Why not just package Anydvd and Clone for a single price? Shrink users will find other means. Could CloneDVD be improved to satisfy shrink users?

The argument against that from Shrink users is "why should I have to buy another piece of software that I don't need?" And before you come back and say "well you obviously need it cause Shrink isn't doing it for you", remember that until recently AnyDVD and Shrink were able to play nice together. The latest protections are what caused this rift. If there's a "fairly easy" way to get AnyDVD to play nice with Shrink again that doesn't cause a massive headache for James to implement, then I think it should be done. Then CloneDVD users will be happy and Shrink users will be happy. And Slysoft will have happy customers all around. Just my opinion.

That is the reason for the multi-purchase discount on the Slysoft site. But if you are talking about combining CloneDVD and AnyDVD into one single program, that is exactly what would make any Backup program illegal in most countries. They must be separate.It already does that. Rip in +/-R DL mode with CloneDVD and then use Shrink's deep analysis on the uncompressed CloneDVD ISO. The problem is that many members don't want to pay $39.00(?) to own that solution. I've seen the word "shoehorn" used in this context. I don't exactly understand that line of thinking since they spend that amount buying two to four DVD originals anyway ... but who am I to judge? They have a right to want to do (or not do) it their way.

Whisperer

That was the point I was making, as well. They want to use JUST Shrink with AnyDVD. They don't want to be forced into buying what they see as an overly expensive ripper. (Shrink users are NOT going to use CloneDVD for compression...period.) While I'm an avid CloneDVD user myself, I understand their reasoning for not wanting to spend 40 bucks on something that they're not going to necessarily utilize to its full potential.

I like Shrink more than Clone and it would be nice to please all the people all the time. I think It may be wise to improve CloneDVD rather than expend effort on Shrink. This is just my opinion.

That's more along the lines of what I want to hear. Yes, and it would have to continue to keep all those "auto load" and RootKit type programs from loading onto our systems.

Whisperer

If the compression on CloneDVD could be improved and the dumb sheep removed more people may like it as well as Shrink. Cant the the compression be improved to be better than Shrink?

I meant to make that clear in my first post. Sorry about that. Of course, these are only ideas. I have no idea how James is going to actually implement it. That's how *I'D* implement it if I were him, but, that doesn't mean much. Nonetheless, I don't expect it to bother CloneDVD/CloneCD users in the least. You won't even know it's there unless you use the Ripper function.

Amen to that. I love the protection AnyDVD gives us.

We've had that conversation before...I hope to God we don't open this can of worms up again. Yea, they talked about improving it a while back but nothing came of it. I think they got sidetracked with the HD stuff. Now people are asking(including me) for an updated CloneDVD that can handle HD material such as BluRay and HD-DVD. I think they determined there wasn't enough monetary benefit to the company's bottom line to invest time and effort into improved compression. At least that's what I got out of it.

Slysoft (as I understand it) doesn't develop CloneDVD2, Elby does. SS distributes but may make suggestions or submit(?) solutions to Elby.

Also, as I've said before, with the falling price of DL verbs and the availability of inexpensive DL burners, the number of people who compress onto SL media must steadily be dropping. A company has to consider the engineering expense to payback for a falling market. On another tack, I wonder if just the "deep analysis" code be licensed to Elby for inclusion into CloneDVD?

Whisperer

Deep analysis would be great and then as good as shrink almost that is.

All DVDShrink users that already has AnyDVD would be much better off using/getting the free VOBBlanker w/AnyDVD to 'customize the rip', sorta speak. Then use Shrink to compress whatever amount is needed. This would be far less of compression required compared to using AnyDVD's Ripper to rip the entire content of a DVD....

So, while the efforts by Slysoft to enhance it's Ripper to work better for Shrink users are valiant, it is not absolutely necesssary.

We should all also be grateful to Jsoto for sharing his great software with all of us...

AnyDVD works with Clone but it seems many do not like CloneDVD. If Slysoft cares about this part of the market something will be done. If they see more profit in BluRay and HD-DVD they may not care.

I use clonedvd right before dvd shrink all the time and there is no issues.

How is it you are getting that they don't care? James came here and said he's looking into fixing the problem. I'd say that says quite a bit about how much they care about users. Especially considering that this isn't a problem with their software. Slysoft will fix it...just give them time.

Hey ntss,
Do yourself a favor and get the free VOBBlanker. It works smoothastically ( ) with AnyDVD, and then you can use DVDShrink to compress.

