DVDShrink 3.1 is released

[mrbass]

download it from the official site http://www.dvdshrink.org

[2COOL]

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Spread the word! Inform the media! CNN! It's FREE!

:( I pity the people who are buying backup software at the computer stores right now. *Sigh* They just don't know. :p

[Toona]

SWEEEEEEET rock on go dvd shrink!!!!!!

[ozone_81]

Cool!

Cant wait to try it out. :)

/ Ozone

[280zx]

Trying it out right now. Very nice interface, extremely simple to use. Now to check out the encoding quality.

edit -

It's very hard to tell the original dvd from the backup dvdshrink just made. I was expecting something like the terrible quality that dvd2one produced for me, but this is impressive, especially considering the speed.

[oddwunn]

Cool!! The new version accesses your installed audio filters. I love it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

[ozone_81]

Great app!

Thanks

[wmansir]

I've been waiting for this all day. It's pretty sweet, but I have a CCE encode running so I can't mess with it fully.

:(

Only 25 hours left on my encode. :( :(

[Akira_ru]

Minimum compression level is still "Still Picture" :(
I more like CloneDVD - it can remove video and left empy PGC

[2COOL]

Originally posted by Akira_ru
Minimum compression level is still "Still Picture" :(
I more like CloneDVD - it can remove video and left empy PGC First post since Apr 2003 and it's a letdown. :( Let me see...CloneDVD Euro 39.00...DVD Shrink...free...CloneDVD Euro 39.00...DVD Shrink...still FREE.

DVD Shrink may not satisfy everyone but with its other powerful features it's packing, you can't beat the price! :D Besides, there are always easy work arounds available. It's not like it's impossible to duplicate what CloneDVD does with removing titles. ;)

Oh and Welcome to the forum!

[wmansir]

or DVDShrink + IfoEdit + 2COOL's guide + a tiny bit of work = FREE!!

or DVDShrink + DVD Stripper + even less work = £5/$9/€8


Did I read somewhere that removing an audio stream will disable the menu button with this version? I can't recall if I read that or not. Maybe it was just on the wish list.

[trekkerj]

Does v3.1 fix the IFO file association problem?

[Lazza]

As 2COOL implied this is a no brainer! :rolleyes:

Whether you like it or not this software is a work of art in what it achieves with such simplicity.

Dr Shrink we love you for all the hard work you have put into this, and some of us indeed know it has been pretty much day and night too, keep up the great work as it seems to please "most" of us! :D

[wmansir]

Originally posted by trekkerj
Does v3.1 fix the IFO file association problem?

From the 3.1 version history thread:

No longer steal ".IFO" file extension for DVD Shrink.

EDIT:

In looking for the answer to your question I found the answer to my own. From the same post:

Added "Logical remapping of enabled streams" option. This is checked
by default. If checked, all disabled streams are entirely removed
from IFO files, and menu buttons, navigation commands are remapped to
point to the correct remaining streams.

And holy fast coding batman! I just noticed the history only covers about 10 days from Beta 1 to final release. Somebody has been drinking their Mountain Dew.

[2COOL]

Added "Logical remapping of enabled streams" option. This is checked
by default. If checked, all disabled streams are entirely removed
from IFO files, and menu buttons, navigation commands are remapped to
point to the correct remaining streams.
The way I look at it, if you are going to strip any streams consecutively and not the default audio, you should have it checked.

If non-consecutive streams are stripped then I would have the option unchecked.

Read about how I explained consecutive and non-consecutive stripping in this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60444)

[2COOL]

Alert!

3.1 has problems with opening files if you have DVD Region Free software installed and running. It will work fine if you disable DVD REgion Free prior to using 3.1.

dvdshrink says another update will be around soon. ;)

Here's that bug report (http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?postid=136757#post136757).

[Grover]

I for one, am Not Happy.

DVDShrink is turning into BLOAT-WARE. ;) The first version I ever downloaded was 2.0 at 251KB. This latest version is gone out to 781KB zipped. If this keeps on happening then I just don't know if I can continue to use a program with such obviously lazy coding. (in case you can't tell.. I'm being sarcastic... :D duh).

It continues to amaze me (a non-coding computer using dude) how this guy (sorry.. Mr DVDShrink) can make such an AMAZING piece of software that can fit onto a 3.5" disk TWICE (do people still use those...?) and still do all the things it does AND do them REALLY WELL.

Seriously though. This just keeps getting BETTER and BETTER. I love that there is now audio in the preview. And the option to auto-deselect subtitles is great. Even better is the option to LEAVE IN the forced and menu subs (this guy.. sorry Mr DVDSrhink, has thought of everything). It's the little things, like the pre-selecting of languages that make life easier.

