Burning DVDs, do you keep the extra features/menus etc?

[FatOne]

The title says it all.

So far, I've copied the whole disk except for the few times DVD shrink fails to compress enough and I burn without the extras, or in the case of one series where the padding at the beginning was extra long and not passable.

I've been tempted to just burn the main moving, stripping out the crap with dvdfab.

What do ya'all do.

 

[Berlin]

Usually I preserve the menu. As for extras, it depends on what the flick offers. If it's good, I'll keep.

 

[thirdtime]

Movie only! The compression process reduces video quality, so I strip out everything I can: menus, special features, non-English audio tracks.
What's the point of copying a DVD if the video quality looks like a VHS tape?
If the 'special features' are that awesome, I'll burn them onto a separate DVD.

 

[Berlin]

Say you don't back up with DL DVDr

For single layer DVDr, you can always spread the 'back up' onto 2 discs, no quality loss. What quality loss ?

 

[samcan]

You could also burn on dual layer dvd, if your players support it
and usually take the whole disk without compression.
For really good movies i do this others are shrink. loss quaily
isnt that bad IMHO.
As for structure it depends on the program and think Nero doesnt
allow this but dvd fab does.
Hope this helps.

 

[thirdtime]

For single layer DVDr, you can always spread the 'back up' onto 2 discs, no quality loss. What quality loss ?

True. I'm talking about compressing a 7 or 8 GB movie onto a single layer blank.
Video quality loss when you compress is more noticable on a big screen TV and may not be as apparent on a 20 or 27" TV.

 

[Berlin]

Hi Berlin, how do you keep the menus / dvd structure intact when you strip out the extras? This capability would certainly be handy.

I use CloneDVD ( or now called clonedvd2 ) for the actual burning. You simply have to click the preserve menu box if so you desire. Not a freeware but their fully functional trial version is available at their site.

 

[thirdtime]

I use Nero Recode for 'movie only' and CloneDVD2 if I want to be selective in what I remove or if I want to split the movie into 2 disks. It lets you choose where to split it. (You can avoid having to change disks in the middle of an action scene)

 

[Edifice]

Why does AnyDVD allow you to rip a dvd to your HD but not give you the option burn it to a blank dvd?

They should have included this feature into the program structure.

 

[frankcastle]

Depends...... for TV series or animated vids I tend to compress and keep the menu as it's handy for multiple episodes.

For movies I try and keep the whole thing. I mean the cost of DL disks are coming down so I'm not as shy about ripping without compression.

 

[FatOne]

I don't notice any quality loss when I compress. OTOH I do have a 27 inch CRT. Then again I don't think I would care much if there is a bit of quality loss, I am happy with my non HD CRT TV, I am the sort of person who can't tell the difference between a 100 dollar and a 20K dollar stereo system. I don't need nor want to see every zit on an actors face.

For me, the benefit of just brining the main movie is avoiding all the crap at the beginnings, it seems on some DVD's they don't allow the use of the menu command to skip all the crap, the warnings and the like. If it wasn't for that, I'd have no problem putting up with the quality loss.

Part of me is paranoid that the movie studios will push the DVD makers to have there newer products not play DVD's unless they have menus and other things which pretty much every sold copy seems to have.

 

[thirdtime]

Why does AnyDVD allow you to rip a dvd to your HD but not give you the option burn it to a blank dvd?

If you run AnyDVD in the background, you can use Nero to copy the files to a blank dvd. Provided the movie will fit and you have both a DVD-Rom and DVD burner or two DVD burners.

 

[Berlin]

Why does AnyDVD allow you to rip a dvd to your HD but not give you the option burn it to a blank dvd?

They should have included this feature into the program structure.

Because AnyDVD is not a software for burning to begin with . AnyDVD cleans the dirty codes, so to speak, from the original DVD so you can proceed to burn a functional back up smoothly.

For burning, as mentioned, they have CloneDVD.

 

[Berlin]

Quality loss when compressing:

Say you only back up with single layer discs , ONE DISC PER MOVIE. Degree of quality loss soley depends on how much material you have on the disc. i.e. the length of the movie , and the total length of the extra material if any, and audio tracks.

There are movies out there that are less than an hour and a half in length and thus can be backed up on a single layer disc with zip to minor compression.

So before any one saying the quality loss is very minor, that would be too general a statement. It all depends on each individual DVD title.

 

[FatOne]

....

So before any one saying the quality loss is very minor, that would be too general a statement. It all depends on each individual DVD title.

So far, unless there is some sort of program glitch, I've compressed every film whole onto a single side disk, all the extras. Regardless of length of the film or how many gigs the disk contains, it all plays find on my old 27 inch TV. I don't notice a difference.

If I had a 60 inch monster in the house, then I might notice a difference, but I am quite happy with the quality I am getting now. There was an article somewhere on how HD is a bad thing for porn as now you get to see the flaws which lower quality hides.

Then again, I also compress my mp3s down to 64's, and back in the old days, I compressed Jpegs quite a bit, not bothered by the slight quality hit when one only has a 120 meg HD to deal with.

One thing I wonder about, would these 50% compressed movies show worse on a new tech TV then they do on my old 27 inch CRT, or just show worse compared to uncompressed.

 

[Berlin]

So far, unless there is some sort of program glitch, I've compressed every film whole onto a single side disk, all the extras. Regardless of length of the film or how many gigs the disk contains, it all plays find on my old 27 inch TV.

I don't notice a difference.

As with any other media compression, if you are happy with the quality of the compressed files , and can't tell any difference , good for you. As long as you're happy with what you are seeing and hearing.

Most of the time we won't detect the difference between non compressed and compressed files until we AB or compare the 2 files.

So if the users ae happy with what they are watching/hearing, that's what counts. Having said that, one cannot detect quality loss in any lossy compressed files does not mean that the quality loss is not there. Because data is truncated during those lossy compressions and you just are not used to spotting the difference yet.

In general , any recent HD comptiable TV set will show flaws of lesser res material. Then again, compare is the key Try watcing a full res ( no need for HD ) DVD via the composite out, and watch via component out ,on a proper recent TV set, and see the difference. I won't even go to HDMI or other cling clank.

Lower res material fair better on older or non HD compatiable TV, because those sets are not geared for display more res, more detail. No surprise there.

 

[SilentLeviathan]

I'm a dual layer player so I just rip the whole disc.