The fact that Slysoft is even attempting to help tjhe Shrink users says a lot don't you think?? Who says they 'have to'? I'm satisfied with the fact that they atleast attempted to, but as they've stated, Shrink may very well have finally reached it's limit with the latest Sony encryption startegies, without being updated that is...
Oh but in actuallity it has been updated...it's called Nero Recode...lol

Thanks very much for this James.

When I think of a DVD loading up in DVD Shrink I think of a clean DVD structure. Which is what I want from AnyDVD. If jeanl can get it cleaned up using FixVTS with the help from James that would be excellant. Or visa versa. I just prefer a clean rip.

Thanks again!

This has been a very interesting and informative thread. I really appreciated and enjoyed especially James' comments about how AnyDVD works and why it can realistically be set up to perform certain operations, but not others. We understand that cleaning up some "protections" (I usually refer to them as "intentional flaws and defects") on a disc requires something that is processing in a batch mode and not possible for code sitting in the background processing as an "on-the-fly" driver. I am a dedicated DVDShrink user, because of its features, capabilities and power. Being a dedicated DVDShrink advocate reduces my confidence in AnyDVD and its value to me. This isn't criticism - just a fact of life.

Someone suggested that much of this debate would subside if Elby invested some time and effort in CloneDVD2 to incorporate the very valuable features available in "reauthor" mode in DVDShrink, along with incorporating an improved transcoding engine capable of the level of quality we've all come to take for granted with DVDShrink's deep analysis mode. That is a marvelous suggestion and one that has been discussed in this forum ad nauseum. I realize the reputation of CloneDVD2 is greatly based on its ease of use, and incorporating the kinds of options available in DVDShrink could compromise that. But if CloneDVD2 offered a "simple" mode and an "advanced" mode, where the user could choose which way they want to work, wouldn't that be a truly terrific product! I can honestly say that if I could work in re-author mode in DVDShrink and still retain menus easily right in DVDShrink, I cannot think of a good reason to ever launch CloneDVD2 at all (unless you're using the output of AnyDVD and it has artifacts left behind that DVDShrink cannot handle - and in that case, I would use a different process to rip the files in the first place).
The other option, which someone also suggested, is to say that AnyDVD is only guaranteed to work with CloneDVD2, so if you want to use some other reauthoring/processing product, AnyDVD may not be for you. Those folks can then opt for their favorite batch processing ripping program to prepare their dvd's for backup.

It appears - I could be wrong - that Elby just isn't viewing it from this angle but maybe that's one reason we've seen no real updates as of late. Maybe they are and the work is taking awhile. Who can say?

However, having done more thinking on this subject I can see 2 big things needed within CloneDVD [with the release of AnyDVD HD] and those would be HD-DVD and BR support. Redoing the quality of compression would definitely be a benefit but I have to ask myself a few questions.

(1) How much time and effort will be spent and in the end will DVDShrink users be happy with the results?
(2) How much will it cost to upgrade to the new[er] version (ie CloneDVD3 or maybe CloneDVD HD)?
(3) Will [enough] DVDShrink users who love DVDShrink shell out money for a shareware product if the quality is exactly the same [or close to it] as DVDShrink?

So, what I'm really asking is whether a huge update would be feasible. Would the time and effort be returned by sales? What will it take to get DVDShrink users to pay for a product and stop using DVDShrink? DVDShrink is a great freeware product so don't misinterpret my questions.

Personally, at this point, I have no TVs above 32" so I really don't have any problems with a DVD-9 compressed to DVD-5 except in a few rare situations. In those cases I use Nero Recode since I already own Nero 7 Ultra.

It would be great for Elby to make CloneDVD more advanced but I don't see that it will at this point [or soon]. I'm all for AnyDVD removing the Rip DVD to HD feature and allowing one to check or uncheck a feature to externally run FixVTS on files after they are ripped to a user's HDD. Once jeanl and James find a resolution with why AnyDVD and FixVTS are having issues then the DVDShrink users should be happy and it would improve things for everyone involved w/o costing more money.

Just a few of my thoughts.

I'm pretty sure James or Olli stated that R&D for improving the transcoder in Clonedvd2 would probably cost over $200,000--and that cost would have to be offset onto the consumer in some manner. I can't find the thread at the moment, but I know I read it on these forums.

The sheep animation can be changed to whatever you want, by the way.