Creating Backup DVD Video Discs
This walk-through describes the steps involved in making a
backup copy of a video DVD. You should only make backup copies of
discs you own.
When copying a video disc it is more economical to use single layer
DVDs. The problem is commercial DVDs usually hold
more information than can fit on a single layer DVD. So in order to copy a movie
onto a single layer blank DVD disc the video files must first be
compressed. The goal is to preserve as much of the movie and extras
and still produce a high quality backup copy.
This walk-through describes an example of making a backup copy of a
commercial DVD. There are many options available using the programs
described as well as other programs that perform similar functions. The
Doom9 website is the definitive
DVD backup resource. Check them out or read the documentation for
the individual programs if you want to delve deeper. But If
you only want to know the basics on how to make a copy this
walk-through should be all you need.
There are 3 steps to making a copy:
- Rip - Copy the original files to your
hard drive
- Compress - Shrink the files to fit on
a single disc
- Burn - Write the compressed files to a
blank disc
Hardware and Media
- DVD Writer Drive (multi format recommended)
- DVD Reader Drive (optional - allows single pass copying)
- DVD-R or DVD+R blank discs
Installing the Software
There are 3 software programs you need to download or purchase and
install:
DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink are free programs (donations
encouraged). Nero is about $99 retail but OEM versions are available
for much less.
Insert the original disk in your DVD drive and start DVD
Decrypter. It will read the disc and display the files. Make sure
all files are selected.
You will need to specify where the copied files will be stored on
your hard drive. DVD Decrypter will choose a name for you. In the
example below it chose the directory name DVD_VIDEO located
on the C: drive. The name is less important than knowing where the
files are - since you will need to open them during the Shrink step.
Note that the total size of all the files is 7.2 Gigabytes. This
is almost twice as much as will fit on a single layer DVD.
Copy the files by clicking the green play button (a sideways
triangle) at the bottom of the DVD Decrypter window.
Start the DVD Shrink program. Click the Open Files button and
select the directory name where DVD Decrypter wrote the original
files.
DVD Shrink will load and analyze all files used on the disc.
When finished the contents of the disc are displayed. DVD Shrink
will automatically choose compression ratios that will fit all the
content on a single layer disc. If the ratio is high enough (75% or
higher) then you can accept the default settings and write the
files. In this example however the ratio is 53.7%. This would result
in a poor quality copy. Instead of accepting the automatic
compression settings we will manually set the compression for
certain parts of the disc and eliminate features we don't intend on
using. Here are the automatic settings.
The main movie has an automatic compression of 53.7%. We want that
to be much higher. Note that there are several audio tracks and
subtitles used. These can be unselected to give more room for the
main movie. Be careful when deselecting English soundtracks as these
can contain commentary tracks. Since most extras are only viewed
once, these can be compressed much more than the main movie and
still be watchable. We changed the compression from automatic to a
manual setting of 50.6 and deselected the DTS soundtrack. The
results for the extras are shown below.
Now we return to the main movie and deselect the DTS soundtrack and
foreign subtitles. The main movie now has a compression ration of
84% - very good quality. We are ready to write the compressed files
to the hard drive.
Click the Backup button and specify the location for the compressed
files. I recommend choosing a location in the original directory.
This makes cleanup easy once you are done - you simply delete the
original directory.
If you have Nero installed, DVD shrink will write the compressed
files to your hard drive and then start Nero and burn the final
disc. In case you want to manually use Nero, here is how you do it.
Run the Nero Smart Start program, choose DVD for the medium and
select Burn DVD-Video Files
Nero will start up with the folders required for a video DVD. We are
only concerned with the VIDEO_TS directory. Double click the
VIDEO_TS folder icon to open it. Click the Add button and
browse to the VIDEO_TS folder inside the folder you specified when
writing the compressed files. For this example that is the path
C:\DVD_VIDEO\dvd\VIDEO_TS. Select all the files and click the Add
button. Click Finish to close the Select Files and Folders dialog.
Click the Next Button. Make sure your DVD writer drive is selected
and a blank DVD is in the drive. Click the burn button to write the
finished DVD.
When complete test it out in your DVD player. Use a soft tip Sharpie
felt pen to label the disc or use a CD label kit.
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