Burning... wow....THREE BIG TICKS.

About the only thing it doesn't do (that I want it to do) is REMOVE streams, but as we all know, there are ways around this.

This software is so good, I can now setup my Dad (who lives 850km away and loves his computer but is not tech-savy) to backup his collection on his own without needing a permanent "24hr batphone-techsupport" hotline to me.

Congrats Mr Shink... I put forward an early nomination for Man-of-the-Year.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by Grover
About the only thing it doesn't do (that I want it to do) is REMOVE streams, but as we all know, there are ways around this. :confused: :confused: You mean audio and subtitles? It's been doing that since day 1. It doesn't work for you?

[Grover]

Sorry. I meant to say about removing video altogether rather than STILL PICTURES.

(been removing audio and subs since day one :) )

Still great that I can now auto-select the audio and subs I want to keep.

Cheers...

[oddwunn]

I like everything about 3.1!

I like the new look to the interface (I am currently using ddlooping's "sharp" buttons :) ), and I really like the way the reauthor window works. With two tabs, you can choose between "compression settings" and "brouser", so creating a customized "clips" disc has become even easier than ever.

And the option to auto-deselect subtitles is great. Even better is the option to LEAVE IN the forced and menu subs

So let me see if I have this right. If I select "Disable all subpicture except menus and forced streams" that means that ALL subs will be deselected, yet when forced subs appear on the screen, they will still be there. I always kept the English subs because I assumed that the forced subs were in there somewhere and that if I eliminated the English subs, the forced ones would be gone also. Someone please enlighten me on this point.

Thanks!

[ddlooping]

Hi all. :)
Originally posted by oddwunn
So let me see if I have this right. If I select "Disable all subpicture except menus and forced streams" that means that ALL subs will be deselected, yet when forced subs appear on the screen, they will still be there. I always kept the English subs because I assumed that the forced subs were in there somewhere and that if I eliminated the English subs, the forced ones would be gone also. Someone please enlighten me on this point.

Thanks!
Yes. that's the theory oddwunn. ;)

If any of you are interested (but I guess you wouldn't be as you all seem to be old-hands), a few v3.1 guides are now available at
DVDShrink.info (http://www.dvdshrink.info/guides.php).
They include a "Virtual Tour of v3.1 Preferences". http://www.dvdshrink.info/images/smiles/thumb_up.gif
The only problem is dvdshrink just told me he's gonna add a new tab to the Preferences window. :D

[2COOL]

@oddwunn

From the beta-testing forum,

Originally posted by jellybean
@DVDShrink, can you confirm now that the setting/preference;

"Disable all subpictures except menus and forced streams" means that users need not worry about menus malfunctioning anymore as in some cases with previous versions where subpictures were deleted?

Originally posted by dvdshrink
Yes.

DVD Shrink doesn't let you disable subpicture in a menu anyway (it is not displayed to be unchecked).

Also some titles contain forced subpicture which probably shouldn't be deleted... like the rabbit in Matrix.

[m1482]

Bugs found...

1-Same quality as 3.0 beta 5, but it takes longer to transcode (about 40% more time!!!)

2-With some DVD's process crash (in/out error).

3-Sometimes it "freeze" when process end.

4-After burning a warning appears telling the process fail ( Nero 5.5.10.54 installed).


For the moment I would use 3.0 beta5...

[cybercrap]

I just used dvdshrink 3.1 for the first time and it didn't remove the layer breaks like it is supposed to. I have it selected in the options but they are still there. Anybody else have this problem? Or am I just missing something?

[Gang$ta]

Awesome.. THX Mr Shrink

just did a test with Godzilla,burn with nero

Rip,transode & burn,running XP {40 mins}

[tbrunner]

Sometimes I have problems with forced subtitles (a subtitle appears but it can't be that this one was intended to appear as it is just a text of the normal dialogue in the normal language).

I am wondering how forced sub titles work?

- Are forced sub titles in an additional stream or are they in a normal subtitle stream?
- How are forced sub titles linked to the current language. I assume that if the current language is german, the forced sub title should also be in german.
- Is the forcing done with a flag in the sub title stream itself or is the information in the *.ifo file (if yes, where).
- Is it possible that by removing some unwanted foreign sub titles that the forced subtitles get messed up?

Thank you for any help.

Regards

[irulat]

I'm getting an error The Maximum number of secrets that can be stored on a single system has been exceeded. What's going wrong?

