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CDR-Zone.Com review DvdReMake

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Posted on Friday 26th of March, 2004 at 09:31 by SirQUK
Source:

About the software
Key Features
Installation
Usage
Conclusion
Pros and Cons
Pricing and Availability

About the Software:

"DvdReMake is a DVD editor. Unlike MenuEdit which was designed to modify dvd menu information in vob files DvdReMake is designed to work with whole disk. Of course in the same easy and intuitive manner. Well, it is not exactly right... Actually, it is even easier to use DvdReMake. And it looks and feels way better."

"Designing this program we did not want to make it "universal". In a sense that if there are tools available which are easy to use and they are either free or not expensive - then we will try not to overlap with their functionality (approach is more from Unix part of the world). For example DvdReMake does not offer direct import from the dvd, but there is a DvdDecrypter; it does not write, but there are plenty of progs that do it; it does not transcode - but there is a dvdshrink, and others..."

It is Dimadsofts firm believe that the user of DvdRemake should not pay for yet another ripper,burner, or transcoder option when good software already exists that the user may already own.

Key Features:

DvdReMake has almost all functionality of MenuEdit plus some more features that make it a very handy tool for editing dvds or making dvd backup:

Process dvds with seamless playback and multiple angles;

Remove unwanted buttons from either still or motion menus;

Re-link menu buttons;

Delete menus for selected language;

Cut out credits or embedded studio logos;

Replace material on the DVD with your own;

Remove warning/rating screens;

Remove menu transitions; Actually, remove any scene from the disk. No more splitting disks - have what you like on your disk (movie or extra, or even part of this and part of that) with the original menu by simply removing what you don't want to see on the disk.

Installation:

No installation is required and DvdreMake is a 'green' software using very little system resources. Simply unzip to the desired directory on your PC, or even run it off your USB pen or Multi media card! This also means no installation is required and there is no need to worry about rogue registry entries being left behind after unistallation of the software.

Usage:

The recommended DVDDecrypter was used to copy the review DVD to the hard drive and then those file where imported into DvdReMake via file/ Import DVD.

Once imported into DvdReMake, a tree style list of all available menus and titlesets are shown in the left hand panel, and clicking on a menu or titleset results in a quick slideshow style preview of it being shown in the top right hand side.

Clicking on any one of these items will result in a larger preview being shown underneath in the bottom right panel, from where it is possible to access the right click functionality for the advanced editing options: Click in the frame area (but not over button):

Cut from here : Once activated , this enables the user to remove all video after the selected point within the selected block.
Cut to here : Once activated , this enables the user to remove all video before the selected point within the selected block.
Export frame : export current frame as a bitmap file; to be used for menu reauthoring (for example)
Import/export buttons : once menu is reauthored (i.e. new vob is created with all needed streams (video/audio/sub-pictures) user can replace original menu with the new one. This commands will allow button transfer from original to the new menu.
Add button : Adds new button which can be modified by right clicking on it.

Note: Buttons just define highlight area and actions (command) to be executed when button is selected. There is no text or movie "in the button". All these is in the video. And to change this it is necessary to reauthor menu - make a new one with different video and old (or new) subpictures and audio.
Edit color schemes : Does just that. A more advanced option has the dialog is quite complicated unless you understand about the color scheme.

So it is just a case of selecting a menu or titleset in the left hand panel, previewing them to see what blocks you would like to remove, and then right clicking and choosing the appropriate action you would like for either disabling menu buttons or cut,edit, or simply hide video blocks. You can also remove or cut menu transitions too, so that you only have what you need to watch what you decide to keep

Selecting a title in DVD Tree view:

Hiding or replacing a menu block:

The right click options in main viewing pane:

Delete, hide or edit a menu button:

How much you remove is entirely upto the user, and depending on what you would like to achieve really does depend on your knowledge of the DVD structure, and that is why their are two main modes to the software:

Easy Mode:

The Basic mode, and here the user has a control on what to backup.

Advanced Mode:

Advanced mode is for editing - i.e. even more customized backup when user can change navigation (when commands editing is released).

