DVD Shrink is mediocre to crap quality even if you strip everything out and leave say just a 5gig movie (most are much higher than that) ... I've used all the other encoders out there, trust me... I have done numerous tests comparing DVD Shrink (because I used to think it was good also) using my The Matrix as the test movie... and after comparing using 5 different encoders (movie and menu's ONLY left intact) and after showing to several people to get their opinions... There was only 1 DVD-5 that they said they would watch... yes... the CCE encoded... There is a MASSIVE gap of quality from CCE and all those other proggies... I had to THROW OUT about 100 backups I made and redid them all with CCE... So unless you like to backup your DVD's with substandard software, hey... that's all up to you... =)
I just wanted to update this thread again: When I wrote about DVDAnywhere I meant to say AnyDVD, my fault. Anyway, I ended up ordering a Benq DW 1650 on a weekend sale at newegg.com for $33 but before I got it, I took bannor007's advice and loaded DVD Rebuilder Pro ed. v1.09.3 with my AnyDVD 5.9.6.0 in the background. I burned a movie on the Verbatim AZO DVD media on my old DigitalMax (took like 4 hours) but it was flawless. I Then tried another movie using the Taiyo Yuden DVD's b/c I bought a 100 pack at supermedia and DVDInfo showed tons of errors with those. Went back to the Verbatim and kept getting flawless burns. I thought it was weird b/c everyone keeps talking about how good Taiyo Yudens are and I'm sure there all right, so I knew it had to be this old DigitalMax like I thought earlier. So I get my BenQ today, burn using DVDShrink with the Taiyo Yuden's and it's flawless.
Now I can go back to solid backups, at least for a while anyway.
You guys are awesome, "I wish I could put all of you in one beautiful blonde".