Giving DVD Rebuilder a go

[MrE_H]

Hi guys,

I am going to give DVD Rebuilder a go as I have heard lots of good things about it but have a couple of questions.

Will there be an improvement in quality if I do a whole DVD in rebuilder using the Quenc encoder as opposed to using Vob Blanker to remove stuff then Nero Recode?

Is there any point in using Vob Blanker to remove stuff prior to doing the rebuild - I read that it can cause problems?

What is the difference between the free and pro version - it's only $10 I see but not sure what you get?

Phew lots of questions - thanks in advance.

Mr E

[UncasMS]

the $10 will be well spent: as long as the current version is not 1.00 FINAL (it is still rc status) you'll get the pro and life-time updates for $10
afterwards you'll have to pay approx. $30

the pro version have a couple of very usefull features and thus i can only recommend to go for the pro version as long as it costs you $10 instead of ~30


using vobblanker has never done any harm with all the conversion i did, so no need to worry if you do it the proper way


quenc wont be my first choice
if you want a very good freeware encoder, pls give hc enc a try made by hank315, which is perfectly integrated into dvd rb

otherwise cce or procoder2 (my favourite) will be a good choice

and yes, when it comes to longer titles and dvds with decent extra/bonus material an encoder like quenc, hc, cce, procoder will do muich better than shrink and it is worth the additional time!

[MrE_H]

Thanks for the reply UncasMS, I will try it tonight.

$10 for the pro version sounds good so I will see if it works on my pc and how I get on and then get the pro version.

When you say that this is a better option with the longer titles does that mean that if I can get Nero Recode to 80%-90% then I should use that?

[feedback10K]

Now, DVD Rebuilder Professional v1.00RC4 is a very good program with many features.
Although, you have to make a donation to get the Pro. version but it is worth it IMO.

You have the choice to encode the Whole movie, movie and menus or just the main movie only with the Pro. version.

There is also a blanking feature to let you blank out some of the extras you don't won't in addition to a slideshow feature that I use on the ending credits to save bitrate for the main movie. Included in the Pro. version only.

There is a add-on called the Rebuilder Matrix Editor that gives you a choice of Matrices to use and a brand new feature...that lets you Extract the Matrix of a movie. Why then if you wish, with the extracted Matrix, you can use that matrix, if you really like it, on another movie.
This feature only works with DVD-RB Pro.

Regards,

[UncasMS]

When you say that this is a better option with the longer titles does that mean that if I can get Nero Recode to 80%-90% then I should use that?

that's hard to generalize

percentage numbers are a very tricky part and often misunderstood

when you take two movies and both will have to be reduced to 80% then judged by the percentage, both should look the same (be it decent or horrible)

but think of different playing times and aspect ratios

the 85min 2.35:1 movie might be provided with enough bitrate to saturate even high action scenes but what about movie number 2 with let's say 165min 4:3?

can #2 look as good as #1?

i doubt it and you'll see it cannot be as good as a much shorter title, which is reduced by the same percentage

that's why these numbers are highly misleading from my p-o-v and should neither be generalized nor should two titles be compared just because the reduction level is identical

you might achieve very good qualty with one title when you deal with 70% reduction and you might be highly disappointed when another title looks ugly even though its reduction level might be 88%


since you never know which scenes might be the ones to check in order to judge if quality is good or bad i always use dvd rebuilder with an encoder like procoder2 to be on the safe side and have good results

thanks to its batch function i might run 2-4 titles in a row without having to be present or initiate anything apart from creating projects

this way i might come home from work and find my conversions done the way i want them to - i.e. best possible quality and it doesnt matter if a title took my pc ~200min using an encoder or only 45min using shrink

[feedback10K]

DVD Rebuilder (using CCE, HC, Procoder2 or any other true encoder) creates entirely new I frames for its project, since it only uses the original as a reference while encoding a completely new stream.

With transcoders it depends on your settings. As such, transcoders such as DVD Shrink leave I frames alone, and applies its compression to B (and, to a much lesser extent, P) frames. This allows more frames with high detail to sneak by, giving you better perceived quality than some other transcoders offer.

On large movies such as Lord of the Rings, however, the end result will be quite noticeable. The encoder will give you a better perceived quality compared to a transcoder. Because once again, it only uses the original as a reference while encoding a completely new stream that will fit on one DVD-5.

This all goes back to the "what's the difference between an encoder and a transcoder?" debate.

BTW, I personally use the freeware HC encoder, which has been said to equal CCE in quality and even exceeds it on interlaced material, although it is a bit slower. Additionally, I suggest you get the DVD Rebuilder Pro. as you can choose a different Matrix for different movies, as I indicated above.

For instance, I use the BDVD matrix to remove the grainy effect Steven Spielberg uses in the "Band of Brothers" 6 disk set. I don't care for the grain effect and so prefer my backups to my originals.

