OK Nero Digital, the new video codec by ahead software is here, let's see what it has to offer. Nero Digital is based on MPEG4, as well as DivX and XviD. It offers better picture quality in same sizes of file and better encoding speed. What I can say so far is that the encoding speed is awesome! With all settings in Slowest (better quality) and two-passes Nero Recode 2 (the encoding tool for Nero Digital) did a little less than two hours (2h !) to do both passes for a 2 hours movie, while DivX 5.1.1 Pro does a time of 6 hours! In the other hand DivX seems to have better quality and if we set the Speed/Quality factor in Standard it does about 3 hours, but has worse picture than Nero Digital.
You can get Nero Digital (for encoding) together with the new version of Nero Recode, which you can download from the ahead website here. Note that you should have Nero 6 for them to work.
Nero Recode 2 does not support commercial DVDs (protected) but you can still use a program like AnyDVD to copy these kind of discs. What I suggest is that you copy your DVD to the hard disk first (you can find guides at the menu above, named "DVD To VOB"). That way you save time and your DVD player as it does not have to work for long. Enough with talking, let's start the guide now!

Launch Nero Recode 2 and Select Copy DVD To Nero Digital. Note that we also have a guide for Copy Entire DVD To DVD feature of Nero Recode 2 here.

This is Nero Recode main window. We are going to add the DVD we want to encode. Remember that to use a protected DVD you have to use a software like AnyDVD, or better rip the DVD to your hard disk first. Click Import Titles.

Here select the VIDEO_TS folder of your DVD or the folder that contains the files you have ripped (note that you should rip all the DVD and not just the main movie). Select the rigt folder and click OK.

Nero Recode will now analyze your video, this should not take more than 1-3 minutes.

After the analyzing a screen like this should come up. Select the Title under Main Movie (1). Then select the Info tab and note the Display Value (2). It should be 4:3 or 16:9. After that select Add Title to add this title in your project. Then select Finshed.

After the movie is loaded the main window should look like this. Every MB is important so to save space we are going to remove the credits. Click at the Start/End button.

Here you have to press the back button (the one that the arrow shows) untill you come to the start of the credits. Then click OK.

Time to set-up some Video options. Click the Video button that the arrow shows.

First of all make sure Deinterlace is selected. The click the Crop tab.

Here you can crop the black bars that the movie may have so that you can get better quality. Automatic usually works well, if you are experienced with that kind of stuff you may have to use Custom. Finally click on Resize tab.

Here select Custom Resize and use the following values: 640x480 for 4:3 movies 640x368 for 16:9 movies Finally click OK.

(1) First of all select the right audio track. Also check the Subpicture tab to select the right subtitles. (2)Select CD [80 min] at Fit to target or Custom to save to whatever size you want (remember that too big movie with too small filesize will not have good quality, we are going to show how to back-up to a CD). (3) Select Home Theater as the profile. (4) Click Next

Here select the save the file at a Hard Disc Folder and then click on the Nero Digital Settings.

(1) Select High quality encoding (two pass). After that select the Expert mode box (2).

Here select Quality / Speed (1) and select Best quality at Performance / Quality (2) menu. Finally click Burn.

The encoding will now start. Wait for it to finish and then enjoy your Nero Digital video!

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