Backing Up Your DVD - Independent Information Systems

Backing Up Your DVD
Using
DVD Decrypter v3.2.1.0
And
DVD Shrink v3.1.7.6
(And Ahead Nero v5.x or 6.x)
One of the problems in owning DVDs is that of keeping them in good condition. While the
media itself will last for a number of years, there are any number of ways that the DVD can
become unusable, leaving you with a rather expensive drink coaster. I’ve spoken with people
whose young children or grandchildren damaged DVDs, whose dogs have mistaken them for the
Frisbee they want so much to play with, and other equally disastrous circumstances. With just a
couple of free tools (and one not so free – but a demo is available) and a little time, you can
prepare a backup of your DVD that you can use on a daily basis with the comfort of knowing
that the original is there ready to be backed up again if the dog should decide to chew the
crunchy peanut butter that the 2-year old spread all over your current backup copy.
Hardware Needed:
A computer capable of running the software tools required, and equipped with
A hard disk drive with at least 15 GB of free space available on it:
10 GB to store the source files from the source DVD with CSS encryption removed.
5 GB to store the revised files that will be burned to your backup DVD.
A DVD player/burner to access the source DVD and to burn your backup onto.
The Free Tools needed:
DVD Decrypter: available for download at http://www.dvddecrypter.com/
DVD Shrink: available for download through http://www.dvdshrink.org/
The Not-So-Free Tool:
Ahead Nero Burning ROM. If you don’t already own Nero Burning ROM, you may download
a demonstration copy from this page: http://www.nero.com/us/nero6-ultraedition.php
Note: DVD Shrink can often do the entire job (including the part done by DVD Decrypter),
however I have found that it is not 100% reliable. Thus these instructions provide a way to do
this that gives you a better chance of success in the end product.
I strongly urge you to support all the manufacturers of these software packages. DVD Decrypter
requests a small ($2.00 U.S.) donation, and I consider the Nero Ultra package reasonably priced.
You can check sites such as http://www.pricegrabber.com/ for current pricing. HINT: look for
copies of the OEM version, which is often priced at under $10.00 U.S., but has reduced
functionality in Vision Express and Showtime – but that does not affect DVD Burning.
Don’t let the apparent length of the instructions that follow intimidate you. There is actually
very little you have to do, I have included graphics and discussion of each step along the way to
help you understand what’s going on and not get lost or confused during the processing.
One last piece of information and I’ll let you get down to work.
Other Excellent Sources of Information about DVD / CD backups, copying, creation, etc.:
MrBass.org
DVDRhelp.com
Doom9.org
General help can also be had in the Audio/Visual Chat forum at BroadbandReports
Let’s do it!
With all the small talk out of the way, let’s get on with it.
Step 1: Preparing for the RIP process. Insert the source DVD into the DVD player. If any
program such as PowerDVD, Windows Media Player, or an offer to set up a player appears,
simply cancel the operation.
Cancel this
offer!
Step 2: Prepare DVD Decrypter. If it does not automatically select all files on the DVD, select
them manually just as you would with Windows Explorer. If the drive location shown in the
“Destination” portion of the display doesn’t have enough space, click on the folder icon to
choose another place to put the files.
There are many other options available for use with DVD Decrypter. To get the latest
information on what they are and what they do, check out the guide on the Doom9 site:
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/dvddec.htm
Step 3: RIP the DVD with DVD Decrypter. What happens now is that DVD Decrypter
processes the files on the DVD, removing the CSS encryption from them so that any standard
DVD backup utility can work with them. Just click on the large button below the “Destination”
area to begin processing the files.
Step 4: Shutting down DVD Decrypter. DVD Decrypter will keep you informed of the progress
and tell you when it is all done. You can now close down DVD Decrypter and remove the
source DVD from the player.
Reminder: If you haven’t removed the source DVD yet, do so now. Also take this opportunity
to put a blank DVD+R or DVD+RW into the DVD burner for the next steps.
Step 5: Start DVD Shrink. Initially it is just blank, you’ll have to point it to the files you just
ripped using DVD Decrypter and go from there.
Step 6: Choose the Folder containing the files to process. Click on the [Open Files] button
shown in the previous graphic to open up the browser. Browse to the folder containing the
Video_TS folder that was created by DVD Decrypter. DVD Shrink will automatically work
with the proper set of files within that folder. Click the [OK] button to continue.
Step 7: This is an ‘information only’ step – nothing for you to do but watch as DVD Shrink does
its initial analysis of the files that it will be using.
