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afterdawn.com > guides > How to copy DVDs (Movie Only) with DVD Shrink > Introduction to DVD Shrink (page 2/5)

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DVD Shrink Interface

Open up DVD Shrink. A little daunting at first maybe, but this program turns out to be so easy it becomes second nature fast. There are really 4 main things to look at here. Up top we have a button bar consisting of 6 buttons, some of which we will use later.

Below the button bars is a small colour bar (at 0MB and completely gray when you first open DVD Shrink, we will look at the difference in colours a little bit later). Below this is divided into two columns. On the left the top blank section is the DVD Structure box. Below this, the black screen is our Preview window (very much needed).

On the right side of the screen is the Compression Settings area. This is an incredibly important area as we use it to determine where the priority for quality will be on the output DVD.

Last thing, it is very important to know that this is DVD Shrink in Full Disc mode. Re-author is generally used when all you want on the output DVD is the main movie. We will be using Re-author in this guide but don't click it yet.

Open a DVD, folder or disc

I mentioned already that I prefer to rip the entire contents of my DVD onto my hard drive before processing with DVD Shrink or any other backup software. However, you don't have to do this even though I recommend that you do.

Open from folder on HDD - To do this, click the Open Files button. A file browser will now open allowing you to navigate through your Hard Disc Drive contents. When you find wherever you ripped your files to, select the VIDEO_TS folder (or whatever folder the DVD Files VOB, IFO, BUP etc. are in) and click OK. DVD Shrink will now start analysis of the files (see below).

Open from DVD disc in DVD drive - To do this, click Open Disc, select the drive number that the DVD is in and click OK. DVD Shrink will now start analysis of the disc (see below).

What if you encounter an error?

It is quite common for DVD Shrink to fail to open a DVD. This is caused by many different factors but mainly the reason is often because some element of the DVD compilation is not fully DVD compliant. If you do encounter an error, don't worry, the solution is usually very simple.

It is important to first point out that if DVD Shrink gives you an error, some repairing of the DVD compilation is necessary, and this is of course impossible if you are opening the DVD from a DVD drive (errors while opening from DVD Drive are common with newer DVDs). This means you will have to copy the files from the DVD to your HDD using using suitable ripping software.

I decided to put the repairing instructions into a separate article. The software we will use is the freeware excellent tool FixVTS. When you finish reading the repairing article, try to open the DVD files in DVD Shrink again and then continue from this spot. Click here to read instructions on using FixVTS to adjust your DVD files into better DVD compliance.

DVD Shrink Analysis

DVD Shrink will now run an initial analysis on the files that should only take anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute depending on your hardware and the content on the disc. This analysis will provide DVD Shrink with the knowledge it needs to provide us with compression options.

When analysis finishes

When the analysing is finished and DVD Shrink offers settings, it will look something like the picture provided to the right of this text. Notice in the picture that the compression bar has turned green and at the end of the bar it now is 4,464MB. This does NOT mean that your DVD is 4,464MB, this means that the Automatic settings that Shrink gave for compression will result in a full disc that will fit on blank DVD media. However, the automatic settings would have the main movie on high levels on compression in most cases, so it's still beneficial if you go ahead and copy only the Main Movie.

However, it is not always fully green. Several things can happen here. If you have a bar that is green most of the way and then gray until the finish, with a value of less than 4,464MB, then you do not need Shrink at all (it will fit as is onto a blank DVD). Simply copying that DVD directly should work provided it is not copy protected. If it is protected, you will need ripping software but you cannot get it here. Alternatively, you can simply go to the Backup section of this guide now by clicking here.

If you have a bar that is green most of the way and red for the rest with a value more than 4,464MB, this means with Shrink's automatic settings it cannot compress the DVD enough to fit on a blank disc. Do not worry, since we will only be compressing the Main Movie here that should fix itself right up as soon as we begin. Now, Click on the Re-author button.

<< previous Introduction & Requirements | next: Re-author Screen and Settings >>

Created: 10 July 2006 Last updated: 25 May 2007