For this review it was decided to remove all video titles except the main movie and keep only the menus needed for the selection of audio settings and scene selection, removing unwanted menu transitions, cutting the end credits and those annoying Disney and Pixar credits at the beginning of the movie, to see just how much I could remove from the original DVD.

Once happy that only the video and menu items required had been kept, and the coresponding menu buttons to removed titles had been disabled, 'Export DVD' was used to rebuild the DVD into a compliant DVD output which took about 7 minutes on the review machine and played perfectly in various software DVD players. The resulting DVD output now being only 4.48 GB compared to the original size of 7.6gb.If only it was possible to remove that Hebrew audio that I would never listen to, it would of fitted nicely onto a single layer recordable disc!.

Other functions such as Command editing in PGCs will be added in the next release of DvdReMake and future plans for features include:

Major DVD editing: adding titlesets, PGCs, inserting chapters at user selected points in playback, merging dvds keeping functional menus, etc... will come later.

Conclusion:

It doesnt claim to be a miracle all in one solution for all your backup needs but it is very user friendly, and within 15 minutes i had successfully edited my DVD project to the way I wanted it, without reading any guides at all, simply by previewing all titlesets and menus and removing,cutting or simply hiding what was not needed.The resulting outputted DVD project took only 7 minutes to be rebuilt and the DVD played perfectly in all tested software DVD players. One more step that was taken to check the compatibility of the outputted files in a standalone DVD player, was to load it into both 1ClickDVDCopy and DVDShrink, remove the unwanted foreign audio and subtitles, and record onto a DVDRW+/- with CopyToDVD.The resulting DVDs played perfectly on both a Bush 2523 and Cyberhome 512 standalone DVD players.As some readers might be aware of, dual layer recordable DVDR are soon to be widespread and so the removal of certain audio streams will no longer be required, but for now, it is a simple case of opening up the exported DVD project with such such software as 1ClickDVDCopy or DVDShrink to ensure it fits onto a single layer, 4.7 Gb DVDR, and soon DvdReMake will allow for the merging of 2 DVDs which will be a very useful feature once Dual layer, 8.5gb DVDR are more widespread.

Whichever you are, beginner, or advanced user, DvdReMake is as powerful as your knowledge, and the more you learn, the more you will come to understand its usefulness in todays DVD market.Although no compression ability is available in DvdRemake ( and the author states he will not invent software to do jobs that available software already do very well ), the exported project was easily opened in DVDShrink for compression to a single layer recordable DVD. In many cases, it is very possible that compression will not be needed after using DvdReMake, and even is it is needed, the compression will not be as big after its use resulting in better quality backups.

The only minor things I found slightly annoying was the inability to 'undo' anything that was selected incase of mistakes,, but here is a trick:

"it is possible to "replace" the modified block with the original. Simply right click, select replace and select original block. Replace can be invoked from either "Blocks List" pane or from "PGC programs" pane. In later case replacing block will replace it only in this PGC. So if there is another PGC using same block then it will still have modified one."

There is no help file at the moment but we are assured it will follow soon, as will both simple and more advanced guides over the coming weeks.

So very soon DvdReMake will not only be any easy to use DVD editing tool for the beginner or advanced user, but also a way to make a completely customisable DVD of only the features and items you want.Very often after removal of unwanted features, compression may also not be needed.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Very simple to use - Makes what was very difficult manual process very easy for the beginner

Very logical Interface

No installation and low on system resources

Many functions for both beginner and Advanced user

Allows for removal and editing of any video, menu item or button

Exports fully DVD compliant output

The exported DVD output can be loaded into any transcoding software for compression if needed such as 1ClickDVDCopy,DVDShrink or CloneDVD.
Improves quality on projects that require high compression
Saves alot of time over older methods
The author is committed to future development with new features already planned
Great support via Official Forum

Cons:

No export function in trial really doesn't give the potential user a look at the great output that DvdReMake achieves.
Removal of DTS and foreign audio/subtitles would be nice for single layer Discs, although the author states DVDShrink is free and can be used to achieve this goal.
No help file as yet (planned)