All,

I am using Maxell DVD-R 8x media, Sony 710A, DVD Shrink 3.2 & Nero 6.x to burn the movies, I want to know the possibilities to get the original movie quality. In DVD Shrink I am using the default settings to rip as .ISO image file to HDD, also I will remove the AC3 Spanish, French related folders duirng rip.

Pls advice is there a way to get the similar quality as of original DVD movie.

Thanks
Ambi

As far as ripping goes, there is no loss of quality. And if the tartget media is of sufficient capacity to to burn the ripped DVD, there is no quality loss, except maybe due to the media or bad burn, but not due to the data.

Now, issues start when you cannot fit the ripped source onto the target media, as when 8GB movie and 4.4GB target media, mostly because Double Layer media cost over $8 each, and quality SL cost 35 cents and less.

To keep original quality you can split the movie onto 2 separate discs.

The stage where you lose quality is when you transcode the bigger size into smaller size. If you ask me, I cannot really tell the diference at 70% compression. You may increase quality if you get rid of unwanted parts of the source DVD, such as extras/previews/audio/subpictures.

Make sure to read the many guides on the subject of how to put DVD9 onto DVD5.

In order to get the very best picture using DVD Shrink. Us the Re-author mode and copy on the main movie and remove any none English subtitles, none English audio streams. Only select AC3 English 5.1 audio. Do not include AC3 DTS, DTS audio is uncompressed audio and take up much more space. The less information that needs compression the better the picture.

I can't see any difference between original and copy at 20% or lower compression. For best result with Dual Layer movies, select only the MAIN MOVIE TITLE AND ENGLIGH AC 3/6 audio. Now check to see if the picture quality is 75% or higher (DVD-5 mode). If it is, then you can burn the original to one DVD-5 disc. If it is less than 70% picture quality, then you should split the original DVD to two DVD-5 discs.

Remember that AUDIO/VIDEO can be very subjective. You're not going to find two persons with the SAME observation. Still frame test is also BS. The best test? Double blind, where the video and audio level are carefully calibrated to the same level and administered by a 2nd party. In general, most will prefer a BRIGHTER picture and a LOUDER sound.