Next best thing to a real DVD, using DivX?

[rling]

Hello denizens,
This might be an FAQ. If it's not, it probably should be. At any rate I
can't find this information in one place.

On the subject of backing up DVDs, I think DVD2SVCD is a fantastic program,
and full kudos to the author(s). however I don't think a set of SVCDs
would be a reasonable replacement for a lost or damaged DVD (just my
opinion). If I lost my LOTR DVD and all I had left was three SVCDs I would
be pissed off, because:
- quality of SVCD is poor.
- have to change discs during the movie (more than once)
- limits on subtitles, audio tracks
- special features are gone :-(

Of course everyone wants their DVD backup to be exactly like the
original... and I can think of 2 ways to do this, but...
- DVD to DVD copy - equipment is expensive, blanks are (kind of) expensive
- copy DVD exactly to HDD - takes up about 9 GB per movie :-(

However, DivX/XviD/MPEG4 give good visual quality in only a small space
(say 1.5 GB per movie). What I would really like is, to backup a DVD to a
file on HDD that has everything on it that is on the DVD, but just with all
video encoded using DivX/XviD/MPEG4, and smallish (say 1.75 GB).

This is my wish list:

- EASY to use - put the DVD in the drive, press a key, come back a few
hours later. Maybe a few options for amount of compression, but not
heaps of options for audios, subtitles, etc etc (since the idea is to
match the DVD as exact as possible).

- EASY to play the file - the player should support the DVD's menus,
different audio tracks, subtitles, and so on through easy menus and
buttons. Just like it was WinDVD or PowerDVD with a real DVD in the
drive

- BEST possible reproduction of original - the DVD video should not be
scaled down, cropped, stretched, etc etc (as with SVCD) - because that
is reducing its value as a BACKUP as close as possible of the DVD. (Even
with DivX/GKnot I get this to happen). If the DVD supports pan&scan,
widescreen, 4:3 etc etc, the finished file should also have these
options accessible just as easily as the DVD did.

But enough of dreaming. Maybe it is possible to get fairly close to this
in reality with some existing software. Though, I think I must be quite
stupid, because I have tried to get GKnot/robot4rip/etc etc to do this,
but I always get problems... of course these are still great tools. The
problems are:
- hard for me to use, to simply reproduce the DVD as close as possible.
- hard to play - I still cannot access subtitles and audio tracks in a
DivX I made, I know they are in there, but I cant use them!! I need
very simple language documentation!
- quality - the original DVD is 720x576, but the encoders want to either
squash this down, or stretch it to 16:9 before encoding. Maybe I miss
something but this does not give me good results on a widescreen TV.

Of course you might think, "if you want this, go and write it yourself you
ungrateful #$^@#%$^..." well, maybe I have to! But first it is good to
be sure that it does not exist already ;-)

Just my mere opinions...

ricco

[smiller667]

MicroDVD comes to my mind - I only ever saw one at a friends place, but it conserved original menu structures etc. Probably not a 1-click solution, though. http://www.tiasoft.de/ is the homepage.

On the other hand, I wouldn't say that DVD burning equipment is expensive anymore (4x burners for like 130$). I also think that reducing something like the entire LOTR movie to 1,75GB isn't "as close as it gets" in terms of picture quality (no matter if it's divx or svcd) - but that wasn't the point of your posting anyway :).

I always thought the point of making a backup on svcd or whatever was to use that backup and not the original DVD ... thus preventing damage or loss to it.

[hakko504]

Actually, some of the things you want is usually mutually exclusive options!

A DVD-9 can never be backupped on 1 single disc preserving everything as it was on the original DVD. The only choice is then to save it on the HD, which you ruled out for other reasons.

To keep menus you need to do DVD2DVD backups. There is menus in other formats, but they are not copied from the DVD but created by the person who did the backup.

To keep a backup to 1 disc your choice is DVD or DivX/XviD. A DVD keeps the aspect ratio, but usually you must do some form of bitrate reduction in order to fit the 8+GB original onto a 4.3GB backup disc. A DivX can keep the full 720x576 and still fit the movie onto 1 CD, but most of the time this is made at the expense of quality. 2 or 3 CD's are usually required - or the unorthodox method of putting DivX video on a data DVD. And if you're looking at a multi-CD solution SVCD is also a sensible choice, giving you the best possible video without going all the way to DVD.

So, in order to make a complete perfect backup without loosing any data from the original the choice is to split the DVD in two parts. This is not at all hard, Doom9 (http://www.doom9.org) have a guide for this and while the IfoEdit method may be a bit of trial and error, it's still the best method out there. There are single click solutions (http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=65) available, working more or less the way you want it. IfoEdit still wins by being the most versatile solution though.

As for price, as smiller667 noted, a DVD burner is not that expensive (though where I live I'm yet to see a 4x priced below 200$) and discs are getting cheaper all the time - my last batch of 4x was ~$2.50 each and 1x at ~$1.50. I don't expect to pay more than $2/$1 next time though ;)

[tobo99]

hey hakko, check this out
http://www.itbutikken.dk/default.asp?sprog=46&land=46&varenr=45256

always check http://buggy.no-ip.com :p