[KYUSS]

Originally posted by wmansir
I've been waiting for this all day. It's pretty sweet, but I have a CCE encode running so I can't mess with it fully.

:(

Only 25 hours left on my encode. :( :(


25 hours!!!!!!!

how many passes is that?

[KYUSS]

great program!

i love the new features added like the audio on preview ect.

my favourite new feature is the ability to output to an image file.

why did dvdshrink opt for .nrg over iso/img ect?

its not a problem as it can still be burned with dvd decrypter but i was just wondering.



also as much as i love this proggy it still has issues backing up my muppets vol 1 and 2.

it always stays in the red on the bar......even though compression is on auto.

i can't remove anything to make it smaller either as there's no fat to trim.

any ideas guys?

cheers
KYUSS

[cooksj76]

The only problem I have found so far is that you still cannot remove parts you don't want, you can only reduce the extras to still pictures. Hopefully the revision will do this and there will be no need to use DVD Decryptor.

***UPDATE***
I have just noticed if you remove a part of the DVD using DVD Decryptor (i.e. the "Coming Soon to DVD" section) which in my case was VTS_03_0.ifo then DVDShrink comes up with the error:

"DVD Shrink encountered an error and cannot continue."
"Failed to open file VTS_03_0.ifo"
"The system cannot find the file specified"

Does this mean you cannot remove extras in DVD Decryptor and use DVD Shrink as well???

[KYUSS]

Originally posted by cooksj76
The only problem I have found so far is that you still cannot remove parts you don't want, you can only reduce the extras to still pictures. Hopefully the revision will do this and there will be no need to use DVD Decryptor.

***UPDATE***
I have just noticed if you remove a part of the DVD using DVD Decryptor (i.e. the "Coming Soon to DVD" section) which in my case was VTS_03_0.ifo then DVDShrink comes up with the error:

"DVD Shrink encountered an error and cannot continue."
"Failed to open file VTS_03_0.ifo"
"The system cannot find the file specified"

Does this mean you cannot remove extras in DVD Decryptor and use DVD Shrink as well???

that is not a good way of removing extras m8

try dvdstripper or ifoedit

[wmansir]

Originally posted by KYUSS
25 hours!!!!!!!

how many passes is that?

5 or 6. It's scarface (170 minutes) with IVTC and a little noise reduction (FluxSmooth).

The truly sad part is I did a 9 pass encode yesterday with the same settings, only I forgot to edit the .d2v file to turn off ForceFilm. so (after 30 hours of encoding) my output had a frame rate of 19.xxfps. :eek:

It will be done in 40 minutes..but then I want to get this project done, burn some stuff to make room to start another encode before football starts. Because after that I'll be watching football for the next 8 hours and I'll feel guilty if my CPU isn't chugging away.

Looks like I'll have to check out 3.1 tomorrow morning (before another 8 hours of football).

EDIT:

ARRRRGGGHHHH!! I thought I would increase my GOP length in CCE to 15 because the bitrate was so low (I normally use 12)...well now Scenarist says my GOP has too many fields. WTF! The limit is 18 frames!

So now it looks like I have to re-encode this movie for the third time. This will be around 90 hours of encoding time for this one movie! If my team looses tonight I'm going on a three state killing spree.

Sorry for posting this in this thread, but I had to vent.

[cooksj76]

KYUSS

Why is DVDStripper or IFOEdit better?

Do they remove the references to deleted parts so that DVD Shrink will accept the files??

Excuse my ignorance but I am a relative newbie (<6 months).

I was told initially to use decryptor. Can you point me in the direction of how to use IFOEdit, when I looked at it, it looked very complicated - is DVDStripper easy to use??

[m99]

What do I need to get it to work with Win98? There was some talk about some .Net-stuff a while ago.

[DVD Maniac]

@cooksj76

Do NOT remove titles during the ripping stage - you are asking for trouble later on. Most of the one clickers around at the moment need CLEAN source structures and you are unlikely to get this if you strip out at the ripping stage.

You have two options -

1. The lazy way. Get yourself a copy of DVD Stripper and let it do all the work.

2. The less lazy and slightly cheaper route. Read the guides on Ifoedit title removal by MackernX. In some cases this will ot work and you will need Menu Edit to replace cells (again there are plenty of how to guides on this forum and the Menu edit site).

With both routes (if done properly) you will have a clean source structure to plug into Shrink (or wnatever transcoder you are using).

I tend to use route 2 as I like to work from HD sources (which DVD Stripper currently does not support). Getting this right is all about trial and error but ebentually you will be title stripping with ease!