Step 8: DVD Shrink will open up all set up for a “Full Disc” backup. But before continuing,
you should look at the amount of compression to be done to achieve this. Notice the 54.5%
value just above the cursor in this picture. That’s pretty low. We will want to improve on that.
If that number is at or very near 100%, you may just continue with a Full Disc backup. That is
great for DVDs that only have a menu and the movie and aren’t filled with lots of extras. For
those, you could just click the [Backup!] button and skip ahead to Step 12 at this point.
Step 9: Switching to Re-Author mode. Click the [Re-author] button to switch to the re-author
mode/view. At first nothing is selected. You will want just the Main Movie file (Title 1 below)
to best the best quality copy. Just drag’n’drop Title 1 over into the DVD Structure window.
Step 10: This is how things should look after you drag Title 1 over into the DVD Structure
window. Next we will want to use the Compression Settings tab to ‘fine tune’ just what we will
include on our copy to get the most out of the process.
Step 11: The Compression Settings tab. We see here that we still are going to be compressing
quite a bit (44% to be removed). By choosing which of the optional pieces (audio tracks and
subpictures) we keep and which we can live without, we can provide more room for the video
portion of the movie itself.
By keeping only the 2-channel audio, we can get the best compression ratio. NOTE: you must
keep at least one AC3 audio channel for proper operation. But I’ve decided I want 5.1 sound, so
I make some final adjustments. Also, because there is some ‘foreign’ language (elvish) spoken
with subtitles to translate, I will elect to keep the English subpictures also. This may cause all
English subtitles to be shown initially, but you can turn that off with your DVD player.
Here are the final choices I’ve made for this copy. Even 60.1% will give pretty good quality
video and audio. Having made the final choices, we are ready to actually begin the backup
process. This can take a pretty good bit of time, so the faster your processor, the better. Click
the [Backup] button to begin.
Step 12: Backup processing: More Choices. First we make sure that our burner is selected as
the target device. Also confirm where you want to put the temporary files that will be created
during this processing (actually the files that will end up being burned to the DVD copy). I elect
to accept the default folder, which is one level up from the VIDEO_TS folder that DVD
Decrypter put the original files into.
You can skip the DVD Region tab – it defaults to no-region, which is a good thing. If you do
use it, be sure to pick the proper region – the same as your DVD player is set for.
Step 13: On the Backup Options tab, I recommend performing the ‘deep analysis’ when it is
available. As it says, it is an aid to improved quality of the final copy. The expense is time -
Step 14: On the Burn Setting tab you have an opportunity to pick a title for the DVD. It appears
that this version now obtains the default from the folder name where the files are stored.
Whatever you enter in Volume Label will be the name of the DVD. You don’t want to leave the
title “NEW” or you’ll end up with a whole bunch of DVDs named NEW. This will lead to
confusion on some players which keep up with where you stopped a movie for continued playing
later using the name of the DVD, such as PowerDVD. The other settings are the defaults offered
by DVD Shrink. Click the [OK] button to begin the next stage of the processing.
Step 15: Deep Analysis. If you chose to perform the Deep Analysis on the Backup Options tab,
that will begin now. You can watch the progress by using the preview video option. As I said,
the expense is time. With 4% of the job done, there is still about 38 minutes to finish. This was
on a system powered by an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ CPU. I suspect the final quality is worth the
wait.
Step 16: Final Encoding. Starts automatically right after Deep Analysis (if it was performed at
all). Again you can choose to watch the movie in rapid motion during the process if you want to.
Once again, the length of time it takes is largely determined by the speed of your CPU. Keep in
mind that this is a 3 HOUR movie, so the 43 minutes to complete is about twice as long as it will
take for your typical 90 minute flic.
Step 17: More hands-off automatic processing! Once the Final Encoding is done, the burn will
begin all by itself. This is the part that requires you to have Nero Burning ROM installed on
your computer. DVD Shrink uses the Nero burning engine to accomplish this. It also keeps you
from having to use Nero Burning ROM as a separate program. The proper folder structure will
be created on the DVD for you without you having to even think about it.
Step 18: All done now! Watch out – when the burn is completed the DVD tray will try to open.
This is it. Remove the burned DVD, label it and use it.
Just FYI: In accepting the default folders for the copied and processed files, we would find the
following on our HDD drive (F: on this system).
F:\TWO_TOWERS
F:\TWO_TOWERS\VIDEO_TS
The files copied from the original source DVD
Some .INF, .VOB and .BUP files created by DVD Shrink and burned to the VIDEO_TS
folder on the final DVD.
With the DVD made, you can delete the F:\TWO_TOWERS folder (or whatever it was called)
and everything in it to reclaim the HDD space.