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DVD Rebuilder Pro Updates to Version 1.26.1 Posted by: jmet, 03:47, June 29, 2007             Viewed: 1319 Times Categories: Software News, DVD Authoring, Recording

Over the course of the past couple of years DVD back up 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, TMPEGENC, 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.

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 back up.

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.

During beta development (software testing associated with this new product) the Pro version is only released to those who contribute to the development through donations of either their time (extensive testing and reporting) or a monetary donation. These "VIPs" receive regular automatic updates via e-mail as new versions of DVD-RB Pro are released. When DVD-RB Pro is released as a final product (version 1.00), VIPs who have donated at least $10.00 (or equivalent time and effort) will become members of the DVD Rebuilder charter team -- and will receive version updates for the life of the product. Those waiting until official release will be required to pay the $29.95 commercial price (happening very soon).

• Added a hidden setting in which you can instruct DVD-RB to redistribute bits across the entire DVD (including any parts considered to be extras and/or the feature).This can be useful for applying redistribution to episodic or series discs.You can enable the setting by adding "redist_all=1" to the "[Options]" area of REBUILDER.INI.
• Updated the redistribution module so it follows the proper rules associated with PEAK_BITRATE
• Added direct Luminance Gain adjustment to the HC Settings menu.
• Added new code to the OPV prediction routines that should improve further improve Q selection and sizing.
• Corrected a bug in which performing redistribution on ILVU sections could result in an error message.
• Other minor and cosmetic changes.