[dvdshrink]

If you deleted VTS_03_0.IFO file, then you won't be able to open the DVD in full disk mode, but you will be able to use re-author.

Open the folder using DVD Browser in re-author mode, and all titles should appear except for those in VTS 3.

[djan]

Is there no quality improvment ?

[ddlooping]

Open the folder using DVD Browser in re-author mode, and all titles should appear except for those in VTS 3.

But this defeats the purpose of being able to use "Full-Disk" while totally removing some titles. ;)

[dvdshrink]

I never understood why people want to keep menus anyway ;-)

[ddlooping]

I can understand why, I'm just not as fussy. ;)

[djan]

Originally posted by dvdshrink
I never understood why people want to keep menus anyway ;-)

Haha, the same for me. :D

[wmansir]

I like menus mostly for scene selection, but being able to select audio and sub tracks via menu is a nice benefit. They are so small (usually) and give the final disc a nice professional feel.

[djan]

Originally posted by wmansir
I like menus mostly for scene selection, but being able to select audio and sub tracks via menu is a nice benefit. They are so small (usually) and give the final disc a nice professional feel.

And you loose so much time only to select a chapter and subtitles and audio and all. Do you know you can do it by default or symply while the movie starts ? When I want to watch a movie, I like the movie starts immediately when I insert the DVD.

[ddlooping]

"...give the final disc a nice professional feel."

They do make for a nicer package, I agree.
One of the benefits of DVD versus VHS (not the main one by a mile though). ;)

[mrbass]

Me either....I'd rather have an 500MB extra then a 500MB menu anyday. Hopefully the 'coolness' factor of keeping a menu will wear off someday.

[ddlooping]

Originally posted by mrbass
Me either....I'd rather have an 500MB extra then a 500MB menu anyday. Hopefully the 'coolness' factor of keeping a menu will wear off someday.
But removing Extras sometime allows for the movie not to require compression, even when the menus are preserved. :)

[mrbass]

ok it came out wrong.....not really a space issue for me but more of just put in the dvd and hit the play button. No-need-for-the-remote king of thing. Menus are just a distraction for me. I realize others highly consider Menus to be an abstract work of art like I Picasso painting. Only time I keep menus is for episodic discs.

[geffroman]

You guys who are critical of menus are of course welcome to your opinion... but some of use LIKE having them... MOST menus are not 500MB... and the removal of MOST menus doesn't amount to scratch when it comes to final image quality... Getting rid of Coming Attractions and Trailers does far more to the final output than does dumping the menu system...

So for those of you newbies taking advise from these posts... don't assume you need to dump ALL MENUS on all MOVIES to get max quality... Most of the time it doesn't even matter...

Typically when a menu is huge so are the extras... In that case you really should consider TWO discs if you want the extras... One for movie and one for extras... and once again... with all extras on a seperate disc even a huge menu isn't probably going to cause a problem...

Test, Trial and RW discs are the answer...

[geffroman]

I thought I would just throw in my two cents... But please know DVDSHRINK is one of my absolute fav tools...

1) - 3.1 Starts up funky... (GUI loads part way, freezes for a few seconds and then comes up)
1) - This Issue resolved with Version 3.1.1

2) - When browsing for source files OPEN button should not be active until you come to a folder with proper source files... OR better yet go back to 3.0 beta 5 style of showing FILES... With 3.1 you cannot see files when browsing.

3) - GUI is less friendly on Backup... Four tabs of settings to initiate a back up is over kill. Most of those settings could be in preferences leaving just one screen to deal with, which should include destination and the option to set DEEP ANALYSIS or NOT. You don't need DEEP ANALYSIS when doing movie only compilations with little or NO compression or splitting multi episodes to two discs with little or NO compression or when you have a disc with full and wide screen where you are just keeping one or the other version... If the DEEP ANALYSIS option was available on the Target Device Tab you would rarely ever need to go through the other tabs. I think in this case more is less as it pertains to the changes made in the BACKUP section of 3.1

4) - Wording on Backup screen should change from "Burn with Nero to the following device:" to something like "Destination Device:". Clearly I am not Burning with Nero to a folder when saving files to hard disk. This will cause confusion with newbies.

Most of this stuff is small change and easily fixed...

I started by saying DVDSHRINK is one of my favs... I'll say it again in conclusion. My remarks about the new 3.1 are not a slam... Just observations I think valid for future improvement.

Regards... and thanks again for a great tool...

Jeff

[geffroman]

Originally posted by wmansir
So now it looks like I have to re-encode this movie for the third time. This will be around 90 hours of encoding time for this one movie! If my team looses tonight I'm going on a three state killing spree.

