DVD Shrink - Feature Requests

[gnutellafan]

I know many of the feature requests have been made a number of times and can easily get lost in threads, so I thought it would be nice to have one thread for feature requests for DVD Shrink.

Please remember, DVD Shrink is absolutly free and the author wont even take donations at this time. So he/she owes you nothing.

My two cents: DVD Shrink is the best of the one click solutions. It keeps getting better and the author is great. THere is still some power features I would like.

Anyway, keep up the great work.


Feature Requests:

-Preserving DVD structure while croping the film:

I believe you could still allow ppl to crop the film by letting them choose the start point and stop point and replacing everything before and after w/ a still black screen.

Then the entry point of the vob could be changed to enter right after the still black.

I think this would preserve the structure AND allow ppl to crop the film for the extra savings


-option to have main movie use all remaining space (no wasted space - may require recalculation but thats fine if the pic is better)

-display the frame number on slider bar when in the croping view

-choose which title set to play first so I can start w/ the main movie instead of the menu's. It pretty easy in ifoedit but there is no reason it couldnt be made even easier with a simple check box approach

-option for still frame or jpg of choice (100% compression - black screen)

-select which if any sub titles to have as default on

-eliminate unused sound tracks when keeping the whole film or ability to change default so to fix the problem were there is no sound in movie when deleting default audio stream

-optional 2 pass for better image quality

-option to remove menus/titles completely

-Ability to set what title should play fist (I like to start my dvds with the film, not the menu)

-Ability to set multiple start and stop points (ie if there is some move, then intro credits, then the movie again - it would be nice to be able to cut out these credits that come in between)



-What would blow my mind is if you could get together with the ppl doing all the CCE work so that re-encoding could be an option (instead of just transcoding). This would also allow for converting PAL->NTSC and vise versa

[Top_Cat]

Am really impressed by the program, great work.

I think this has been mentioned a few times on the fourms and is something I know a lot of people want. The option to completely and quickly (i.e. a tick box or something) remove the "FBI Warning" thingat the begining that can't be skipped normally on a DVD.


Also the ability to compress different chapters of the main film to different rates (if this is even possible), so that the end credits could be highly compress so there is more space for the actual movie.

Thanks,

Top Cat

[dogman-x]

I've used DvdDecrypter, IfoEdit and CCE (when necessary) to backup around 500 DVDs. I've used DVD Shrink twice now and have to say that I'm extremely impressed. It's like somebody imagined my dream backup software and then actually wrote it! :)

So now I want to use DVD Shrink for everything, but there are still a few features I need in my old set of tools that DVD Shrink doesn't have, so I'm wondering if these could be added to DVD Shrink.

1) Remove Prohibited User Operations. When someone prevents me from using the skip or fast-forward keys, I get really frustrated. This is one of the reasons I back-up DVDs to begin with. I can use IfoEdit after DVD Shrink to handle this, but it would be nice to use DVD Shrink for everything.

2) User selectable # of retries. DvdDecrypter has this feature. I've had around 10 titles that had problems reading. With most of these hard to read titles, I've noticed that the # of retries actually made a difference. In other words, it usually ends up reading the data, but it may take 10, 20 or 30 retries. Of the 10 titles that had problems reading, only 1 or 2 refused to read after many retries. Note that DvdDecrypter defaults to 20 retries.

3) Choice of compression. If the main movie part of the title is 8 Gig, then CCE is necessary (IMHO). If DVD Shrink had an option for either quick transcoding or slow CCE, this would be ideal. Of course, this would mean interfacing with other software, but DVD2SVCD is a good example of how this can work. Actually, probably only 10% or less of the titles I backup fall into this category, so if it's too much trouble to add this into DVD Shrink, I can live without it.

4) Show Title Time (HH:MM:SS). For example, if the main title is only 5 Gig, but is really long (i.e. 2.5 hours or more), then it's already heavily compressed on the source DVD, so even a light amount of additional compression (e.g. 10%) may be noticable. In this case I'll want to use CCE. So I find myself using IfoEdit before DVD Shrink to find out how much time the main title is. I guess a source bit rate value would do just as well.

5) Remove Layer Breaks. I can do this in IfoEdit, but it would save a step if DVD Shrink did this automatically.


Again, all of these features are things I can work around, but DVD Shrink is such a great tool that I want to use it for everything. If these feature requests aren't helping, then please ignore them.
Thanks.

[gnutellafan]

from:hazerlazer2

"My simple suggestion would be to include some sort of "SAVE" or "save as" feature, which would allow you to save all of your changes to a particular file and then "LOAD" those changes at a later date or even be able to send them to a friend. Thus, if he/she has that DVD, they can back it up exactly like you did."


I liked this one so I thought I would add it here.

[gnutellafan]

-support for audio (w/ default to mute) on the main page and the start/stop page

[luphy]

Hi, this is my first post on this board.
Have to say tons of thanks for a great board and great
tutorials.
I have not had the time to delve into trying anything
more complicated than shrink or dvdfab :D cuz it seems
quite over my head atm.

