detail information

Backup a movie:

There is not much to do when the source is selected and all the basic settings are done. A simple click onto the start button is enough to start the transcoding process.

However, for this review we don't want a simple 'movie only" backup, the more we want to add also some additional items, such as subtitle and audio streams. To finish this challenge successful, we need to look again into the properties section of the user interface.

The structure of the properties section is a modified classical file tree structure, comparable to the structure which we can also find in windows explorer and other programs. We can see the length, file size, estimated file size, the required compression rate and also that the TitleSet selection has been done according to our 'Copy Preset" selection, automatically by the software. The program offers here 4 possibilities to define the estimated file size, consequently the quality of the selected title set.

We can choose between, removing the title set, automatic, custom and exact copy. These settings can be understood as followed:

• Automatic sets the compression rate to the lowest possible level, depending on the target file size and other chosen content.
• Custom allows the user to set the compression manually by moving the slide bar on the left
• Exact Copy forces the program to create an exact copy of the selected title set.

These settings are highly welcome when someone wants to create a backup of a movie DVD, containing extras, menu and the movie itself. A standard 1:1 copy (DVD 9 to DVD 5) would create a DVD with the same compression ratio for each file, is it trailer, extras, menu or the movie. This nice option allows us to set different compression rates for each title of the source DVD. This means we can reach a much higher quality of the movie itself by setting much higher compression rates for menus and extras.

Next we'll select audio and subtitle streams. A click onto the little cross in front of the title set will open the title set menu and we can see that the selected set includes audio and subtitle streams. It will also display the size of the currently selected audio stream.

A click on the little cross in front of the audio will open this subsection and we can see the different audio streams which are included. Again, we will see type and size of each available audio stream. Audio streams can easily be selected by activating the check boxes.

The same goes for the subtitle streams.

This procedure is also almost the same for menus too.

Now the settings are done and we can start with the transcoding process by clicking onto the start button. Once the transcoding process has started, we will notice that the interface has greyed out and that no more changes are possible. The green start button is now changed to a red cancel button.

Also, the properties section has now changed to operation log. Here we can see what the program is doing, the progress of the transcoding process and the time which the software requires to finish the whole process.

Once transcoding is done, the program will automatically start the burning process. The following box will pop up when the target drive is the same as the source drive or when no empty disc is inserted. If we decide to leave a copy of the movie on our hard disc, then we can deactivate the 'Delete Working Folder after successful burn(s)" checkbox.

After an empty disc has been inserted, the window changes again and the burn process automatically starts with a delay of 15 seconds.

The log file now shows media and drive specific information as well as the progress of the burning process. On the top left of the log, we can see how long it takes until the burn is finished.

Please note: The calculation of the time shown here is based on the actual burning speed and not on the average speed. This means that the given time is only calculated correct when the drive uses the same speed from the beginning to the end of the disc. This is usually the case when the disc is burned at lower speeds (4x for example). For higher recording speeds (e.g. 12 or 16x), where the speed increases during the burn, this time is useless.     

Once the burning process has finished, a 'Copy completed" message will pop up. The backup is now ready to be played on any standalone DVD player.

At this point it is said that each of the made backups played well on both, my standalone DVD-player and computer.

Lets take a quick look at the Positives and Negatives

Program Run Through

Conclusion