MY GOD MAN... JUST GO BUY A BACK UP COPY... IT AIN'T WORTH ALL THAT...

[dogman-x]

Count me in the camp that doesn't need the menus. Chapter and audio track selection can be done fairly easily without menus. And it's nice to put in a movie and have it start playing right away. The only time I keep menus is when it actually helps to navigate the DVD (e.g. Special Features discs).

On a different note, I've tried DVDShrink 3.1 and it seems to crash a lot. In fact, I've never been able to get it through a complete disc. Is DVDShrink 3.1 supposed to work on Win98SE?

Also, I've noticed that DVDShrink 3.0 beta5 seems like it may have an encoding type bug that is related to the layer break. So far, on 2 titles, I've noticed that the video gets all choppy (big rectangles of bad video) for a few minutes right around the layer break. Other titles seemed OK, so this is a problem that happens only on certain titles. If I re-encode the title that has the problem, I get the same results (bad video around the layer break), so it's very reproducable. It even gives the same problem whether you read straight off the disc or by reading the same files from the hard drive. Interestingly, If I use IfoEdit to create new IFOs and re-map VOBs, the problem goes away. I'm wondering if this problem has been fixed. I havent seen anything about it in the release notes.

As always, I appreciate the work. DVDShrink is my preferred tool. I guess you know people like something when they ask for changes and bug fixes. It's kind of like a compliment.

Thanks,
Dave.

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dogman-x
Is DVDShrink 3.1 supposed to work on Win98SE?

I think you are lucky to even get a DVD-R backup done on Win98. I would expect crashes and issues of all kinds.

[cooksj76]

I have alsoi noticed another small issue.

When I save the file to an image (.nrg) and try to play it from my image recorder to WinDVD it comes up with a region setting change, no matter what region I try to change the image drive to it doesn't play. The strange thing is that I set the files up as multi-region in DVD Shrink.

To make them play I have to use DVDshrink 2.3 and open the DVD in my imagedrive then back it up again setting it to multiregion and then burn the files using nero.

Anyone else had problems with the region??

[monkeymajik]

Firstly thanks for this great program. I really like the new interface, especially for re-author mode!

One small small small suggestion perhaps for futher releases would be to allow the start/end feature in "full backup mode". This way the credits and whatnot can be compressed at "still pictures" quality while keeping the full dvd structure that you wouldnt otherwise get in "re-author".

Of course this is just a sugestion, I mean it is free software :)

[fileman]

Hallo DVDShrink developer(s),

when I tested DVDShrink on a DVD movie yesterday, I noticed terrible errors in some frames that look like data corruption. It's reproducible always in the same frames of the movie (encoded twice to verify), so it's very unlikely to be a hardware fault.

Look at those three screenshots - one before the error, one with the error and one after the error. Look at the third picture - you can see parts of the scene before the cut.

http://fileman.dyndns.org/serve/dvdshrink31fehler/1k.jpg
http://fileman.dyndns.org/serve/dvdshrink31fehler/2k.jpg
http://fileman.dyndns.org/serve/dvdshrink31fehler/3k.jpg

There were no errors in other movies I encoded so far.

Regards, fileman.

[dvdshrink]

@geffroman

I prefer the new backup dialog format. It is more user friendly - for the average user who does not wish to see a ton of options all on one page. The default settings are adequate to produce a backup in the vast majority of cases.

[dvdshrink]

@fileman

Looks like a serious problem! Do you get the same corruption if you encode the same clip with 3.0b5?

It may be corrupted source data, but usually in this case the transcoder throws an error and outputs the original frame. One way to check if this is happening: encode the same clip with "No Compression" and check the result.

[fileman]

I already did that (no compression) and there were no errors in the result. The source (ISO image of the original DVD) looks ok in any player.

[fileman]

Could anybody provide me a link to 3.0b5 for testing? I'll do a test with 2.3 now.

[mrbass]

http://mrbass.org/dvdshrink/dvdshrinkold

[dvdshrink]

3.0b5 is still available at http://www.dvdshrink.org.

[ddlooping]

fileman, before you do a test with the other versions, I'd suggest you backup again with v3.1.
The data might have simply been corrupted while you were doing it (heavy multi-tasking, fragmented files or something), and not because you were doing it (if you catch my drift ;)).

[fileman]

@ddlooping as I wrote in my original post I already did the encoding twice with 3.1 - exactly the same results.

I just tried 2.3 (at Level 2) - no errors in result.

