Strategy: Archiving 2 BDs + 1 DVD on 21 DVD+Rs

[Recycle]

Okay, you tell me this: How do I back up a BD without a BD writer?

Then the question to be asked is how did you get the ISO BD then? You need BD to make proper ISO to which one can compress down to smaller size. This just sounds more like torrent movie not from actual physical BD media. I have a desktop with BD burner and a external BD burner that I use to backup my BD movies to blank BD media of equal size. And BD burner for Desktop aren't too expensive to own and use nowdays as compared to the BD media currently. All what your telling and then the second quoted reply makes this thread totally confusing as if the BD medium exists or doesn't exists.

Not feasible. I have 20 BDs to back up plus about 250 DVDs.

A hard drive is not a back-up media. A hard drive is not an archival media.

Sorry to burst your bubble but it is a archival medium as well...

I have a BD drive. What does than have to do with writing BDs?
What do you mean?

Then like Ch3vr0n says you got wrong drives and wrong setup to do what your doing and lack of doing one's own homework to better understand what your trying to do.

 

[CuddlySquid]

You don't get it, shrinking in output size (CloneBD/clonedvd) is not the same as shrinking image resolution (RESCALING!). 2 completely different things.

Disclaimer: I don't know what CloneBD does. I don't have any SlySoft applications. I've been considering AnyDVD, but I can't figure out, 1, what it actually does, and 2, whether I need AnyDVD HD & AnyDVD if I want to back up both BDs & DVDs. In fact, it's not clear to me that AnyDVD HD works with BDs as opposed to HD-DVDs (obsolete).

CloneBD: can shrink a double layer bd50 down to single layer size (bd25) or even smaller. That's got absolutely nothing to do with downscaling image resolution. Bd50 to bd25 still is 1920*1080@24p. The only difference is that you don't need 45gb discs but the cheaper 23.5g discs which cost about the same as a DVD DL and the image quality is exactly the same.

Sorry, I simply don't believe you. Something has to give. For example, '.7zip' compression is a bit more efficient than '.zip' compression, but not anywhere near half the size. BD-video is MPEG2/H.262 or MPEG4AVC/H.264 or VC1. It's already compressed. I don't believe that there's any application that can improve on that and produce anything that a DB player will play without decoding the original and recoding it with lower spacial or temporal resolution, such as 1920x1080 to 1280x720 (which, technically, is still HD) or decoding down to PCM and recoding with half the luminance scope or half the chrominance (or both) and then recompressing. You simply can't cut the size of video in half without losing something.

 

[ErichV]

You simply can't cut the size of video in half without losing something.

Of course, you will lose quality. However, the resolution will not change.
Furthermore, many people don't see any quality losses compared to the original file. Give it a try!

 

[CuddlySquid]

Of course, you will lose quality ... Give it a try!

Nope! ... & ... Nope!

I repeat: I'm trying to back up my DVDs & BDs.

I'm going to restart my original questions (see Note) with instructions that I'm not looking for discussion; I'm looking only for tools & scripts to use.

(Note: It's been my experience that someone who might have knowledge of tools and/or scripts will, upon seeing that this thread has gotten so many replies already, just skip it. Since I've not gotten constructive replies, I'm going to recycle my original query.)

Thanks All who have read this.

 

[Ch3vr0n]

The reason you cab shrink bd's at virtually no quality loss of bifold.

1. Retail releases use bitrate MUCH HIGHER than it actually needs to be to keep the same level of detail. Strip that excess bitrate away and the file size already decreases and you have not even touched image quality yet
2. The encoding engine used is extremely powerful and has a proven reputation.

X264 encoding engine first strips that excess bitrate away, only then does x264 analyze the image to see where it can cut back without losing noticeable detail.

The 'excess bitrate', THAT is what 'gives'. With x264 you only start losing the first bit of detail when you shrink down to DVD DL size.

Same is true for the audio used, it's been established in double blind tests that Dolby digital 5.1 at 640kbps sounds just the same as true-hd.

So if you shrink a bd it's pretty simple.

1. Strip away audio streams you don't need: you gain space for the video
2. Strip away that excess video bitrate: same image quality with smaller file size
Combine 1 and 2 and you shrink without losing image quality. Trust me, me and thousands of others have been doing it for years using bd-rebuilder.

For example, discs here often have 4 or more audio tracks (English, French, German, Italian) that can take up to 10-15gb in size for audio along for the last 3. Since I don't speak or understand any of those 3 I just tell the program to remove those audio streams from the video file. Result: 15gb in space saved.

What Anydvd does is told on the product page, but it's main purpose is decryption of the protections used on retail DVDs.

And of course anydvd HD works with bluray, that's the whole HD part. You get all functionality of anydvd (DVDs) with bluray capabilities and as a bonus hd-dvd support which is an obsolete format.

Clonedvd can shrink DVDs from double layer size to single layer.
CloneBD does the same and more for bluray.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn Nexus 7 met Tapatalk

 

[CuddlySquid]

Ch3vr0n,

I really appreciate the effort you've taken to inform me. If you're willing to pursue this further...

The reason you cab shrink bd's at virtually no quality loss of bifold.

What's "bifold"?

1. Retail releases use bitrate MUCH HIGHER than it actually needs to be...

Sorry, I don't believe it.

2. The encoding engine used is extremely powerful and has a proven reputation.

I don't want to transcode the video. For example, ''The Bourne Identity'' is VC-1 encoded. I want the '/BDMV/STREAM/00010.m2ts' file in 'BOURNE_IDENT.iso' to also be VC-1 encoded.

