I just got my first DVD burner. Previouly to make a backup of a DVD I would use DVD2SVCD which worked very well, although it took all night.

So I started to do some research and I learned about this:

1) DVDShrink. Its Free which I like. I think I read its fast which is great. How is the quality in the newest one? Any comments?

2) DVD Decrytor. What exactly does this do...strip the protection? Is that is

3) Other various programs such as CloneDVD/AnyDVD. DVD2ONE?

Basically I know everyone has opinions. I am just looking for these answers:

-what exactly do all these programs do (I know what DVDShrink does)

-Is there a large difference in quality? DVDShrink looks easy to use.

-Is there a LARGE difference in speed (I dont care about 15 minutes)

-Any other programs I should consider.


Thanks for the help to get me started. You all rule!

1. DVDShrink, DVD2One, CloneDVD, Pinnacle Instant Copy, Rejig, Nero Recode, etc are all DVD Transcoders. The quality you get depends on the amount you are compressing the video. Under 70% transcoders really struggle, and your picture will start to look quite blocky and ugly.

2. DVDDecrypter is the most versatile DVD tool out there. It does pretty much anything you would want to do in regard to getting content off of a DVD disc, encrypted or not.

3. See 1.

Opinion:

My first choice for DVD backup is using DoItFast4u and Scenaid (CCE Re-encode). This is probably the most difficult one but offers infinite versatility in how you want your backup to be handled. Next would probably be Rebuilder, it uses CCE but it also encodes by CellID with weighting (meh), so it won't look as good as the first choice, however I don't know how noticable it is. I've never really used it but a lot of people like it. Even easier is DVD2SVCD in DVD>DVD mode. This process is limited to single PGC movies which is annoying, and you cannot preserve the menu or any DVD structure. If you're a movie only guy, use this way. Finally the transcoders, DVDShrink is free and has a pretty decent following, so that would be the top of the list if you were to go this route.

Good luck,

/MLS