Monday, January 16, 2006

Basic Backing-Up DVDs Howto

This guide should help you through making a back-up copy of a DVD

Downloads:
DVD Decrypter
DVD Shrink

Parts:
I. Decrypting Your DVD
II. Shrinking (if Needed)
III. Burning

I. Copying the DVD to your Hard Disk
1. Insert your DVD and open DVD Decrypter
2. You should see the Label and information about your DVD. If your screen doesn't look exactly the same as this one don't worry.


3. Read Mode
Click on Mode>ISO>Read or just hit the letter R on your keyboard


4. It is important to note the number of layers and the size of your DVD. If it is 2 layers it will be larger than the capacity available on a standard recordable DVD.

This DVD happens to have 2 layers. I'm not going to go into Dual Layer Burning, therefore we must use DVD Shrink to squeeze it onto a standard DVDR.

4. Copying the DVD to Hard Disk
Select a Location in which you would like your DVD image. Click on the DVD to Hard Disk icon and it will begin to copy the contents of the disk into the file.







(NOTE: follow Step II to only if your DVD has more than 1 layer, if the disc only contained 1 layer, go to Step III)
II. DVD Shrink
1. Click on File>Open Disc Image or key in Ctrl+I and open your Disc Image




2. DVD Shrink will analyze your Disc Image


3. Trimming the DVD
DVD Shrink automatically adjusts the quality to make the movie fit on a DVD. Under the Main Movie folder change compression from Automatic to No Compression.




Change the Extras to Still Image (this will eliminate any extras from the DVD)


This should effectively trim down the size enough to fit on a recordable DVD. If not, you may take off some of the foreign languages or take down the quality of the Main Movie a bit.




4. Burn Your DVD
Click on the Backup Icon or key in Ctrl+B


Select ISO Image File and burn with DVD Decrypter


Note the location of your DVD Image file and click OK.


The DVD will begin to re-encode.

you may deselect Enable Video Preview if you would like.

III. Burning with DVD Decrypter
1. If you followed Step II, DVD Decrypter will load up ready to burn.


If you didn't need to follow Step II, change DVD Decrypter to Write Mode by clicking Mode>ISO>Write or pressing W on your keyboard.


Insert a blank DVD and click the button to begin burning your DVD.

Hopefully when finished you will have a back-up copy of your DVD.