FYI:- New tutorial for InterVideo DVD Copy 2 in DVD Tutorials & Guides section

[Lazza]

Just to let you know that a full guide for this new software has been posted today here:- http://www.dvdrom-guide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=777

And to answer those who keep asking... yes the DVD Shrink 3.1 guide will be up in the next day or so too. Thanks for your patience on this.

[nimbles]

cheers for the tutorial lazza- what do you reckon then about this? i'm surprised a 20-30 min transcode would look great? your views vs. dvd shrink?

am i imagaining things or have you just changed from mod to administrator?

[Lazza]

Only managed to do a couple of discs so far using this and must say it's pretty good IMHO. Not much between it and IC8 on longer films I feel so far, some great editing options with a nice little cell viewer and very quick. Would advise anyone to try it and see for themselves.

And no, not just changed title. You should look closer in future. http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/a0/biggrintongue.gif

[nimbles]

whoops http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/sprachlos/speechless-smiley-004.gif sorry lazza :D

i take it there is a trial period before shelling out the dosh? can you do a full disc on trial?

[Lazza]

Yes and yes. :)

Follow the link in the guide for the trial d/l. It is 21 days IIRC.

[Billy_Black]

Some interesting reading:

http://dvd.box.sk/articles8.php

http://dvd.box.sk/articles12.php

Free maybe nice, but a few $ gets you very nice.

[Lazza]

Some interesting reading:

http://dvd.box.sk/articles8.php

http://dvd.box.sk/articles12.php

Free maybe nice, but a few $ gets you very nice.Bit of a con that test tbh, and most DVD forums are laughing at this test.

They used the first ever version of DVD Shrink which is in fact a year out of date. Considering that they could have used any of the 3.1 versions when they conducted the test it does seem that they did not want it to win so you cannot put too much faith into a test that was biased from the start IMHO.

[Billy_Black]

Well it seems that sometimes the 'techies' are bit too enamored with their weapon of choice. It was Shrink 3.1 that they tested (click on the link they provide). In the 90+% range almost any app will do a good job, but I have always found InstantCopy 8 (if it plays nice on your system) to produce better quality on larger files. Some may laugh, but I was pleasanty surprised by the vid quality and speed of InterVideo on long movies, seems they were right on the money with their appraisal. And for the non-techies/newbies, DVDXcopy Express ver 2.5 (movie only) also produced better vid quality, without the various steps or need for tutorials that Shrink requires. Although 321 is always maligned, for the masses it enabled them to quickly and easily produce good looking backups. A true one-click solution.

I would usually back up the kids movies (whole disc, 8+G) with IC8 (they like to play with the menus and special features) and was shocked at how good they still looked when into the 50 to 60% range. This is not the case with Shrink or Recode.

It is because of this review that I tried InterVideo and I'm glad I did as I found their assessment to be accurate.

Let them laugh, IC8 and Intervideo (as they reported) are the top choices when the best vid quality is desired. Do you not agree?

[Lazza]

Check the link again m8. :D

It was v1.3.1 they tested and not v3.1 which is why so many are not taking the test seriously, hell I don't even know where you could get hold of v1.3.1 anymore as it is no soooooo old and not in the same league as any of the newer 3.1 versions or even v2 or 2.3 come to that.

I used v1.2 of InterVideo DVD Copy the other week to do The Italian Job (movie only) and noticed at once how really bad the pixelating and breakup of the picture was throughout the whole movie. It was so bad I binned the DVDR and redid the movie using IC8 which came out perfect to my eyes. Glad to say that v2.0 of this app is a lot better on quality. :)

[Billy_Black]

Well it's not worth arguing about. I had great results with ver. 1.2 (obviously no software is 100% perfect all the time, ver. 2 I'm sure has addressed a few growing pains). I tried Bourne Identity and The Wild Bunch (a 143 min. flipper) and they were both surperb.

The main point is they pegged the 2 best apps out there for vid quality. The follow up on IC7 vs IC8 was a nice touch also.

Looks like Shrink 3.1 to me, the first reference to Shrink was just a dyslexic typo.

From the 1st page screenshot:

http://mars.walagata.com/w/mysticx/shrink2.jpg

From their link:

http://mars.walagata.com/w/mysticx/shrink.jpg

[Lazza]

Looks like Shrink 3.1 to me, the first reference to Shrink was just a dyslexic typo.
Fair enough m8 I apologise as all I saw was what they printed on the mainpage of the test.

I still don't agree with their results but hey thats good in a way because it's all about opinions and each users own eyeballs when viewing the end results.

[Billy_Black]

And I appreciate the civil and polite way these opinions are discussed on this forum and your contributions. :)

[PhilEnfield]

Just installed this, but I'm "Cream Crackered" right now and need sleep :D

I will put it through it's paces tomorrow, if I can.

Thanks Lazza

P.S.
Do you know if it works with AnyDVD ?

[Lazza]

P.S.
Do you know if it works with AnyDVD ?Works fine Phil as did v1.2 :)

[PhilEnfield]

Very nice ;)

[PhilEnfield]

Had a little play with this now ... did Pearl Harbour Full Disk, as this is 2 hrs 54 mins (7617mb) and should be a good test for it.

Times as follows :
DVD Decrypter Rip = 16 mins
DVD Copy Processing = 28 mins
Burn = 15 mins
So all done in under an hour.

I normally use DVD2One, but also use DVD Shrink, when DVD2One cannot process the odd movie.
Comparing the output is always difficult, but IMO it seems marginally better than DVD2One, but not enough to write home about. The difference is more noticeable, compared to DVD Shrink .... it seems as though DVD Shrink produces a fuzzier picture (not as clear/sharp).

