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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.
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.
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