DVD Rebuilder better than DVD Shrink?

larc919 2008-09-01 13:53:37 UTC #1

I've been hearing so much about DVD Rebuilder lately that I decided to try it. But either I'm missing something or it isn't nearly as good as DVD Shrink.

Encoders I have for DVD Reguilder are CCE SP, HC, Rejig, QuEnc and EclPRO. So far I've tried only CCE SP and HC. They're both slow as molasses compared to DVD Shrink. Plus I can't find any way of editing out parts I don't want as I can with DVD Shrink. About the only plus I've found with DVD Rebuilder is the ability to select which audio tracks and subtitles to keep or filter out. I can designate languages with DVD Shrink, but can't remove director's comments or other formats that are in a language I keep.

Is there something I'm missing here? And if there is, which of the available DVD Rebuilder encoders is best?

Thanks for any help.

Kerry56 2008-09-01 14:31:46 UTC #2

DVDRebuilder can produce video that is clearly superior to that of a transcoder like Shrink when working with a large dvd. If you have only a small amount of compression, the differences won’t be quite as noticeable.

That said, I use DVDRebuilder for any movie that goes into the 80’s on DVDShrink’s scale…and often times will use it on movies between 90 and 95.

Rebuilder will never be as fast as Shrink unless you are using the built-in transcoder Rejig. I prefer Shrink to Rejig though. Encoders take more time, so you need a fairly fast computer to speed things up with them. My biggest jump in speed came when I went to a dual core processor, since Rebuilder can make use of both cores at the same time, and my encoding times dropped very sharply.

You must be using the free version. The Pro version has more options on what can be done with the video. I almost always use the Movie Only option. The modes I see in DVDRebuilder Pro are

Full Backup (Movie, Menus and Extras)
Movie Only (No Menus or Extras)
Movie and Menu Only (Blank Extras)
Movie, Menus and Slideshow Extras

And once you bring the movie into Rebuilder Pro, you can select, or deselect any subtitle or audio track you wish.

The fastest encoder you have mentioned is CCE. Quality can be excellent with it, but you must have had it before trying out Rebuilder, as it is a commercial encoder. HC gives very high quality as well, though it is slower. I haven’t tried the EclPro option so I can’t comment on it. I personally use ProCoder, but it is another commercial encoder that has to be purchased separately.

larc919 2008-09-02 16:28:42 UTC #3

Thanks for the info, Kerry56. I did a little more experimenting and found I could reduce a 155 min movie (5.90GB for VOBs 1-6) to 4.33GB (VOBs 1-5) in 105 min using the HC highest quality setting. The result is visually indistinguishable from the original. Of course, getting rid of all except the primary audio track and all subtitles helped lower the weight.

It seems DVD Rebuilder might work out well for longer movies I want to fit on a SL DVD. DVD Shrink is still OK â€” and MUCH faster â€” for movies up to about 140 minutes or so.

Wombler 2008-09-03 00:41:24 UTC #4

The more difficult the movie is to compress the greater the difference between transcoding and a full re-encode.

The trade off as you’ve discovered is the time taken to re-encode.

If you’ve a multi-core processor then stick with HC. I use CCE as it’s faster on single core systems.

As Kerry says the pro version has a lot of additional features including the ability to steal space from extras to a specified degree.

The free version is really just a basic demo that has extensive limitations compared to the pro version.

It’s useful though for showing you the sort of quality achievable with the pro version.

If you’ve any further queries though feel free to ask away.

[B]Wombler[/B]

larc919 2008-09-03 11:47:41 UTC #5

Thanks, Wombler. I went ahead and invested in DVD Rebuilder Pro since I was so impressed with results on movies larger than DVD Shrink can handle comfortably. And so far at least, I think the higher quality setting in HC gets the best results overall. I still want to do a 4-pass CCE SP run for comparison.

My CPU is dual core, so that has kept the processing tests I’ve tried so far at about two hours or less per. I’ve used the same 155 minute movie for all the tests. CCE SP two-pass took 85 min, HC high quality took 105 min, and ProCoder high quality took 124 min.

There is one question. I’ll want to back up movies only, no menus or extras, and strip out unneeded audio tracks and subtitles. DVD Shrink lets me edit out releasing company and studio info at the start of the movie with Set Start/End Frames, but I haven’t found a way to do that with DVD RB. Am I just overlooking it or is it not there? Of course, I could always run the finished movie through DVD Shrink and take care of that. But I’d rather be able to do everything in DVD RB on the occasions I use it.

Thanks for your help.

Wombler 2008-09-03 12:28:51 UTC #6

[QUOTE=larc919;2121344]Thanks, Wombler. I went ahead and invested in DVD Rebuilder Pro since I was so impressed with results on movies larger than DVD Shrink can handle comfortably. And so far at least, I think the higher quality setting in HC gets the best results overall. I still want to do a 4-pass CCE SP run for comparison.

Thanks for your help.[/QUOTE]

My pleasure and I’m glad you’re pleased with the results.

For movie only go to the ‘mode’ menu select ‘backup mode’ and you can choose from the various combinations. I tend to use Movie only or Full Disc but that’s just my own preference.

If you’re using the Rebuilder default skin you can deselect any unwanted audio in the window on the right hand side before processing (just double click to select or deselect audio streams).

Personally I think four passes is a bit into the overkill zone for CCE.

I normally use two passes but try different ones on the same source and see if you think the extra time is worth the effort.

I’d suggest using something difficult with fast moving action like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ to maximise the chance of spotting any differences.

Also even if you’re using CCE I’d recommend you tick the ‘Always use HC for Redistribution Pass’ option in the ‘mode’ menu as you’ll get better results.

HTH.

[B]Wombler[/B]