You don't have to do a full backup in CloneDVD2 either. Choose "Copy DVD Titles", open the VIDEO_TS directory from your DVD drive. CloneDVD2 automatically selects the longest title (the movie). Make sure to check the "Preserve Menu" box. Choose next and select the subtitles and Audio streams you want on the next page. Then complete as normal.

RI4M will also do a movie + menu backup. However, if the size of the ripped movie is more than 4.37 GB you'll need to load it into Shrink or CloneDVD2 to compress the movie so you can fit it on a DVD5 as RI4M is only a ripper. It won't transcode.

You will definitely get higher quality backups if you only backup the movie + menu. All those extras take up valuable space that could be used for the movie. Sometimes you get lucky and you don't have to compress at all. That was the case for me today with "2046" and "A History Of Violence".

Well, I have only used CloneDVD once and I didn't like it because I couldnt' figure out if you were able to remove audio files and lower quality on other parts of hte movie. I've just stuck with DVD Shrink. But RipIt4Me+DVD Shrink sounds good.

CloneDVD2 will not allow you to manually change compression settings for different titles like Shrink does. It may do it automatically, but I don't believe it does. As for audio/subtitle streams, after you select the titles you want, the next page allows you to choose the audio & subtitles you want. But as you said, RI4M + Shrink is an excellent choice as well.

Yeah, I always lowered the compression % on the menus and extras so that the main movie would be able to be as high as possible.

b)
Then why in the Ripit4Me Guide the author says you have to have all the follwoing installed for Ripit4Me to work?.

a) Ripit4Me

b) DVD Shrink

c) DVD Decrypter

d) FIXTVS1.403

So I need all those installed? I already have Rip, Shrink, and Decrypter. But I'll try one without the Fixtvs today.

ripit4me has the fixvts in it. DVD Shrink is what you need to do a single layer dvd, dvd decrypter is what you want if doing a double layer.

RipIt4Me requires DVD Decrypter and FixVTS but it DOES NOT require DVD Shrink to operate. RipIt4Me is a ripper. It uses DVD Decrypter to rip with a PSL2 file, and FixVTS to clean up. You then have the option of loading the output in DVD Shrink, but nothing prevents you from burning the output to a dual layer DVD with Imgburn or using an application like CloneDVD2 to compress the output to fit on a DVD5. Shrink is recommended because it's an excellent tool, but it's by no means necessary.

You should have read the Ripit4Me site more carefully. Under the DVD Shrink logo you'll see this: " Optional installation. Used to verify the final result of the ripping and cleaning phases. You can download DVD Shrink here."

You can verify this for yourself here: http://www.ripit4me.org/guide.html

I have read the site very carefully the reason for my previous post was to say if the program (Ripit4Me) requires to have and install another 3 program in order to work (rip and remove protection) then really the viability of that program is in question. The program should be designed in such that withstand as stand alone program for what ever being designed for, Just like DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, AnyDVD, DVDXcopy and so on.

Why should the programmer have to write a ripper from scratch when DVD Decrypter is available, and is excellent at what it does. There's no danger of incompatibilities arising as it's no longer being updated. The author of RipIt4Me keeps the program simple. It creates an automated one-click solution to rip a DVD with DVD Decrypter using a PSL2 file and then uses FixVTS to clean up the output. It's small and simple, and accomplishes its stated goals. There's no reason to add complexity when it's not needed; Don't fix what's not broken.

Furthermore, RipIt4Me doesn't require DVD Shrink or any program that transcodes for that matter. You can burn the output to a dual layer DVD. You can keep it on your media center PC. And if you want to, there are plenty of excellent commercial programs like CloneDVD2. It would be stupid to tie Ripit4Me to a particular program. It's a ripper like DVD Decrypter. The output is fully compliant with the DVD-Video standard, and can be loaded into any program of your choice such as pcgedit, vobblanker, DVD Remake Pro, DVD Shrink, Clone DVD2 etc. Why tie yourself to one program?

Because dvd decrypter alone can't do any of the newer copy protections.

TCAS argued that a program should be an all-in-one solution. He thinks it's problematic that RipIt4Me requires DVD Decrypter to function, rather than doing the ripping on its own. My counterclaim was that DVD Decrypter works well as a ripper, and with Ripit4Me's intervention (the creation of a PSL2 file) works with new copy protections, so there's no reason to design a new ripper when Ripit4Me works great as is with DVD Decrypter.

gotcha now I see what you're saying.

Different people have different opinion of software design and every one is entitle to his/her own only end users are the ultimate judges.