to or lower than 30%.

I'll keep you posted.

P.S: the same level of compression might have yelded different results with a less demanding movie.

[ddlooping]

Here are the movie-clips resulting from the "Armageddon" test.

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/truncated-dvds/armageddon-original.zip

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/truncated-dvds/armageddon-dvd2dvdr.zip

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/truncated-dvds/armageddon-dvd2one.zip

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/truncated-dvds/armageddon-shrink-30.zip

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/truncated-dvds/armageddon-shrink-25.zip

http://www.poker-faces.com/temp/truncated-dvds/armageddon-shrink-20.zip

The "30" in the first DVD Shrink clip is to indicate that the backup was made at 30% compression, which required end-credits cropping.
As I said in my previous post, I did the first test at 35%, for a fair comparison with the other softwares, but couldn't see any difference between DVD2One and DVD Shrink.

I decided to also try 25% and 20% compression (which required cropping some of the movie), to see how much better DVD Shrink would fare at lesser compression levels on action scenes.

So once again, if you have the patience or are on a broadband connection, feel free to download these files and let me know what your conclusions are.

P.S: added the clip from the original.

P.P.S: I have copied all the files from the two tests on DVD and will soon be viewing them on the best tvs (plasma or others) I can find in my local shops.
How's that for thoroughness?

[mrbass]

pretty much what I've been saying... keep it at level 6 max (30%) and you'll most likely be happy. I am.

[dgsgc]

have to agree with both of u again,

although i did green mile which is 3h08m at 45% and it was still very good, some quite noticeable blocking but still exceptional quality when u factor in the speed compared to CCE. I think ill have to try the other progs on this high compression maybe one of the other tools fares better at these higher compression settings

[ddlooping]

Originally posted by dgsgc
I think i'll have to try the other progs on this high compression, maybe one of the other tools fares better at these higher compression settings

Please do, and let us know your findings.