How To Copy a DVD Using DVD-Shrink.

Have you ever tried to copy a DVD to your hard drive?  Have you ever tried to put your favorite DVD on a portable device?  When you look at the contents of a DVD, you may wonder how a DVD player even knows how to play the video on your TV.  And god forbid should the thing get scratched!

The process of extracting a video from a DVD is called Ripping.  One must rip the video from a DVD and format it into one of many various video formats.  This method is also used if you wish to copy a DVD.

Wait, did you just say copy?  But isn't that illegal?

DVD manufacturers do whatever they can to prevent you from being able to copy a DVD.  They are concerned about people copying movies for friends, or distributing them on the internet.  The fact still remains, DVD's are fragile, and there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to copy them.





The How To...



1)

DVD Shrink is a freeware software.  It has gained a huge amount of users, and can be found at numerous website across the internet.  I was able to find the latest version HERE.  Once the file has downloaded, install the software onto your hard drive.

2)

The Shrink interface is simple.  The limited icons make it very easy to use.  The tricky part is knowing how to tell it where and how to store the file.  First we need to get the DVD loaded.  Insert the DVD into your DVD burner.  (I recommend this because I have run into issues when going from the copy phase, to the burn phase of DVD Shrink.  To avoid that issue, I find it is best to simply use the same drive to read and write the DVD.)  Here is an image of the main interface with nothing loaded.

Click on the "Open Disc" icon.  You will see another window pop up showing your disc drives.  Shrink will automatically detect when there is a DVD in your computer, and will show in which drive.  If you have more then one drive, you can select between drives by clicking on the drop down menu.  In my sample below, you can see that I have four disc drives.  Here I am copying "Stop Making Sense", which I inserted into my DVD burning drive.  Highlight the drive that contains the DVD and click "OK".

3)

Shrink will perform a quick analysis of the DVD, and then display the DVD structure.  The default setting is to automatically compress the DVD into a size that fits a single layer DVD-R.  Most DVD's are dual layer, so there will be some loss of quality.  At this point you can change the amount of compression by selecting and deselecting various audio tracks or subtitles, maybe some extra features.  I suggest leaving the video compression on automatic, and leave all the other features alone.  When you are satisfied with your settings, click the "Backup!" icon.

4)

Another window will appear.  This is when you choose to copy the DVD to another DVD-R, or to create a file system for you computer.  You can create a Video_TS file system, or create an .ISO file for compatibility with other DVD burning software.

To define what to do with the backup, you need to select the backup target.  To create a copy of your DVD, select your DVD burning drive.  (If you wish to create an .iso or Video_TS folder on your hard drive, choose the corisponding option listed under "Backup target".)  In the lower field you can browse your computer to choose a folder to use for temporary files, or to save your .iso if you choose that feature.  It is important to remember where you save the temporary files, because Shrink does not automatically delete them when the copy is finished. 

Note:  The "Burn Settings" tab has a feature which allows you to slow the burn speed if you are concerned about the burn quality.  The slower the burn, the better the burn.  Shrink defaults to the maximum burn speed.

Once you have set those fields, you can click "OK" and Shrink will begin to read the DVD.  You will see anther window, giving you a preview of the video as it copies to the temporary folder.  It should look something like this.  If you want to save memory, you can disable the preview.

5)

When the encoding is complete, your DVD drive will eject, and prompt you to insert a blank DVD-R.  Shrink will now burn your copy, and eject the DVD-R when complete.  The time of this process varies depending on the burn speed of your drive.  A typical copy and burn will take between 15 and 30 minutes.  Shorter if you have a 16x burn speed or higher.


After the burn process has finished, go to the folder that you designated for the temporary files and delete them.  I suggest doing this right away because the files will be upwards of 3 to 4.5 gigs.


That's it, you're done.  Your DVD copy should work in any DVD player capable of playing DVD-R's.  It will also play in any computer equipped with a DVD drive.