News

DVD ReBuilder Pro Updates to Version 1.27.3 Posted by: jmet, 02:03, March 29, 2008             Viewed: 469 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 "Use *LOSSLESS Parameter" option to the "HC OPTIONS" menu which will add that value (useful for speeding up certain scripts) to the INI files passed to HC encoder. Note: Only works with HC v0.22.1 or greater.
• Updated the ISO creation module so that now the ISO will be created by ImgBurn rather than MKISOFS if ImgBurn is installed and is of a high enough version to support it.
• Modified the HC calling module so that encoder priority is set explicitly (based upon the option) in the HC.INI file (HC v0.22 and higher).
• Corrected so that REDISTRIBUTION doesn't take effect when "MOBILE Only" encoding is selected (it is not used in that situation).
• Changed the "CORRUPT SOURCE" error message to a warning and removed the annoying popup message.Some rippers remove CELLs as needed from the VOB (usually junk cells related to protection) without removing the reference to the CELLS in the IFO(s).
• Built a workaround for movie-only PGC selection in discs that have incorrect information in PGC tables.
• Corrected an error in which the batch shutdown had stopped working since v1.27.0. Note also, that the setting for batch shutdown is also now saved in the INI and will "stick" between runs.Older version required setting it before all batch runs.
• Corrected an issue related to Vista in which running in "Multiple Encoder Processes" mode could cause HC and other encoders to fail with "Failed to find and run encoder..." This was caused by Vista's "improved" security.
• Modified loop checks during ILVU extraction in MOBILE encoding so the extraction stops more quickly if "Abort" is selected.
• Changed the actions for unload queries to make DVD-RB a bit more robust in the event of problems.
• Added additional checks to ensure CCE paths are correctly configured.
• Updated the codes so that NICAUDIO.DLL doesn't have to be explicitly called out in the REBUILDER.INI file for use in MOBILE encoding.
• Other minor and cosmetic changes.