Anyways, after reading the many posts here and after
shrinking a few dvds, I'd like to make some suggestions.

1- As voiced by others I'd love to see more compression ratio
choices - in one percent increments. If not that, then keep
the 5% steps BUT give an option for shrink to try to fit
everything onto one DVD.

2- I have not scrutinized my backups to see how the layer
break looks, but this would be a good feature to have - to
remove the layer breaks.

3- And as others have said, give the user the option of keeping
the menus along with the movie and be able to remove individual
titlesets.

4- Now for the really big suggestion: I wonder if Shrink would/could
be made so that the user can choose between 2 or 3 compression
algorithms.
Levle 1-is the current default - fast.
Level 2-could be a mid-level like InstantCopy that would take a
couple hours.
Level 3-I wonder if Shrink could be made like dvd2dvdr where it would
require the CCE encoder engine. Sure you could just use dvd2dvdr,
but I'd sure like to see Shrink's simplicity combined with CCE.

Now if Shrink were to encompass all this I would have to say that
it would be THE program. The Swiss Army Knife of DVD backup/encoder/transcoders!

As it is, I LOVE the program - excellent quality and so easy to use.
Thanks and keep up the good work.

[flaystus]

I tend to agree ont some of the feature request. As noted on another board the still picture idea is awsome. And the Slow (CCE)/ Fast (internal) feature would be a dream to me, but I fear would start to spread the programs features out really widely.

[redeemer-dk]

Just a note. When you say you want CCE implemented, there's tools avaiulable for that.

THe whole problem is you need to reuathor it when encoding with CCE, you don't when you transcode.

[Fat Bast'rd]

Ability to manually re-analyze the DVD's structure

[Fat Bast'rd]

Ability to remove selected video streams in full-disk mode.

Ability to compress at different levels throughout the movie, so that start and/or end credits could be encoded at level 10 (or still pictures) while the rest of the movie would have a much lower level number.

[Fat Bast'rd]

Ability to transcode the audio too.

[Fat Bast'rd]

Ultra-high compression level at the expense of all quality, for those end credits.

[mpucoder]

Enough, already. At least edit old posts to consolidate the requests. And remember, freeware authors are under no obligation to honor requests, and, in fact, we discourage making requests. Doom9's position on freeware feature requests (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52597)

[Fat Bast'rd]

"And remember, freeware authors are under no obligation to honor requests, and, in fact, we discourage making requests".

Ahem. The title of this thread is new features for DVD shrink!

[mpucoder]

Yes, it is, and I warned gnutellafan about freeware requests when he started the thread. He felt the author could ignore it if he so chose , so the thread remains. But making request after request is just not in the spirit of freeware, it makes you look like someone who came to a picnic with nothing but a big appetite.

[Fat Bast'rd]

"...making request after request is just not in the spirit of freeware, it makes you look like someone who came to a picnic with nothing but a big appetite".

I merely posted as the thoughts came into my head. I apologise for thinking.

[corigan]

Originally posted by Fat Bast'rd
I merely posted as the thoughts came into my head. I apologise for thinking. [/B]

You're missing the point and being a tad bit smug about it. He was merely trying to explain that you should condense your 4-5 requests down into one. You can go back and edit your posts. Since you didn't seem to figure this out the first time that means when "another thought comes into your head" you can go back and edit the initial post to add the thought without basically having to vertical spam a thread with one liners. It also might help your cause of getting these additions added into dvdshrink by thanking the author for all of his hard work instead of just belching out one line sentances almost as demands.

"You really are a fat bastard.."

Corigan

[Fat Bast'rd]

It also might help your cause of getting these additions added into dvdshrink by thanking the author for all of his hard work...

Fine, tell me who he is and I'll thank him in person.


"You really are a fat bastard.."

"Oh, behaave..."

[gnutellafan]

Please do not repeat feature requests that have already been made. Many forum members are concerned that any feature requests at all will upset DVD Shrink who is already generous enough to provide us with the best dvd back up program for free. It seems that every thread on dvdshrink has feature requests in them. Its my opinion that they should be kept to this thread so that the can remain organized and the author can view them if he wishes without wading through them in other posts where they are off topic. DVD Shrink himself has not yet responded to the issue of feature requests.

Remember- DVD Shrink is free and the auther doesnt owe us anything. If you make a feature request be polite and be sure to thank the author for all of his hard work.

[magic]

hey guys

i'd say, the feature-request could be a source of ideas for the author of dvd-shrink - who (for my opinion) does great work.

so i would let him decide whether to ignore the requests or to make it more perfect.

thx for the work!


magic


o - and my feature suggestion (not request!!): possibility to produce image-files

[Gigantor69]

I am a huge fan of DVD Shrink and am not out to tick him off (!), so consider this a suggestion, not a request.

I suggest that the "Shut down computer at finish" command be placed in the dialog box that is displayed while the program is recompressing the data. I feel this is a more flexible location.

Thanks for a truly incredible program!