CloneDVD 2 vs. DVD Shrink transcoding?

[rte5]

What offers higher quality transcoding. CloneDVD 2 or DVD Shrink?

[doomed@ripping]

I am a noob myself and have had my DVD-Writer for just about three weeks now... but so far I've burnt 40+ Dvd backups and mostly using either DvD Shrink or Clone DVD. I am using Shrink to fit two movies on one disk (no menus & no extras) and it feels as if Shrink is doing a better job than Clone DVD.

Asking about which "software is best" is against the protocol on this forum and you will probably get people expressing thier own views resulting in flaming... Why not try out both the software you mentioned and find out which looks good to you... and if both are looking the same to you then it doesn't matter does it???

Clone DVD has it's own strong points and Shrink is top in it's own Department... If you want quality without the extras, menus, subs etc why not give DVD2Svcd a try. You would need tmpgenc or CCE but it would give you the quality and it does other stuff nicely too like converting avi to dvd in one click (well ok 19 clicks setting up the software but whose counting)

[rte5]

I compared them and DVD Shrink with deep analysis looks better than CloneDVD2.

I do wish to have better quality, but with the extras and the Closed Captions. Only CloneDVD2 and DVD Shrink preserve the closed captions.

[doomed@ripping]

Why not give InstantCopy from Pinnacle a try... It's got two modes of transcoding... a fast speed mode similar to Shrink or Clone DVD & a quality mode that gives better results... With Instant Copy you would pretty much have the features you need like subtitles, audio tracks, menus etc. Try it... maybe you will like it.

Instant Copy - http://www.pinnaclesys.com/

Alternatively try the guides section of Doom9.
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdbackup-guides.htm

The Guides section has other programs as well you can take a look at and read about the procedures before jumping in and downloading or buying the software. You can find a guide for InstantCopy as well in that section.

Below is a list of software that can be used for your purpose. I've tried them all and am now working on learning Scenarist and the more difficult procedure of backing up DVD's.

Main movie only

- using DVD Shrink -
Pros: newbie friendly, reauthor mode is god-sent, quality is tops in 1-click transcoders
Cons: None I can think of for what it's supposed to do except that sometimes I find that it doesn't compress as much as I'd like it to.. it's not a serious gripe though because it's in the interest of quality.

- using DVD2One -
Pros: Fast & Simple Interface
Cons: Feature set somewhat limited.. Just follow the guide and you should be ok

- using DVDFab -
Pros: The DVD-9 split to two disks option, other progs can do it but DVDfab is easy to use.
Cons: The CGP part (doesn't work for me but maybe it's just a prob with me)

- using IfoEdit -
Pros: Versatile, makes life easy for many tasks
Cons: Steep learning curve compared to a Clone DVD or shrink but Doom9 guides to the rescue

- using DVD2SVCD -
Pros: The name misleads, this software does tons more. Once it is setup it's a breeze to use it, works with TMPGenc and CCE for encodes, it takes a little time to get used to it but once you know how it works you can do a lot of things with it.
Cons: I'd like to keep the Subs and stuff... but then i use it to give me the files needed for re-authoring and then use other utilities to help me out with what I want. But can't complain about this program. It's free and it rocks.

- using CloneDVD -
Pros: Clone CD's cousin, Simplicity at it's peak, newbie friendly, cool interface, works well when you need to churn out those backups fast, all-in-1 solution for backups, more forgiving than Shrink in choosing size of output (more compression compared to shrink)
Cons: None!

- using Nero Recode -
Pros: It lets you do the basic stuff easily without hassle.
Cons: It ain't bad but there's freeware that works better and it's crash-prone so I haven't used it much.

- using InstantCopy -
Pros: Quality option is a bonus if you want something fast
Cons: Interface needs a MAJOR face lift, slightly buggy in my opinion, Installs "Pinnacle InstantDrive" driver into memory for using the virtual drive and if you remove it the program won't run unless it installs it again which is a pain(I use Nero ImageDrive), But this Pinnacle InstantDrive virtual drive does have it's benefits too like letting you play Painkiller ;-) Try playing it with Nero ImageDrive or clone cd enabled... game wont work but instantdrive works like a charm.