Has anyone tried Recode 2?

[Stampede]

I haven't downloaded the update yet. I'm curious, in your opinion is it good enough to be worth my time and money to download it and experiment with it on several blank discs? I'm currently using a combination of dvddecrypter, ifoedit, and dvd95copy.

What are your thoughts on this software concerning DVD backups compared to what you're currently using? Specifically, what's your perception of Recode 2's capabilities conserning compatibility backing up various titles, stand-alone player compatiblity with the burning engine, compression quality, stability, and feature set (like content stripping, movie only feature, ease of use, etc).

[writersblock29]

I haven't used it extensively, but I played around with Recode 2 a bit on a few DVDs. At first glance, it's pretty much just a reved-up version of the popular DVD Shrink (Recode has the same author as DVD Shrink, so no surprises here), but offers options that Shrink does not.

The introduction screen gives you three options. The first is for straight-across DVD 1:1 copying. However, with this option, you can remove unwanted extras while preserving your menus. To select an option that you've removed is to simply run into a still frame which informs you that the title you've selected has been removed -- as opposed to having a menu button that doesn't work. The compression settings for menus, movie, and extras, are all adjustable. You can remove unwanted audio and subtitle streams (to select removed audio streams in your copy is to be watching a silent movie -- this is done simply to preserve the menu's functionality so that all the buttons pertaining to stuff you KEPT work as they should).

The second option allows for reauthoring of the disk, or even joining VOB files from different DVDs. This proves usefull for joining multi-disk movies (such as The Lord of the Rings Extended versions) onto one DVDR. The pesky "layer break" is removed, resulting in smoother playback on many stand-alones. This is a "movie-only" type of operation, since menus aren't preserved.

The third option is to encode your DVD project as "Nero Digital," if you just want a copy to play on your computer. I'm not sure if Nero Digital is compatible with DIVX-capable set tops or not (I have no access to one in order to test it)... perhaps others here can fill in that blank for us! Beware of the advertizing -- Nero Digital isn't really true "DVD Quality on a CDR." It is, however, fairly good for what it is. (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all.)

I won't go into the OVERALL quality of the transcoder, since such talk enevitably winds up in a flame war -- but I will point out that the download on the Nero site serves as a fully-functional demo if you at least want to try it out. If you already have Nero 6 on your computer (and you're not using an OEM version, which is limited to what's availible for you to use) then the download serves as an updater, which will bring your version of Nero 6 up to par with the latest version availible.

Keep DVD Decrypter on hand nonetheless, since Recode only works on DVDs devoid of copy protection.

Do I personally think it's worth your time to check out? I feel EVERYTHING is worth checking out at least once! For many, many, people, Recode 2 will spell the be-all, end-all, tool for their backups. Since the demo download will only cost you time, and allow you to poke around with it, I'd say go for it.

(Suggestion: If you like this program, then it may pay you to look for the boxed version of Nero 6 at your local stores. With this being the holiday season, many businesses where I live have it for sale at a cost less than the downloadable serial number. You can use the serial number that comes with the boxed version to activate your demo and make it permanent while still owning a legitament copy. Also, make sure to download and install DirectX 9 -- you'll be needing it with the demo, and it's a free upgrade for your computer that's good to have, anyway.)

Hope this helps!

[0xdeadbeef]

I just did I a quick comparison with IC7 and the first version of Recode. Surprisingly, even with deep analysis etc., the image quality of the Recode v2 output is about on par with the Recode v1 output. Both are not even close to IC7. As with DVDShrink or Recode v1, you can use it if you don't compress the main movie to less than 80% of its original size, while IC7 still works fine for <65%.

[Stampede]

Thanks for the info guys.

I downloaded and installed the update and I got the error about needing the dvd plugin. I then uninstalled everything, deleted the folders left behind in c:\program files, rebooted, and then I installed everything on the autorun screen on my Nero 6 Ultra Edition cdrom except for WriteReader or something like that. I then installed the 4 update downloads, rebooted, and I have the same error about needing the dvd plugin when clicking the first 2 options in Recode 2. I'll have to wait until I have some time to contact Nero tech support because I don't want to rip out anything with Ahead or Nero from the registry after uninstalling it all again just to find out it still won't work. I have no idea what causes this error except maybe it's because I used to have it installed in a custom directory.

With all of this, plus hearing that the video quality is the same as DVDShrink (I've tried it before and wasn't completely satisfied with it) I think I'll hold off on burning any DVD's with Recode 2 for now.

[writersblock29]

@Stampede

That's pretty interesting that Nero 6 gives you that error, considering that Nero 6 *supposedly* already provides the DVD plugin. It almost sounds like a driver conflict with another program... In the support area of the Nero site are utilities to fix registry entries as well as to check for conflicting drivers; these might be worth a try in this case.

