I want to rip a movie from a double-layered DVD.
I tried out both DVDshrink as well as CloneDVD to rip it
to a VIDEO_TS folder on my hard disc in size DVD-5.

Both work in general but produce VOB files with completely different sizes.

Did someone compared these two programs ?

Which one is better? Which produces the better quality movies ?

What are the differences ?

I will said CloneDVD is better.

Firstly DVDShink had discontinued thus no more upgrades and the software is very old but CloneDVD is still very alive and still kicking.

For ripping, I always liked DVD Decrypter the most. Now I use the RipIt4Me / DVD Decrypter / FixVTS combo. Though DVD Decrypter is no longer developed, it is still an excellent ripper and app. RipIt4Me simply handles all the latest copy protection formats, while FixVTS cleans up the files to make them more DVD standards compliant.

Or, I will sometimes use DVDFab Decrypter to rip to the hard drive.

Then I use DVD Shrink to process the VIDEO_TS folder. Even though DVD Shrink is no longer developed, meaning it doesn't handle the latest copy protections, it is still a solid, powerful app that works very well at helping you cherry-pick what parts of the DVD you want to carry over to your backup copy. You can choose to do a full-on Re-Author if you wish and simply include the core movie and the core soundtrack and nothing else if you want, getting rid of all the menus and extras. You can also trim the lead-in and lead-out stuff, like previews and after-movie credits. Plus, you can easily preview each of the audio tracks by right-clicking on the movie playback window in the lower left of the interface and selecting which audio track to listen to. That way you can easily identify which tracks are audio commentaries and which ones are the main stereo or dolby and include only what you want.

Then you can create your VIDEO_TS folders with the final output onto the hard drive and burn that folder as a DVD Video project in Nero 6 or Nero 7. You can adjust DVD Shrink to do a deep analysis as well as "high quality adaptive error compensation" to help ensure you get the best quality you can.

One of the best things about DVD Shrink is that it is free.

CloneDVD2 is much more intuitive and simpler to use. It can also preserve menus when doing "reauthoring". It also runs (transcoder) faster than shrink.

DVDShrink is much more powerful and flexible than CloneDVD2. As others have pointed out, it has full reauthoring capabilities - although at the price of giving up all menus. The transcoder is slower than CloneDVD2, but does a superior job of transcoding the video if you use the "deep analysis" option. This is especially evident on large double layer source dvd's where the transcoder is compressing the video substantially to get it to fit on a single layer dvd media. Although it is true that DVDShrink is no longer enhanced and updated, do not be fooled by that - it is every bit as wonderful, powerful and excellent a program today as it was when last updated. The lack of updating really only limits its "decrypting" capabilities - which CloneDVD2 cannot do at all anyway. Personally, I have never used DVDShrink to decrypt anything, but I value the program greatly for its re-authoring flexibility and power.

I expect each of these products has their place, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

I would say CloneDVD2 also does fit a DVD+9 to a DVD+5 media so not mentioning CloneDVD2 has this function isn't providing the whole picture.

As before it still useful but with programs new protection on the media makes it harder to backup as users on here have used AnyDVD along with DVDshrink so it does have it's limit.

This is why you have AnyDVD running in the background to decrypt the media. Each program from Slysoft does it what it programed to do but AnyDVD helps to decrypt so those program can do what it was programed to do.

For my needs I have all three programs with anydvd loading on statup and depending if I want 1:1 with CloneCD or DVD+9 to DVD+5 with CloneDVD2. Both feature of both programs has worked out well for me in the end.

Just confuses me but using so many programs to achieve just to backup a media defeats the purpose of simplifying the process for new users of the program.

It's good to have options. Some folks (including me) have had some issues with AnyDVD interfering with other system operations, so rely on DVD Fab Decrypter or RipIt4Me to get the content onto the disk, and then use either CloneDVD or DVD Shrink or some other app to handle the rest.

Just a couple of added thoughts:
1. "I would say CloneDVD2 also does fit a DVD+9 to a DVD+5 media so not mentioning CloneDVD2 has this function isn't providing the whole picture." - Absolutely - that is what my transcoding comment was about and statement that Clonedvd2's transcoder was faster, but DVDShrink's transcoder using "deep analysis" does a better job, which is important when transcoding a large double layer dvd to a single layer. I guess I asumed the original user would know or look-up what transcoding was (I know - assumptions can cause misinformation - sorry.)

2. It is true that sometimes source material is not decrypted by AnyDVD to DVDShrink's satisfaction and due to CloneDVD2's ability to handle and deal with some problematic conditions that causes DVDShrink to fail - CloneDVD2 proceeds unimpeded. This is clearly a strength of CloneDVD2.

3. I wasn't criticizing the Elby/Slysoft product line. They are very good at what they do. However, DVDShrink has advanced and flexible features that CloneDVD2 does not offer which makes it a very powerful program, although not quite as easy to use or intuitive as CloneDVD2. But like most programs - powerful user controlled options comes at the price of having to learn how to use them. As I mentioned, I find I particularly value CloneDVD2's ability to do some re-authoring while still preserving menus.

4. These are all great tools to have in your tool-box.

I have to say that I've used DVDShrink and Clone DVD, and like both programs, but I have to go with DVDFab Decrypter and then burn the video_ts files with Clone DVD.First of all it is easy to use. Also it is much faster than shrink.

The reason I would use CloneDVD2 is for me for what my usage takes less steps and you dont have to use more then two programs...AnyDVD and CloneDVD or CLoneCD to make 1:1 or DVD+9 to DVD+5. Since both programs are made by slysoft and function well with each other-I don't see for the majority of users why switch back and forth with different program when you can start to end with one program. Not to knock down the other programs but logically using to many programs to backup will sometimes cause problems and for those that has had AnyDVD causing problems with their system. I have to say I hadn't had any issues that caused my system to slow or restart.