Newbie question regarding BIG THREE

[bloody1]

I've been using DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink to do all my backups for the past few months. I've only been doing movies that are at 85% compression or higher using these methods as I want the quality to be as close to original as possible.
Now I want to backup my longer movies ( Dances With Wolves, Braveheart, etc...) using CCE.
Is the BIG THREE method the best way to do this right now??? I'm going to use DVD Shrink to get the main movie only with no compression ( usually 5.5 to 6.5 gigs). I don't need menus, extras, or anything just the main menu and one English track. Is there any quicker way than the BIG THREE if I'm only doing the main movie and no menus, etc..????
Thanks, and sorry if these newbie questions are lame :)

[jel]

hi bloody1,

the big3 method is intended to be used for a FULL back-up - menus, extras .... the lot!

i would suggest that you check out this guide:
DVD2DVD (http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvd2svcd-dvdr.htm)
which uses DVD2SVCD to re-author a main movie only back-up using CCE/Scenarist

hth

j

ps: for an overview of the tools around, including relevant guides, you should look at this page:
DVD backup guides (http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvdbackup-guides.htm)

[jptheripper]

my suggestion..

reauthor with dvdshrink to do movie only with 1 track

then use dvd-rebuilder (see forum here)

[Jomile]

bloody1:

To do a main movie back up there are many options on the page under dvd backup guides. If you follow the BIG3 you will endup with a full movie with all the extras ect. One way to do it would be with ifoedit.

ifoedit (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-menustripping.htm)

But for using CCE i would recomend the DVD2DVD as jel recommended

[jptheripper]

i really recommend rebuilder. Its one click, uses cce

[influenza]

That's correct. Although I would be carefull on long and action packed movies. Dvd-Rb encodes on cell level, which might give lower quality over using a bigger piece of video to work on. Especially on very long movies, where you need all the bitrate you have I can imagine that this will lead to detoriation of picture quality.

But that's an entirely different discussion.

[jptheripper]

actually, with the add-on tools now available (ecl optimizer, etc..) i think dvd-rb gives better quality than big3 for the movies it works with (single angle). It uses the original bitrate distribution to determine new distribution so the work is already done by studios to determine where max bitrate is needed, and the addon tools let you set custom bitrates for any cell, giving credits near zero bits to preserve movie, etc..

-jmho

-jp

[influenza]

Well I would doubt this is true. Originally the distributed bitrate might have been optimal. But now you are lowering the average bitrate to make things fit. So the originally optimal bitrate might not be optimal in this case. If you give CCE a larger piece of video to work on, given the bitrate, better results can be achieved. But this is just my opinion ofcourse ;)

[jptheripper]

yeah i can see it going either way. If the original video bitrate is distributed optimally, lowering the average should uniformly lower the distribution over the whole movie without ill effect, however, if some cells cross a threshold then they might have problems that could have been avoided by lowering other cells proportionally more.

regardless, I think the relative value of time (mine) vs. quality acheived is significantly higher with dvd-rb. My opinion, of course.

[influenza]

if some cells cross a threshold then they might have problems that could have been avoided by lowering other cells proportionally more.

yes exactly my point. But I think your personal satisfaction is most important and obviously you're quite happy :D

[Trahald]

These best threads never go anywhere.. some people prefer dvdshrink output to cce. use what works for you. if you want more control over the process and to gain knowledge about authoring, use big3.. if you want a simpler automated interface and dont really care to deal with dvd authoring .. use dvdrb. only thing i still warn is wait till its stable before useing it for day to day backups (major issues are still being fixed in new versions) but its interesting to play with.. ive used it a few times.. when its stable i may even burn one ;)