Little suggestion for the interface

[Xuivo]

I don't know how much complicated this can be, but i got i suggestion for the new interface. It would be great to add the size of the audio track too in the menu. Right now, it shows the size of the VTS but not the audio.

It may be nothing, but sometimes, i've encountered tracks way more bigger one from the others. Like if you got a LPCM and ac3, it would be great to know their respective size without using another programs!

Thx

[rpboy]

I agree.

While its not really a pain, it would be nice not having to go into DVDShrink first to check out how much space I will save removing an audio track first.

[Hagrinas]

I also have some suggestions for the interface. After telling my wife about the product and how easy and foolproof it is, she sat down to use it and got totally confused. Since I remember wondering some of the same things when I first saw the product, I decided it's a good time to post.

I would suggest changing the No Compression setting to

Compression level > No Compression (100% video) | Fit to DVD-5 (4.7GB)

I would also suggest not graying out the three buttons (pro interface) in one click mode, or at least provide a way of selecting prepare,encode, and build from a drop-down.

Finally, I would suggest rewriting the Home part of the help to give a better explanation of what the product does, instead of just explaining why it was needed.

Here's why:

When my wife sat down to use the product, it was clear enough how to set the input options, but not clear how to set all the output options. I had wondered myself when I first saw the product. Other products start off by telling how much they will shrink things, or at least show the target size. This product does not.

A checkmark or lack of one in front of "No Compression (100% video)" effectively toggles between the two choices I mentioned above, but it's not clear to a new user since the default setting is hidden. The individual encoders could be on another sub menu.

It isn't until a user gets to the "TargetSectors= nnnn" part of the help file that it becomes clear where this is set (and that there is no need to set it.)

The "Home" part of the help talks about encoders, one-click solutions vs top notch encoders, and ease of use vs quality. But it does not say why a user needs to use an encoder or what the product does.

It should say that "DVD Rebuilder provides a one click solution that allows a user to compress a DVD so that it fits on a standard DVD+/-R, yet still maintain the highest quality. It does so by rebuilding the picture from scratch, giving the quality of a top-notch encoder, and the simplicity of a one click solution.

It also allows the user to remove unwanted languages and subtitles."

Of course, this could be worded any way you want, but the current section is only helpful for a user who already has a clear idea of what CCE or TMPGEnc does. Otherwise, a user might conclude from reading what's there that the program is for ripping things from the original DVD to the hard disk, and the rest is just technical mumbo jumbo.

As for one click, I'd like to be able to leave it in one click mode, yet have the option of running the other stages. I had needed to prepare something the last time I used it, and left one click off by mistake. My wife didn't understand why the interface had changed (it had changed to the Pro version anyway, but having a working "back up" button would have been clear.) If all four buttons are on the screen anyway, clicking on one of the first three could effectively gray out the fourth, and vice versa.

It's great to have a powerful program like this, but I wouldn't expect a novice user to be able to look at it and figure out what it does. But it's easy enough for a novice, at least once it's explained.

[Hagrinas]

Another thing that the interface could use is an option to prompt before overwriting. Since software typically prompts a user where to save things upon exit, or with some products, generates a path name based on the DVD, it's easy to wipe out 6 hours of work without this prompt.

It would also be nice to have an option to automatically append the source path to the output path. So if I pick C:\molybdenum and you\VIDEO_TS\ for my input, and d:\Rebuilder output\ for my output, this option would use the output directory as a stub and put the output in d:\Rebuilder output\molybdenum and you\VIDEO_TS\ .