But, yeah, if you've used the beta release for DVD Shrink 3.5 (using "deep analysis"), you're pretty much seeing the same video quality as what you'd get by using Recode. Think of Recode as DVD Shrink without automatic decrypting -- yet one that has the option to automatically burn the project once processing is completed. Recode seems to "chew" on the files more than Shrink, taking longer to do a first-sweep analysis of your project. I really can't say, however, that I detect much of a difference in final image quality from it. Others here, I'm sure, would disagree with that assesment. Again, there's that "eye of the beholder" bit again! Those making backups of FINDING NEMO for their children will find it a handy program -- and let's face it: It's easy to use! Most will find the quality of their copies to be quite acceptable. I do agree with 0xdeadbeef to the extent that it really depends on just how much transcoding needs to take place as to what the quality of the final project is going to be... but this will be true of any transcoder, including DVD95COPY. Since a true ENcoder (CCE, TMPGE, among others)creates its own stream, the rules change for the better, image-wise -- but take more time and are certainly less user-friendly.

At least we've got options!
:)

[DenFussell]

I bought and have tried Recode 2 on a couple of movies and find that it's not what I hoped it would be.

The ability to remove items from your DVD is, for me, impractical, because if you remove a 10 sec warning screen you get a 10 sec playback of whatever still image you replace it with. This definitely needs to be fixed.

Even then, these replacements often work fine on a PC but will stop play on many stand alone players requiring manipulation of the remote to get play to continue. There needs to be a facility for setting the 'first play' function for either main menu or main title and just skipping all the nonsense they put in VIDEO_TS.IFO, thereby negating the need for removing warning screens in the first place.

Recode generates the same error with a TMPGEnc Author generated file set as does Shrink 3B5, this needs to be repaired as well.

Recode seems to be a dust off of Shrink 3B5 with a couple of minor additions thrown in.

[Stampede]

Well driverclean found some items that I was able to uninstall with it, registry clean didn't do anything for some reason, but running the general clean utility, manually cleaning up the remaining registry entries, reinstalling Nero, and installing the updates fixed my issue. writersblock29 your advice seemed to work :)

Even though Recode 2's working great now, I'm not sure I want to use it. DVD95Copy is producing good quality video on movie only titles, and I just use IFOEdit to bypass FBI warnings, studio logos, and introductory trailers and burn using Nero on a DVD5 backups.

[tf]

A few things:

The option to turn a sequence into a still-pic or just a single colour, is not really meant for FBI warnings etc. It's more for unwanted extras. I usually use it on the extras I don't care about, and then I use Menu Edit to disable the buttons I don't need to be active.

As for the quality, it's a matter of taste. Me, I've always found the quality of IC7 or 8 to be inferior to Shrink (and Recode), but that's not to say YOU will think the same. Also, just like Shrink, you can at least count on Recode to utilize the whole space available and be dead-on in terms of size.

No doubt the "Big Three" is still the best method around, but for decent results in a fair time, Recode is a damn fine product.

-tf

[writersblock29]

@Stampede

Glad it worked! :)

Well, at least now you can say that you've tried it!

[vav]

well I can add something in favour of NR2 after several copies:
it eliminates all unwanted subtitles and renumber those wanted!
This means we don't have to polish it up with ifoedit.

checked it out with ifoedit and it's cool. all references are fixed including all button actions...

Didn't see shrink/clonedvd do that...

[writersblock29]

@vav

Renumbers them? I haven't played around with that yet, but I'm currious as to what you mean. DVD Shrink would leave the headers for the removed streams (either for audio or subtitles) to preserve the menu button's command path; to select an audio track that you've removed while playing back your copy is to have no audio at all, and selecting subs you've removed is to have no subs at all. In any full-disk copies I've made with Recode (not many, I'll admit -- since I like to give the full space of my DVD+R for main movie quality, and usually vie for doing movie-only projects toward that end while putting special features I want to keep on Mini-DVD whenever possible) the same has been true there, too.

Pretty good program, isn't it? By far and away the most useful one I've run across in some time!

Happy burning!

[vav]

well, I dug into ifoedit after recode has done it's thing, and I saw that from 14 subtitle streams before, I was left with only English (0) and my local one (1), although its previous number was #11 for instance...

further more, all references inside ifos and buttons were changed, so all "if - then" commands would point to stream 0 with 'off' for removed streams. That includes buttons.

I've done only 3 not-too-comlicated backups, so this is no in-depth study, but it's very neat feature and shows fine detialed thinking.

I like that program, even just for that attitude.

...and yes, the burning is a happy occasion... :-)

cheers,

[writersblock29]

@vav

I see! Thanks for the clarification!
:)