[samtroy]

@ dvdshrink & fileman:

This is exactly the problem I and other people have on some movies (not all!) too. Here's the thread I started earlier today:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=68570

S.

[dvdshrink]

Best to do all checks at maximum compression, otherwise there is no guarantee the frame will be transcoded at all. DVD Shrink 2.3 at level 2 will only encode b-frames.

[fileman]

Ah well, so I see this phenomenon as a confirmed bug in DVDShrink 3.1.

I'll encode with the beta5 tomorrow to see if the bug existed there, too. Don't have time at the moment...

Regards, fileman.

[fileman]

@dvdshrink

Ok, but I chose level 2 because the compression was only a few percent with automatic in V3.1, too. This is because the whole original movie (including menus and extras) has only 4800 MB.

Have to go now, sorry.

[ddlooping]

Sorry for not having read your first post properly, fileman. ;)

[dogman-x]

fileman,

Do you know if this corruption happens around the layer break? This would be consistent with what I'm seeing (see previous post in this thread).

[dvdshrink]

A long shot - but does the problem remain if you disable layer break removal in DVD Shrink preferences?

[dogman-x]

I'm not able to use DVDShrink 3.1 under Win98SE (very unstable), but I'm seeing this problem in 3.0 beta5 (both in Win98SE and Win2K). If I get rid of the layer break and re-map the VOBs accordingly using IfoEdit and then run DVDShrink from the resulting files on the hard drive, the problem goes away.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

[dvdshrink]

If the problem occurred with 3.0b5, then it won't be anything to do with the layerbreak. I forgot about that.

Strange that the problem goes away after remapping VOBS with IfoEdit. Sounds at first like a video problem, but if IFOedit can fix it, then evidently not. Any way of comparing the files before and after IFOedit, let me know the differences?

[geffroman]

Do you have any affiliation with DVD Shrink?

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dvdshrink
I prefer the new backup dialog format. It is more user friendly - for the average user who does not wish to see a ton of options all on one page. The default settings are adequate to produce a backup in the vast majority of cases.

We'll just have to disagree... If you think turning One screen into 4 tabs to navigate is MORE friendly... If you think everyone automatically ENCODES to their burner rather than hard drive, defaults are MORE friendly... If you want to wait for DEEP Analysis on all movies even when it is NOT needed then defaults again are MORE friendly...

Regards... Jeff

[mrbass]

It's a moot point for future suggestions...merely bugfixes from this point on.
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?&threadid=30700

[mrbass]

Originally posted by geffroman
Do you have any affiliation with DVD Shrink?
he's the author of the program

[ddlooping]

If you want to wait for DEEP Analysis on all movies even when it is NOT needed then defaults again are MORE friendly...
This was a bug and has been fixed in v3.1.1.

[dogman-x]

@dvdshrink
I haven't compared the IfoEdit output files to the ones before IfoEdit was run. Not exactly sure how I would do that. The only info I can give is:

1) with both titles the corruption started at the beginning of the cell with the layer break. I know this by double-clicking on the cell with the layer break in IfoEdit and using the scroll bar to look through the video. In both titles, this is the exact same spot in the film where the transcoding started showing distortion.

2) both titles had very light compression. One was 90% and the other was 99%.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

[dvdshrink]

Still no clue!

Its going to be case of asking all the people with this problem about 200 questions, and then maybe something will click...

How long does the corruption last? Is it like just a couple of frames? Or are we talking long sequences?

[geffroman]

Originally posted by ddlooping
This was a bug and has been fixed in v3.1.1.

I was not referring to the bug... I am referring to the fact that you now have to go through multiple tabs to key in the few settings that might change on each encoding project.

I still believe if the DEEP Analysis check box was on the TARGET DEVICE tab it would simplify things. Moving it to another location just makes it easier to forget whether it's ON or OFF.

Bottom-line is that before 3.1 when you went to back up you knew instantly if DEEP ANALYSIS was checked or not and you knew if DEEP ANALYSIS had already been run. It was changed in 3.1.1 and the change is less friendly and therefore not a good change. It would fit nicely just above the CREATE VIDEO_TS check box.

Regards Jeff

[geffroman]

Originally posted by fileman
Hallo DVDShrink developer(s),

when I tested DVDShrink on a DVD movie yesterday, I noticed terrible errors in some frames that look like data corruption. It's reproducible always in the same frames of the movie (encoded twice to verify), so it's very unlikely to be a hardware fault.

Regards, fileman.

I have seen this too prior to downloading 3.1 or 3.1.1. However in my case it has nothing to do with Cell location on the discs I have had the issue.

