I've been using DVDFab and CloneDVD2 to make backups successfully for a while now. However, with CloneDVD2 the quality setting has ranged from 50 - 67% on average even after I remove all the unnecessary audio features.
The picture quality is decent when I watch the backups but I'm just wondering if there is any benefit to using DVDShrink instead or any other methods out there to improve the quality without burning a DVD-0 to two DVD-5 discs.
I used to use all the transcoders out there and tried DVD-RB + CCE and have not looked back. Of course it will take longer to backup the disc but you have to ask what is more important. Time or Quiality.
If your intrested in DVD-RB then go to the DVD-Rebuilder topic discusion threads on this forum. There are guides there to help.
Both DVD Shrink and Nero Recode can produce better quality than CloneDVD2. Just make sure to use "DA + AEC + Max Smooth" via DVD Shrink and for Nero Recode "AA + HQSR + Assign Best Quality to Main Movie". But then again, I prefer Nero Recode over Shrink or CloneDVD2.
If you're the few that owned any 45" or higher (50" - 55") HDTV and value the quality of all your backups, then it's wise to go with DVD-RB Pro + CCE SP 2.70 or ProCoder2. However, this encoding process is no joke, it can take up to 2 hrs or more just to encode a single movie. Depending on your system and specs, you may be able to completed within 1 hr or 1 1/2 hrs if you have the latest rig.
I'm using DVD-RB Pro + CCE SP 2.70 to encode 3 PASSES with my old P4, 2.66GHz and it takes roughly 2 hrs and sometimes 2 1/2 to completed depends on how big/long the movie.
WARNING: Do not "update/upgrade" your SAMSUNG BD-D5XXX series (Bluray Player), or else you cant enjoy any of your movie files. How 2 downgrade Samsung BD-D5XXX Series Bluray playerhttp://forum.samygo.tv/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4244
The downside is the time it takes to use DVD-RB+CCE but in my opinion it is worth it.
DVD-RB BATCH mode is another positive for DVD-RB. If time is a concern you can set up DVD-RB to do multipul DVD's 1 after the other. So you can set up the batch mode to backup 3 to 4 DVD's and run DVD-RB over night while sleeping waking up to your DVD's done and ready to be burned to DVD.
Transcoders (Recode2/DVDShrink/CloneDVD2) can not do this.
