A few thought on this topic…
Without a doubt, users’ needs, resources and goals are varied, to say the least.
Some folks prefer freeware solutions, again, for a variety of reasons. If this is your choice, obviously, you need more than one application…whether it’s shrink, Img, etc.
Myself, I insist on quality results, but I also want ease of operation.
Personally, I get it all with Fab and VSO. Virtually 1 click operation…[B]Set It and Forget It[/B]…courtesy of Ron Popeil…
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Occasionally I use Img and it works just fine…it is not quite the seamless process with DL discs that I enjoy with VSO. Both work well and for me and one does not out perform the other in terms of quality. So, I use VSO 99+% of the time.
The user above spoke to verification. I mean no disrespect, but I could not care less about verification. A bad burn for me is an extremely rare event and honestly, most often is the result of user error, for me anyway.
If verification were important to me, there’s no way I’d be using VSO. I tried it a couple of times…it takes longer to verify than burn…
Re: shrink…I love my old friend shrink, but I never use it.
On the one hand, it would be cool to have variable compression for each individual title and greater range of editing capability (been in Fab requests for a long time)…but in truth, it doesn’t matter to me.
All my SL burns are to Yuden T02, ripped and compressed with Platinum. The results are excellent even with heavy compression, although I generally don’t compress beyond about 80%.
Some users feel that compression with shrink yields better quality, that’s fine, but that’s not my opinion.
If I feel a file is too large, I want extra features, etc., I burn to Verbatim +R DL, usually MKM 001, occasionally MKM 003, always MIS.
The bkups are flawless.
A good friend of mine and well-respected member here burns all SL’s with VSO and has consistently great burns. However, VSO and DL burns are problematic for him so he uses Img for his DL burns. He would prefer to use VSO for DL’s also, but VSO and DL is just not consistent for him. Not a big hassle for him, but, well there it is.
None of this makes anyone right or wrong as long as you get what you want.