Using 3.0 Beta 5, I recently did Season 3 of Buffy. I find the exact data issue in two of the six discs on scenes where there is a lot of cutting back and forth in the video as in a fast paced dialogue or fight scene. It is as if part of the previous frames are being averaged into the new scene. It appears to last for 2 to 3 frames only.

Again I am talking middle of a cell... no where near a layer break... or cell change...

As an example... It occurs two times on Disc_6/Episode_1/Chapter_9/Time_00:22:35 and again at Time_00:22:37. These are but two examples I have run into. I have just lived with it as it doesn't happen often. I am seeing it more now because I have decided to stop using Instantcopy after realizing DVDSHRINK 3.0Beta5 does heavy compression (30%+) pretty darn well.

I hope someone can shed light on this soon...

Regards... Jeff

@ dvdshrink - When are you going to start letting us show some appreciation with donations...?

[dvdshrink]

Contextually it is a problem: one tab is concerned with target device, and the other with backup options. How to put it - it seems aesthetically displeasing to have "deep analysis" on the target device page, when it is clearly a backup option.

I chose tabbed pages because the number of backup options expanded so much, what with burning and miscellaneous options for finished sounds etc. And I still think it easier for the advanced user to tab through pages, than it is for the complete novice to be faced with too many options in one go. Users have to be "broken in" gently...

GUI design is the most difficult task because no-one agrees how it should be, and in the end, I just have to make a decision. So it is how it is. No big deal :-)

[dvdshrink]

With regard the data corruption issue, I don't know what causes it, nor have I been able to reproduce it, but I am on the case: there will be a fix, as soon as I track it down!

[geffroman]

@dvdshrink

I have only run about 5 movies through 3.1.1 so far. One of them is THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN(Reg-1). On this movie the French and Spanish subs are checked even though I have selected English as my choice in Preferences. I pulled up several other movies that deselect all except English properly but not on THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

I pulled it up in InstantCopy just to see what it did and French & Spanish subs were deselected as should be. Why would Shrink not deselect French & Spanish on this one movie? What would be different about how SHRINK & IC look at language data?

Also, It seems that many times there can be UNSPECIFIED audio and subs. It appears Shrink will deselect those as they are NOT the language specified. However, they MIGHT BE. By default unspecified languages on audio and subs should be selected just in case. An advanced user can always verify if they are not needed and deselect them if he wants.

Regards... Jeff

[dogman-x]

@dvdshrink
On one title it lasted a while (minutes), perhaps the whole cell time. On the other title, I didn't check to see how long it lasted. Also, the video distortion was particularly noticeable when there was a lot of movement on screen. When there was very little movement, the problem went away until there was some movement again. Just a wild guess - could this have anything to do with the way analysis is done around the layer break? Note that the problem occurs both with and without deep analysis.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

[dvdshrink]

DVD Shrink will try select only the language you specified, but if it can't find an instance of that language in a title, it will select all languages instead. Maybe it should select none... I don't know.

I'm not convinced that dogman-x suffers the same video corruption problem which was fixed in 3.1.2. Seems instead to be a general lack of quality. Too high compression? Original video encoded in a non-standard way?

(DVD Shrink is poor at consecutive sequences of p-frames, fortunately these are rare in a DVD. A classic example is the opening credits in Star Wars, with the scrolling text).

Anyway do try with 3.1.2 and let us know how it goes...

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dvdshrink
DVD Shrink will try select only the language you specified, but if it can't find an instance of that language in a title, it will select all languages instead. Maybe it should select none... I don't know.


I think NONE would make more sense. If a movie like many of the 007 movies or even Band of Brothers does NOT have English subtitles I cannot think of a reason I would want all NON English sibtitles...

What about UN-Specified langauges? This seems to be pretty common and SHRINK will always ignore them if a default language is selected. UNSPECIFIED DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE NOT NEEDED. Unspecified means the company producing the original DVD was just sloppy and left out language description.

I truly think it better to error on the side of caution and included unspecified languages in all compilations.

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dvdshrink
(DVD Shrink is poor at consecutive sequences of p-frames, fortunately these are rare in a DVD. A classic example is the opening credits in Star Wars, with the scrolling text).

Anyway do try with 3.1.2 and let us know how it goes...

3.1.2 had the same affect as 3.0Beta5. Instantcopy did not. Though Instantcopy is such a mess in other ways I want to make DVDSHRINK work.

I did some reading to get up to speed on I-frames, P-frames & B-frames. Simple enough but what can I do? Would encoding more than once help? Would this possibly change the I-P-B structure if I did my compression in two steps?