It's early days yet, as this is just one movie, but so far I'm impressed and the speed is good too .... not quite as fast as DVD2One, but definitely faster than DVD Shrinks latest version.

@ Lazza

I couldn't get it to work with AnyDVD ... it kept giving me an error "This DVD is copy-protected. This application does not support duplicatio of copy-protected content"
I tried playing it in Power DVD for 60 seconds, but that didn't help .... did you do anything other than point DVD Copy2 @ your DVD_ROM/VIDEO_TS folder ?
Perhaps it's just this disk .... I will try with another.

[Lazza]

@ Phil

All I did was just load up AnyDVD and point DVD Copy to the drive and that was it, I did have a problem on one disc but exiting and restarting AnyDVD did the trick.

[PhilEnfield]

Thanks m8

I just upgraded to latest version of AnyDVD (3.6.1.1) and that works fine.

I was using vers. 1.4.4.1 ..... hadn't bothered upgrading it, cos it weren't broke ;).

Just processed The Patriot (2hs 38 mins) with AnyDVD running and it took 25 mins plus 15 mins to burn, so I'm quite hapy with that :)

Also for fun, I did a VCD output and must say it was fast and the quality was very good. Couldn't get a Divx to work though ...that crashed the program ..... maybe an extra codec is needed or something.

Cheers

Phil

[dirtold]

Just to let you know that a full guide for this new software has been posted today here:- http://www.dvdrom-guide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=777

And to answer those who keep asking... yes the DVD Shrink 3.1 guide will be up in the next day or so too. Thanks for your patience on this.
Help!
I just bought DVD Copy based on recommendations on the net and I can't get it to work. I must be doing something wrong but I sure can't figure out what. I have made backups fine with Nero. DVD Copy tells me there are no proper files when I point it to the backup directory. I have read the guide and several other guides but I am still stuck on what DVD Copy is looking for. I even tried the ISO mode which Nero handles fine. I use Decrypter first, by the way. I have not tried to contact Intervideo yet. I read somewhere that they are not very responsive so I hoped someone here might offer an idea.

:hdspin:

[Lazza]

You need to rip the film using DVD Decrypter in File mode, the important thing here is that you select ALL (Click on Edit > Select all files when in file mode.) files to rip. When you have done that just point DVD Copy to that folder and there should be no problems at all.

[dirtold]

You need to rip the film using DVD Decrypter in File mode, the important thing here is that you select ALL (Click on Edit > Select all files when in file mode.) files to rip. When you have done that just point DVD Copy to that folder and there should be no problems at all.
That's pretty much what I tried (as the guide outlined), but DVD Copy says :This location does not contain supported content. Please try another location.

When I checked the location with explorer, the file extensions were .bup, .ifo, .vob. Shrink, Nero and Decrypter all recognize these files and will use them, DVD Copy will not. I'm using Win98 SE. I wonder if that is what is causing my problem.

[PhilEnfield]

That's pretty much what I tried (as the guide outlined), but DVD Copy says :This location does not contain supported content. Please try another location.

When I checked the location with explorer, the file extensions were .bup, .ifo, .vob. Shrink, Nero and Decrypter all recognize these files and will use them, DVD Copy will not. I'm using Win98 SE. I wonder if that is what is causing my problem.
That's your problem ..... System Reuirements :

Operating System - Windows 2000 / XP

[Billy_Black]

That's pretty much what I tried (as the guide outlined), but DVD Copy says :This location does not contain supported content. Please try another location.

When I checked the location with explorer, the file extensions were .bup, .ifo, .vob. Shrink, Nero and Decrypter all recognize these files and will use them, DVD Copy will not. I'm using Win98 SE. I wonder if that is what is causing my problem.
It is W98, from InterVideo's site:

Platform: Windows 2000/XP

To do a clean, no menu, Movie Only in ver.1.2, I use Decrypter and rip 'Main movie files' only. They open in InterVideo and I then get a clean self starting, no menu backup. With AnyDVD if I do a Movie Only back up I end up with a useless menu.

[dirtold]

I checked the software box and it says it works with Win 98. The box says I have DVD Copy Express. I guess I can email InterVideo and see what they say.

[PhilEnfield]

errrr. ..... are we talking about DVD Copy by Intervideo here or DVD X Copy by 321 Studios ?

[dirtold]

I just checked the Version and it is 1.1B001.28C00, Intervideo DVD Copy Express. I just purchased this at Sam's. I guess I can take it back; Sam's is pretty generous with their return policy. I assumed (trouble, trouble, trouble!!!) that since I just purchased it, it was the latest version. However since the latest version doesn't work with Win98, I did luck out to some degree.

[PhilEnfield]

Yup ... the latest versions are DVD copy2 Gold & DVD Copy2 Platinum.

Just found this site about the DVD Copy Express at Sam's, but as you can see they still quote System Requirements Windows 2000 / XP :

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040309/95332_1.html

Looks like Intervideo are offloading old stock to Sams

[dirtold]

Thanks to all who responded to my aid. I appreciate everyones help very much.

[dirtold]

I don't know if this is of any interest or if this is the right location but after my cry for help, I finally made a backup copy and it was weirdly simple. I want to try some more backups before making any judgements.

The software is called Intervideo DVD Copy Express and is available at Sam's for $16.44. It is only supposed to work with Windows 2000 and XP but it works for me under Windows 98 SE.

Update!!!
Have not been able to make a second copy. My guess is that it really needs 2000 or XP.
:cheers: