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Originally Posted by Harry
So far I've had no visably notable artifacts or difficulties playing these DVDs and the "Full disk" burns seem to have all of the same DVD menu options as the original master.
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This is a topic of storage methods, which has no bearing on the visual quality. To both repeat and summarize what's been written into the earlier posts, the benefit of the ISO is to keep disc contents unaffected by the file system or the OS of the computer. An ISO is sort of like a biodome -- an isolated environment, even if it does exist inside of a larger one (the Earth, as an analogy for your computer).
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it doesn't appear to be noticeable on my HDTV screen. Perhaps I have just been lucky thus far?
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To reiterate, for sake of clarity -- ISO vs VIDEO_TS is unrelated to visual quality.
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I've observed that DVD Shrink 3.2 (which offers either the ISO or DVD (VIDEO_TS sub-folder) option when backing up an original DVD) could not always decrypt the DVD
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This is because DVD Shrink is a video transcoder, and not a disc extraction utility. A transcoder reads the content of a DVD-Video disc -- regardlress of whether "the disc" is still on a physical disc, stored as ISO, or stored as VIDEO_TS files -- and reinterprets the math. A target file size is set, and the transcoder alters the math to fit that space. Although it will technically always reduce the quality, it's not always visible or easily-visible loss. Contrary to silly statements online about what percentage of "shrink" is acceptable, the difference between input and output quality is based upon the source, and not any arbitrary number scheme. A disc with a 50% transcode can look better than a disc with a 99% transcode, depending on source quality. (Most homemade DVDs fall into the latter category, while professional DVDs can fall into the earlier one. It's all about source.)
While that may seem like an off-topic stray, it's really not. The author of DVD Shrink was a transcoder developer, and not a disc extraction/decrypting expert. As such, that afterthought feature never worked very well, even when it was a still-development and new program. The task of extraction was better left to other tools.
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whereas DVDFab Decrypter, DVDFab 6.1.2.5, or DVD Decrypter v3.5.4.0
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These would be the aforementioned "better tools".
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were most often successful, but did not offer an ISO back-up option.
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Actually, these tools do offer output to ISO files. DVD Shrink, for example, can open a DVD-Video from the disc (not suggested), from a VIDEO_TS folder, or from an ISO. Inversely, it outputs to these same formats: ISO on hard drive, VIDEO_TS folder on hard drive, or burning with the
Nero API (if
Nero is installed) or ImgBurn API (if ImgBurn is installed, and using the
modified ImgBurn + DVD Shrink 3.2.exe file).
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DVD Shrink 3.2 no longer offered the ISO option when compressing.
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No, it's there. Looks for it when you go to the backup menus (after clicking big Backup button)
Select Backup Target = Use ISO Image File
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ImgBurn v2.5.0 does offer an option to "Create an (ISO) image file from (VIDEO_TS) files/folders, but since this would be from folders already on the hard drive and not from the original DVD I'm wondering if there is any real benefit to this other than creating an ISO image of an already, possibly corrupted VIDEO_TS folder?
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It would actually, yes. It will gap the IFO and BUP in the new ISO file, when the target is a single-layer disc. This exact process, however, is also performed when burning DVD-Video files to DVD, using ImgBurn. So there's no reason to double-up here, unless you're planning to save a hard drive version in addition to the disc version.
I would note that any non-DVD information was lost once the DVD was run through DVD Shrink. This includes JACKET_P, any ROM data, etc.
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when I use ImgBurn v2.5.0 to burn a back-up DVD disk I can only select the mds file when it's present on DvDs that did not require any compression, or select just the ISO file when the mds file is not available. In either event I end up with the VIDEO_TS and (empty) AUDIO_TS sub folders burned back to a DVD, with or without the benefit of that mds file,
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MDS files are only a benefit when the source and target are both dual-layer media. DVD9 or DVD+R DL for the source, and DVD+R DL for the new disc.
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and so far they seem to play just as well as those that were not converted to ISO on the hard-drive. So any discrepencies are (for me) thus far imperceiveable.
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That would not be true if the new disc is a DVD+R DL, and the layer break has moved. Although it is possible for ImgBurn's intelligent automatic layer break tool to select an identical position as found on the source disc, I've often found it to be incorrect. Not that the new layer break position is bad in any way, but simply that it may be more noticeable if it were placed between chapters during peak action. Or in the middle of a clip, instead of between clips on an episodic style DVD.
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I keep my original DVDs in storage and use my DVD back-ups for viewing. But I also keep these same DVDs stored on several large capacity USB 2.0 external hard drives from which I can also view them directly on a notebook PC screen.
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And for this reason, I would suggest ISO files.
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I have also discovered that there are some media players (such as the Argosy HV676 HD Media Player) that can open and play USB Hard Drive archived movies, on an HDTV with a functional DVD menu regardless of whether they are ISO images or DVD VIDEO_TS folders.
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The
WDTV Plus is known for its ability to playback ISO files, and the WDTV is one of the better media center devices currently on the market. It's quite popular, and quite inexpensive. It's comparable to DVD player pricing, but far more feature-packed in terms of the kinds of video files it will play (DivX, AVI, MKV, etc), and from what sources (USB flash drives, USB hard drives).
Currently about $95 + free shipping from
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.ht...reative=390957
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Hopefully I'm not going blind, but if if an "edit post" function does exist, could you (or someone) please direct me to it?
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The option to edit a post disappears an hour after the post was first made.
Good topic.
