DVD RB/CCE are the best for quality, they also take some time so you need patience. CloneDVD2 has good quality and versatility in their authoring. DVD Shrink and Recode2 are by the same developer, he went to work for Nero. Here is an article that compares the two.
I use Recode2 because it is faster than Shrink, quality wise it is pretty similiar, it is just easier in Shrink to change the quality enhancements. In Recode if you want to change this you need to go into your regedit to do it.
arniebear
What settings are you having to go into the regisrty to change? I use it Recode 2 is there something that's available only from the regsitry?
In Shrink there are quality enhancements, such as max smooth, smooth, sharp and max sharp. Sharp is the default in Shrink and Recode, however as stated you can change this in Shrink. If you want to change this setting in Recode you have to go into the regedit to do it. Below are the directions from a member of this forum and posted on the DVD Rip Forum.
The following trick is posted by michi90 in the afterdawn.com forum.
Nero Recode 2 works by default with AEC-Mode 'sharp (default)' - as known from DVD Shrink 3.2.
Especially for transcoding interlaced material (video) the 'maximum sharpness' setting does a much better job (Unbelievable difference. Try the different settings at 60 percent - You won't believe your eyes).
Until now I have been using DVD Shrink 3.2 with the 'maximum sharpness' setting even for Progressive material, because it's much more precise than 'sharp (default)'. And this question of precision ist the point especially for interlaced material.
Nero Recode 2 gets even faster (same way like DVD Shrink 3.2) with 'maximum sharpness'.
As known that Nero Recode 2 is faster than DVD Shrink 3.2, why should I still use DVD Shrink?
This benefit of speed in Nero Recode 2 has a little disadvantage.
The resulting picture is not as sharp as transcoded with DVD Shrink. But this is a very small difference.
It's like the difference between MPEG2Dec3dg.dll (last DVD2AVI version) and DGDecode.dll (DGIndex). So maybe the activation of 'maximum sharpness' in Nero Recode 2 is a good compromise between DVD Shrinks 'maximum sharpness' and 'sharp (default)'.
What is AEC?
Adaptive Error Compensation or "AEC" as it is more commonly known is a quality enhancement feature released in DVD Shrink 3.2 and Nero Recode 2.
AEC provides the user with different compression algorithms that may improve the overall quality of your backup in conjunction with a deep analysis.
In this FAQ you can read more about what it is.
How to change the setting:
You can switch in Nero Recode 2 to 'maximum sharpness' by changing a special value inside the Windows Registry:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ahead\Nero Recode\Preferences]
"CompressMode"=dword:00000002 (this is 'sharp (default)')