X264 encoding engine first strips that excess bitrate ... discs here often have 4 or more audio tracks (English, French, German, Italian) that can take up to 10-15gb

Sorry, I don't believe there's any such thing as "excess bitrate". Also, stripping all the alternative language tracks and all the subtitles & captioning will save no more than 1 or 2 or maybe even 3 GBytes. Where you can shrink the content a lot is by stripping out the special features, but I don't want to do that, either.

What Anydvd does is told on the product page...

That's just marketing gobbledygook. There's nothing substantive in the product page. However, a fellow on the SlySoft Development Team named James told me that AnyDVD "is a filter driver for the optical drive class", so I assume that it's between the raw reader (ODD driver) and the decoder. That's what I thought it was. It's in the stream. It's something I could hook up with graphedit (that is, if AnyDVD had a graphedit module).

And of course anydvd HD works with bluray, that's the whole HD part. You get all functionality of anydvd (DVDs) with bluray capabilities and as a bonus hd-dvd support which is an obsolete format.

I understand that AnyDVD HD works with Blu-ray discs. My question is: Does AnyDVD HD work with DVDs (or do I have to also buy AndDVD)?) ...Oh, never mind. I'll eventually download AnyDVD HD and discover its capabilities through experimentation.

Clonedvd can shrink DVDs from double layer size to single layer.
CloneBD does the same and more for bluray.

I'm not interested in shrinking, or transcoding, or stripping. I just want to back up DVDs & BDs.

Thanks so much for your help. I have a much better idea of the capabilities of AnyDVD HD now.

Ciao.

 

[Ch3vr0n]

bifold as in 2 reasons. As i listed below.

1. you don't believe it. Fine with me but i'm talking from experience and years of using BD-Rebuilder (before CloneBD came out).
2. changing codec through x264 into h264 doesn't affect quality. It's just a codec, its the settings used that determine quality level.

only 3 GB? Think again, a 5.1 dts-hd for a 2hr movie alone can fill up that much and more depending on the audio bitrate used.

its not a gobbledygook and has a very clear definition of what it can do. It works at the driver level and sits between the OS and the hardware. It works as follows. You insert disc in drive > drive sends signal disc is inside to OS > anydvd intercepts signal and processes the disc for decryption. When decryption is done anydvd sends a signal to OS > Disc is inside the drive and ready for processing. The OS doesn't even know its a protected disc, all it sees is a protection free disc.

Yes Anydvd HD works with DVD's as i already explained. You get all the workings of classic (DVD only) Anydvd with the added capabilities of HD (Blu-ray and HD-DVD). Anydvd and Anydvd HD are one and the same program, there are no 2 setup files. It's the key file (for registration) that determine which program features are unlocked for use.

If all you want to do is make 1:1 backups for DVD and BD, then all you need is Anydvd HD (lifetime license recommended!). The burning can be done through IMGBurn.

There's 2 things to remember.

1. NEVER rip a DVD to an image (iso) file with the built-in ripper (rightclick the fox tray icon, select "rip video DVD to hard disk")
2. BD's are RECOMMENDED ripped to iso image and not folder structure (select "rip to image" in the same fox tray icon, don't let the name for "rip video dvd to hard disk" fool you, it works for BD's too. It's just not recommended for technical reasons, i'll spare you the details)

For burning:

in case of DVD's: Fire up IMGBurn (free tool, best one there is for pretty much all straight burning purposes) > select "Burn files/folders to disc" (top right button), point to the ripped Root folder (dvd's name, containing the VIDEO_TS folder) and let it do its thing and correct any settings if asked.
in case of BD's: Select the top left button, "write image to disc", navigate to the BD iso you ripped, let it do its thing.

That's it, just be prepared to shell out a LOT more cash for double layer blanks (valid for both dvd's and blu-ray's) than for single layers.

For example
- a 25 pack spindle for single layer printable verbatim BD-R's 6x, sets me back € 36.50, a 25 pack for BD50 (double layer) costs € 153.90, that's 5x as much.
- a 25 pack DVD+R (DVD5 single layer) verbatim printable: € 6.99, a 25 pack DVD+R DL (DVD9 double layer) costs € 27.90, thats 4x as much

For your blanks:
- stick to a quality brand like Verbatim or Tayo Yuden
- AVOID LTH BRANDED MEDIA AT ALL COSTS (from ALL brands), i'll spare you the technical details why
- For DVD's, stick to DVD+R

Imo, the few hours it takes to remove the unwanted trailers, audio and subs while keeping the same image quality (yeah i know u don't believe me, but others on here do and thousands more out there as well) far outweigh the cost of double layer blanks.

You've been informed as best as possible, now it's up to you. It's gone a bit of topic but splitting a BD iso across 2 dozen discs doubt that's even possible and if it is, it's asking for trouble down the road.

 

[CuddlySquid]

NEVER rip a DVD to an image (iso) file with the built-in ripper ...

Thank you. I plan to rip to '.iso' using Total Commander's ISO plugin, or maybe an ISO maker in Linux.

For burning:

in case of DVD's: Fire up IMGBurn (free tool, best one there is for pretty much all straight burning purposes) > select "Burn files/folders to disc" (top right button), point to the ripped Root folder (dvd's name, containing the VIDEO_TS folder) and let it do its thing and correct any settings if asked.

Why not make '.iso' files?

- AVOID LTH BRANDED MEDIA AT ALL COSTS (from ALL brands), i'll spare you the technical details why
- For DVD's, stick to DVD+R

I'm familiar with low-to-high problems. Look at my original post ... DVD+R.

... splitting a BD iso across 2 dozen discs doubt that's even possible and if it is, it's asking for trouble down the road.

Of course it's possible. I used to split files apart all the time. I just can't remember the name of the MSDOS-CLI tool that does it.

Take good care of yourself.