Question about Nero Recode

[Morlock]

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/recode-main.htm
I'd like to try this method out, but I have a couple of questions that I hope some of the veterans here could answer:

You will need the following software for this guide:

DVD Decrypter & Daemon Tools or an on-the-fly decryption driver like AnyDVD or DVD Region-Free

Why do I need the Daemon Tools? I've been using DVD Decrypter for months now and haven't needed the Daemon Tools. The Tut makes no further mention of these tools.

Also, I was wondering about Nero. I know sometimes burners disagree with one another. I have Instant DVD 7.0.0.59 installed, will this cause problems with Nero?

Can anyone comment on the pros and cons of this tutorial, and Nero Recode? Is it better than DVDShrink 3 Beta? Should I even bother with it? Mostly I'd be trying it to see if Nero Recode allows me to lessen the DVD bloat that DVDShrink has. All those extras add up, even if they are converted to still images.

[sarahjh69]

nero recode
Its a very elegant package, very easy to use
If you are using dvd decryptor, remember to rip ALL the files.

advantages
its free
you can select the movie quality on a slider
(i have movie quality 80%, extras quality 50%)

disadvantages
you need DirectX v9a or better (32meg)

[Doom9]

I don't know if Recode is really free.. I think you need a Nero license for it to work. At least NeroVision came with a reminder that it would only run for some time since I didn't have a license.. but when I updated the entire Nero package, that warning suddenly disappeared.
Per rule12 you should not ask what's best because that is a question only you can answer. Everybody percieves quality differently.

As for Daemon Tools.. call it my habit. You don't necessarily need it, that's correct. But I prefer to rip the entire disc as iso and mount it as virtual DVD. Why? First of all Daemon tools are free and a very useful tool that should be installed on any computer.. they help you a great deal with many things. Furthermore, ripping as iso and mounting in Daemon Tools will ensure that no matter what you do, your source will remain untouched until you unmount it. It happens every day that people accidentally delete a file from their source and then they have to rip again. Using the ISO way you cannot accidentally delete a source file because you manually have to unmount the ISO before you can delete anything.. and you can also only delete the entire source, not specific files. That is why I still prefer the ISO way. It's not a requirement, but it's the safer way to do things and it doesn't take longer (mounting the disc should take about as long as navigating to the proper source directory for file mode ripping).