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Tools needed (will not need all
items - read tutorial first - come back to these links)
DVD
Shrink (free)
DVD Decrypter
(free)
Blank DVD's (optional)
DVD
Burner (optional)
DVD cases (optional)
Nero 6
(optional)
CDBurner Pro
(free)
Backing up your
own DVD's is fine, do not steal media. Ramsinks is not responsible for
actions taken by readers of this site.
Back
in the day we used to hook up two VCR's to duplicate our VHS tapes.
Making a backup incase one got damaged or lost. However today with "CD"
media this is more important than ever. With disks getting scratched by
kids (and adults) - it's easier to destroy your DVD. If you have a
decent PC (1Ghz with 512MB RAM) and a DVD ROM - you can back up to your
hard drive at least.
This brings us to this tutorial. There are a couple ways you can backup
your DVD's.
- Backup DVD data to your hard drive
- Backup DVD to another DVD disk
This all depends on if you have hard
drive space and if your DVD ROM can burn DVD's. A DVD movie takes
anywhere from 4.6GB's to 8GB's of space. Our goal is to get the movie
shrunk down to backup (to hard drive or blank DVD) without loosing
quality - or at least as possible.
Let's start
1. Download and install DVD
Shrink
software. Once installed and ready, I do recommend defragging your hard
drive and turning off any background programs like anti-virus and other
garbage (less junk running in the background the faster you system will
work).
2.
Put in a DVD movie into your DVD drive. Close any auto running by
Windows that may occur. Open DVD Shrink.
3.
Clink on  . This will
take a while - around 20-30min. Again, depending on how fast your PC is
and background programs running. If you turn off "preview" - it's
faster.
4.
Once it is done analyzing your disk, you will see the results. The
first thing we need to look at is the data bar  .
If this is ALL GREEN
it means the whole movie will fit on a single layer DVD blank. If it is
under 4.7GB (all green) -
just click on  . Choose
to backup to your hard disk folder. I choose desktop. Be sure that
"create subfolders" box is checked. This backup will take about
30-50min.
5. If the data bar is larger than 4.7GB
and has RED - this
means it will not all fit onto a single layer blank DVD. Or you may
just want to shrink the movie down further to store on your PC and need
to save space. We can try to take out just some basic extras such as
subtitles and all audio except the first one (just keep the first
audio).
Now
if your "all green" just hit the backup button. If you would like it
smaller OR if your still in the RED
- click on  . You will
see all the data on the right side. Double click on the "Title1".
This will put just the data needed for the main movie in cue for
backup. This is a great option if you want to trim the movie down as
far as possible. As for taking you DVD's with you on your laptop
without having physical disks -etc. Now click "backup" and choose your
hard disk.
6. Now that we have the movie on the
computer and it's trimmed down to our liking - if you have a DVD burner
we can now burn it to disk. What's great about DVD Shrink is it can do
the burning for us IF we have Nero installed. It
uses Nero's engine to burn without actually opening Nero. If you don't
have Nero, use CDBurner Pro.
7.
Put in your blank DVD and close any auto run screens if any. Open DVD
Shrink and choose  .
Browse to your data (audio + video folders shrink created). It will
analyze again but not take near as long this time. Once it's done,
choose "backup" again. This time use the drop down selector for
destination and choose your DVD_+RW drive. Start the process.
Throw
away the data files once they are burned if you don't need them to save
space.
A few hints:
- Obviously to do this you need about 9GB's of free space on your
computer.
- Defrag your system for best performance in between backups.
- I have perfect results with the cheepy CompUSA brand DVD-R disks. 50
pack is about $22.00.
- If your DVD player (in the living room) can't play these back - it's
time for a new player. (cheep $30
newer players work good).
- Yes, if you have a DVDRW and a DVD ROM - you can do a straight "DVD
to DVD" - but takes forever.
- There are many options in Shrink to really tweak your backups - play
with them to learn more.
- Get DVD covers here.
Caution - this site uses pop-ups and garbage
advertising. Use FireFox not IE. Get the "front" images and use Windows
to print - trim image to fit. (they look good).
- DVD Shrink is not under development any longer. As of today it rips
copy protection just fine, however there may be newer copyright
technologies coming that Shrink cannot "fix". If this is the case use DVD Decrypter
to rip the DVD's to the hard drive then
use Shrink to shrink and burn.
Have
fun.
Burke~
 
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