Alternative to RBopt

[Skunk]

I have been experimenting with RBopt alot lately. Most of my backups are movie and menus only, but sometimes I want to keep some of the special features of a DVD (mostly deleted scenes and 'making of' featurettes).
I find it to be a real pain to use RBOpt however and have been looking for a way around using it (while hoping and praying that Jdobbs will integrate it into DVD-RB in the same way DVDShrink has).

Anyways, I have been experimenting with decrypting my DVDs (DVD Decrypter), then removing all previews, unwated scenes etc. (DVDReMake Pro). At this point, instead of running RBopt, I have been loading the project into DVDShrink and setting the main feature to no compression and then setting all the extras to 60, 70 or 80 percernt, depending on how important the segment is to me. I then run that output through DVD-RB with "steal space from extras" disabled.

The end results have been pretty good for me but I was wondering what you guys think about this. If you dont mind taking the extra step in using Shrink then you can get some really sweet results.

[jptheripper]

i think your time would be better spent mastering rb-opt. The results will be better

thats my opinion

[Skunk]

I understand that it is faster to just use RBOpt, but my previewer in DVD-RB has never worked and most of the time I have no clue what Im actually adjusting. Also, Shrink can re-encode the menus as well, eliminating the need for NuMenu4U.

Like I said, I will be in heaven if Jdobbs can make this integrated into Rebuilder as well as it is in shrink. I know I'm complaring apples to oranges, but DVD-RB really is the best app out there for backups. Only a few more features and I'm sure it will stay there for a long, long time. :)

[SpazzHH]

DVD-RB really is the best app out there for backups. Only a few more features and I'm sure it will stay there for a long, long time. :)

So why would you want to use Shrink on your source before giving it to RB? Doesn't that just kind of defeat the whole purpose of using RB in the first place? RBOpt doesn't use RB's viewer. It just seems like you would end up with a much better quality backup leaving Shrink totally out of things, but as long as You are happy with the results, that's the important thing.

[Skunk]

Well I only run the extras and whatnot through shrink, leaving the main feature uncompressed. Then I run the entire thing through DVD-RB. This basically does the exact same thing as RBOpt except the extra compression is done before hand in shrink.

I do realize how stupid this seems, being that I could save alot of time doing it with RBOpt, but I came up with this idea the other day and I thought I might share it with anyone who may not be very comfortable wit RBOpt.

[jptheripper]

um.. that doesnt work. You are reencoding the extras with shrink, then encoding them again with rebuilder

[Skunk]

Yeah, I realize that the extras are being encoded twice. I dont compress them all the way to where I want them to end up in the final product. I only compress them all a little bit in the ratio i want them in for the final, knowing they will lose a little more going through RB.

[wmansir]

Personally, I usually use Ecl Optimiser (linked in Overview sticky) for most of my bitrate tweaks. It doesn't have as many options as RBopt, but if you just want to tweak the bitrates of entire VTSs then it's easier to use.

My method:

1*. Use VOBBlanker to preview content, strip PCGs, audio and with the latest versions edit menus.
2**. Use PCGEdit to fix menu buttons.
3. Run DVD-RB prepare, setting Half-D1 where needed (by VTS under expert avs options), Steal space off.
4. Run Ecl Optimiser to tweak bitrates.
5. Finish DVD-RB encode and rebuild.

* If I just need to blank a few entire VTS, which is common, I will just run PCGedit, since it runs 'in place' on the existing files and can blank entire VTS or VTSM.

** If I'm in a hurry I will wait and do this as the final step.