Over the course of the past couple of years DVD ripping techniques have changed dramatically. Newer "one click" programs have made backing up a DVD a fairly simple process... but there is a significant trade-off. The quality that can be attained by even the best of these programs is poor in comparison to original techniques that used Cinemacraft Encoder, HC Encoder, QuEnc, or other top-notch encoders. The reason is simple. When using one of these encoders the picture is rebuilt from scratch and optimized for the resulting bitrate. One-touch transcoders usually drop DCT coefficients or change quantization info in order to lower the bitrate. This can result in pixelation and poor overall picture quality.
But, man, they sure are convenient.
That's where DVD ReBuilder (DVD-RB) comes in. This program was built to bridge the gap between the incredibly easy but limited "one-click" solutions and the incredibly complex but high-quality methods of DVD ripping and backup.
Another advantage of DVD-RB when compared to older methods is that it doesn't require access to an expensive authoring package. DVD-RB includes its own reauthoring engine that reconstructs the DVD in a way compatible with its original design.
Changelog:
(DVD Rebuilder version 1.28.2)
CHANGES MADE TO PRO VERSION
- Made numerous changes to make DVD-RB more sensitive to
the security environment of Vista.
- Made changes to make DVD-RB more compatible with some
windows emulators.
- Added support for the HC adaptive quantization (*AQ)
function.This setting can improve picture in flat
parts.A default value of "2" is used, but can be
changed by setting "HC_AQ=n" in the "[Options]" area
of REBUILDER.INI."n" can be any integer value between
0 and 4."0" disables AQ and "4" results in lower
quants. Note: Keep in mind that due to virtualization
associated with VISTA, your most current INI may be
located in the VISTA VirtualStore.One easy way to
get to it (if you are using VISTA), is to create a
shortcut on your desktop that points to it.
- Added a parameter to the HC SETTINGS menu that enables
and disables LOGGING when encoding with HC encoder. The
log will be written to a file named "HCLOG.TXT" in the
working directory.
- Included HC Encoder v0.23 in the installation packages.
This version includes extended features and bug fixes.
- Added ability to have different 1st and 2nd passes when
using MOBILE encoding (see the MOBILE.INI template under
the AVCHD beta for an example.
- Added a "hidden" option called "ImgBurnDest" that, when
added to REBUILDER.INI will force the write to a specific
drive.This is expecially useful when working on a
computer that has more than one writable drive.As an
example, to force output to the "F:" drive you would add"ImgBurnDest=F:" to REBUILDER.INI.
- Modified the TEMPLATE commands so they automatically
look in the VirtualStore for templates.
- Corrected "35601" error that could happen (very rarely)
on sources with no audio.
- Added a parameter to the REBUILDER.INI file so that an
alternate AVISYNTH resizing algorithm can be used for
certain functions (e.g. converting from 4:3 widescreen
to 16:9 anamorphic).The default is "LanczosResize".
Example usage: "RESIZE=Spline36Resize"Note: Adding
an incorrectly spelled resize parameter will cause your
encoding to fail.
- Other minor and cosmetic changes