Regards,

P.S. Follow UncasMS's advice he will not lead you astray.

[Lownox]

I ran a movie through Shrink with "no compression" for the main movie and inserted stills for the unreferenced material before I encoded it with DVD-RB. DVD-RB in the "menus and movie only" mode left the previews at the beginning of the movie. I removed those with Shrink. This seams to have decreased the compression from DVD-RB by 10% to 15% on this one movie. I haven't had time to learn VobBlanker or PgEdt yet. Does this seam like easy workaround or will I still lose some quality from the transoding of Shrink?

If this is considered highjacking this thread let me know and I will delete this post and start a new one.

[UncasMS]

hello lownox,

i hope mre_h will forgive us for hijacking his thread


if i were you, i'd use vobblanker to fully remove whatever you dont want to keep in your source material

vobblanker is not that difficult to handle

take a look at my screenshot pls:

first of all open your video_ts.ifo file and select a DIFFERENT directory (ideally on another harddrive for faster processing)

you could tick the option: USE INPUT FOLDER but then you might ruin your source data should you make a mistake - thus better use a different folder

now do the following steps:

1.
select the vob file(s) which are way smaller than the main title (in my example the vts 01 with 5474 mb) and click once on a given entry

2.
in this place you should now DOUBLEclick each entry - a new window for the cells should open up

3.
in this cells window click/check each entry, use the PREVIEW and asure yourself what is inside this cell

should you want to remove the given content: click either BLANK or BLANK ALL (in case all cells are to be removed)


click APPLY in order to close the cells window

repeat this step for all vts_xx_vobs and finally use PROCESS


that's it - good luck

[Lownox]

I have tried that but I couldn't find the cells that contained the menus(previewed all the cells with no luck). I would like to keep the menu's & movie. Maybe I should start another tread or you could pm me so MrE H could continue to find the answer to his question. Just though since he mentioned using Recode(shrink updated) my suggestions would give him a quick workaround unitll he could get it worked out.
Got to go will check back tonight after church.

[UncasMS]

in some instances one might not be able to find the corresponding part which to get rid off in vobblanker

dvdremake might be worth a try in those cases

[MrE_H]

Hijack away guys!

Thanks for the advice - the only problem I have is that my old steam powered pc takes a loooooooong time using DVD RB and Procoder 2. I think I shall use this method for ones I really like and use Nero on the ones I'm not bothered about (like my sons Thomas & Postman pat DVD's)

Thanks for all the help - That's what I love about these forums, the advice is swift, useful and friendly

Mr E

[Lownox]

Dvdremake "free or not to be free?" Do you have a link for or can I just google.




never mind i think its on video help

[Lownox]

Burnt a few more movies using the Shrink method that I mentioned above. Seems to be the easiest for me. If anyone is interested I will go through it step by step and post the instructions. I would stiil like to know your opinoins of transcoding at no compression with Shrink. Is there any quality loss?

[blutach]

There are a number of guides on the VobBlanker site. Keeping the movie and menus only is not all that hard.

1. First, Use input folders is entirely safe and you don't have to worry about transferring files everywhere. You can interrupt the operation and it will restore everything. VobBlanker uses a temp folder until it has done its thing. If you find, after VobBlanker has completed, that you have made an error, simply copy the contents of the VobBlanker_backup folder to your input folder and you're back to where you started.

2. Next step (ultra easy). Use PgcEdit to blank all titles in the DVD (except the main movie). Do this from the menu: Utilities - Blank out all title PGCs in DVD. For the VTS which contains the main movie, just say "Cancel" - the rest, click "OK". Save.

3. PgcEdit will also show you where your menus are - they will be the VTSMs with buttons and labelled with "##b"! Remember this.

4. Now, the only thing you might still need to blank is the VTS with the movie that also has some extras. This is very common. So, use VobBlanker to do this. Highlight and process that VTS (button at right) and in the bottom half of the screen highlight the offending titles and click "Blank". You might also want to remove audio streams from the main flick. Click on the movie title. Then "Strip". Then in the next dialogue box, select the streams you wanna keep. OK/Apply. Back to main VobBlanker screen. Click "Process" down the bottom and go make coffee.

5. VobBlanker's done now. Use Menu Shrink to shrink motion menus, if you like. See my sig.

6. Back to PgcEdit, forgot to remove layer break. Double click on main movie and untick layer break in the PGC Editor (this can be done earlier, of course). OK and save.

7. Onto DVDRB. IMHO, Procoder 2 is the way to go. Others may have different views.

Good luck guys.

Regards

[blutach]

I would stiil like to know your opinoins of transcoding at no compression with Shrink. Is there any quality loss?

None whatsoever. Why bother running it through DVD Shrink?

VobBlanker can also strip audio streams

Regards