I am just grasping at straws... Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards....Jeff

[dvdshrink]

This isn't meant to be a solution, but there is a work-around. In re-author mode, you could apply less compression (or no compression) just to the part of the movie which causes the problem.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25375

[geffroman]

I think for the moment I will have to live with these periodic anomalies. Will this problem go away in future versions of Shrink...?

When DVDSHRINK could not compete with Instantcopy's quality I would never think to compress a movie a lot with your software. But after deep analysis came along and I did several tests I found DVDSHRINK was BETTER at avoiding blocking that occurred with IC on things like X-Men 2 Bonus disc compressed a TON.

DVD Shrink was always my software of choice for compression under 20%... But now I use it for everything...

Regards... Jeff

[EZMD]

Let me start with THANK YOU for such a nice tool.

I don't know if it would be possible to add a "first play" option. Sometimes when keeping menus and extras the trailers may play first or the menu (and some people like the movie to play first). This is very easy to change with IFOEdit after DVD Shrink has done it's thing but this prevents burning straight to DVD. Not sure how difficult it would be to have an option that would let you pick which titleset played first. You could then select menu or movie depending on your preferences.

Fantastic tool!

Thanks again and extra thanks for Nero support.

[geffroman]

Originally posted by EZMD
Let me start with THANK YOU for such a nice tool.

I don't know if it would be possible to add a "first play" option.

I see this as a dangerous option... Many times there are necessary commands that would be missed by changing first play... Each DVD is different. Some would be ok... Others would not.

Update:

I just did Smallville Season One tonight and thought it would be a perfect example to illustrate my point. The disc starts with the Warner Logo clip which I want gone. If I go change First Play to jump to Root Menu to by pass the Program Group that includes the Logo clip I also bypass any commands included in the Program Group.

In the case of Smallville there were 29 Pre-commands and 2 Post-commands that would have been missed had I made this change to First Play. Most of these commands had to do with Sound Tracks, Sub Titles and how the menu should behave. Bypassing them would not be the best thing for my finished compilation.

Instead I used IFOEdit to bypass just the opening video clip while keeping the DVD structure intact and no harm done. This procedure takes less than 10 seconds.

I recommend checking out IFOEdit and 2COOLS guides to alter your finished DVD rather than just making a simple change to First Play.

Regards... Jeff

[geffroman]

@dvdshrink

Thanks again for the work that you do. I heard that you are ending development and asked about fixes. I hope this means you are off to make money with this technology. I always assumed since you don't answer questions about donations to your effort that DVDShrink was your Beta channel to develop Recode... Smart... You have the most loyal and appreciative Beta testers in the world... and your Beta product is better than any of the competitors' finished product.

I have done about 10 movies with 3.1.2... It is doing a great job. I have a couple thoughts to share...

1) - Can there be an Option in Preferences to TURN OFF Forced Sub title streams?

2) - Can there be an Option in Preferences to have AUTO PLAY of Titles ON/OFF in Preview as did 3.0 Beta 5? Or maybe just go back to AUTO ON all the time. This causes lots of extra clicks on the Play Button.

3) - Compression Drop down box saves a little space but does require extra clicks. It seems that there is plenty of space for the Radius Buttons of 3.0 Beta 5.

4) - Like to be able to see my files when Browsing to open files in DVDShrink (Was available with 3.0 Beta 5).

5) - Link to finished folder on Completion Box is nice but if you click it you have to uncover Completion Message again to click OK to close it. Can clicking on Link also close the box? Nice feature but in current state doesn’t save the clicks it might.

6) - When closing Completion Box DVDShrink GUI starts to write to screen but hangs for a couple seconds with desktop bleeding through preview and data windows... Causes NO problem other than feels like it's hanging up or having a problem for a moment. Maybe too small an issue to fix but would look better and give a nicer feel to GUI if it didn't do this.

Thank you again... for the program, the great new features and also for being available to us to discuss your latest advances... I appreciate both the Program and your willingness to be accessible...

Regards... Jeff

[maa]

Totally agree with all points ! - a lot of things got worse :
- DirX display method wont switch back to the old way and hogs the codecs so that IfoEdit cant use them!
- no direct opening of VTS_0?_1.IFO anymore - not even a preference switch (Shrink wants to analyze a whole DVD which might not be there ;-)
- Still no "Shutdown when finished" on the encoding window.
- Re setting audio streams in full backup mode ruins the audio selection menu. That should only be available in re-author mode.
- Added burning mode means everyone dissabling it in the menu.

It remains one of my favorite programs but beta 5 will have to stay on my machine for several situations.