So the program changes a little bit here. Let's take a quick look before we proceed. Now, on the left there is a new DVD Compilation area. Anything we want on the DVD will have to be added right here. On the right a new DVD Browser will open up. You can open any VIDEO_TS folder in this Browser and Shrink will read it for you and divide it into Menus, Main Movie, Extras and Unreferenced Material.
You will also notice an extra tab you can switch to called Compression Settings. This is very important but for now we don't need to switch to that tab. Back to the DVD Compilation for a second.
Notice also that we still have a Preview Screen. Again this is very important to ensure we select the right video. It will also allow us to ensure we have the correct audio track on the resulting DVD compilation. So now we need to get our Main Movie from the DVD Browser to the DVD Compilation area to continue.
Add Titles to compilation
As you can see, DVD Shrink splits everything up in the DVD Browser into their respective Titles on the disc. It is possible to copy any of these Titles onto the DVD Compilation but it is important to know that any Menu content included on our New Compilation won't work so there is not much point copying it (It will simply play as video on the resulting DVD).
Here you can make use of the Preview window. Select any Title in the DVD browser and you can seek through it by dragging the slider on the Preview window. You can also play it with the Play button BUT do NOT try to seek through the video while it is playing or Shrink will likely get stuck.
Anything you do decide to copy over from the Browser to your DVD Compilation window can either be dragged across or you can right click on the Title and click Add. Remember, if you Add more than one Title onto the disc, you will need your DVD remote to switch between the Titles as you will have no Menu to do it yourself.
In my example picture I have added just the Movie. Now it is time to improve the backup quality by removing what we don't need.
Compression Settings
Select whatever Title(s) you added to the compilation and click the Compression Settings tab (beside DVD Browser). DVD Shrink has the Compression Settings on Automatic by default. The only time you should ever change that setting during this process is if you added more than one Title.
For example, if you added the Movie and the Making Of feature on your DVD, then make the quality of the Movie higher by selecting your Extra Title, changing the Video compression to Custom Ratio and reducing the compression ratio. Since your Movie is still on Automatic, DVD Shrink will allocate any extra DVD space to the movie automatically.
However, in this guide I'm assuming you only have one Title. Select the title in the DVD Compilation window like I have. Now look at the Compression Settings. You can remove any audio tracks and subtitles you want by simply unticking the box beside them. This will give much more space for the Video content and greatly improve the output quality.
To be on the safe side, before removing audio drag the slider on the Preview window into the middle of the Movie. Press play (do not seek through during play, ever) and right click on the video. You can now select the audio track you want to play. All the audio tracks on the list under Compression Settings will be here for you to select. This is useful when you want English Audio. Most people only keep the 5.1 channel AC3 english audio. However, it might be necessary to check all the English audio streams to make sure you aren't copying the Director's Commentary or anything similar.
As you can see in my example picture I unselected everything except the 5.1 ch English audio, because this is all I need. I also didn't need any Subtitles. You should select only what you need also. I highly recommend removing DTS audio from DVDs as it takes up an overwhelming amount of space. The result of me just selecting what I need here speaks for itself; my compression ratio is now 92.2%, significantly higher than it was. Same applies to your Compilation, the more you cut out, the better compression and overall quality you will achieve.
More things to improve compression and efficiency
Removing audio is not all you can do to improve compression. A simple question; do you actually watch end credits after seeing a Movie? If not, then you can remove them easily with DVD Shrink. You can also set what Audio streams and Subtitles should play automatically when a disc is inserted into a DVD player
These extra options can be found by right clicking on a Title in the DVD Compilation window. Let's begin by chopping off the end Credits of the movie. Right click on your Movie in the DVD Compilation window and click Set Start/End Frames...
Set Start/End Frames
In this window you can set where the Video will start and where it will finish. This makes it possible to cut off both opening credits and the end credits. Cutting out the credits will improve your Video Compression ratio and give you better overall quality. As you can see, you select the Start Frame and End Frame by using a slider.
Alternatively you can also take advantage of the DVD chapters to cut out the credits. On my example, I have cut out the first 39 second (studio logo) and I cut the video off after an hour and 49 minutes, cutting out all the end credits. I made these settings by just dragging the slider for each and using the buttons.
However, you can also just select by chapter. For example, the end credits on most DVDs (not on mine however) begin at one of the last chapters (usually the second or third last you can select). Simply click the drop down button and check the last few chapters by clicking them and the slider will automatically go the frame that chapter lands on.
The buttons to navigate are easy to understand. << will let you sort of rewind through the video quickly if you hold it down. If you click it just once it will jump a lot of frames (about 5 second worth). < will move back just one I Frame if you click it once, if you hold it down it will also move backward through the video quickly. The same apply in the opposite direction for the > and >> buttons. Have fun making your selection.
Set default Audio and Subtitle streams
Right click on your Movie in the DVD Compilation window and click Set Default Streams. If you have more than one Audio stream, if you want you can change the setting to Play the following audio stream and select it from a drop down list. Otherwise the default setting will rely on how you have configured your DVD player to decide which audio to play. I'd recommend leaving it at default.
Now you can also choose if any Subtitles are to play automatically. You won't be able to set anything if you have no subtitles on your DVD though of course. Once again you can leave it at the default setting and let your DVD player's configuration decide which to use or you can switch to Display the following subpicture stream and select the default from the drop-down list. When you are done, click OK.
Back to the Compression Settings
I just want you to have a look now and see how much of an improvement you made on your Compression Ratio. Mine is now 95.2%, another significant rise in quality. If yours isn't near this high and you've done everything that I mentioned, don't worry there are a couple of extra quality settings later on.
Quite often you will reach a Compression Ratio of 100%. This is excellent as now your Video does not need to be compressed at all and you will have the same quality as the original DVD. Ok, now it's time to build up our new DVD, click Backup!.
So the program changes a little bit here. Let's take a quick look before we proceed. Now, on the left there is a new DVD Compilation area. Anything we want on the DVD will have to be added right here. On the right a new DVD Browser will open up. You can open any VIDEO_TS folder in this Browser and Shrink will read it for you and divide it into Menus, Main Movie, Extras and Unreferenced Material.
As you can see, DVD Shrink splits everything up in the DVD Browser into their respective Titles on the disc. It is possible to copy any of these Titles onto the DVD Compilation but it is important to know that any Menu content included on our New Compilation won't work so there is not much point copying it (It will simply play as video on the resulting DVD).
Select whatever Title(s) you added to the compilation and click the Compression Settings tab (beside DVD Browser). DVD Shrink has the Compression Settings on Automatic by default. The only time you should ever change that setting during this process is if you added more than one Title.
Removing audio is not all you can do to improve compression. A simple question; do you actually watch end credits after seeing a Movie? If not, then you can remove them easily with DVD Shrink. You can also set what Audio streams and Subtitles should play automatically when a disc is inserted into a DVD player
In this window you can set where the Video will start and where it will finish. This makes it possible to cut off both opening credits and the end credits. Cutting out the credits will improve your Video Compression ratio and give you better overall quality. As you can see, you select the Start Frame and End Frame by using a slider.
Right click on your Movie in the DVD Compilation window and click Set Default Streams. If you have more than one Audio stream, if you want you can change the setting to Play the following audio stream and select it from a drop down list. Otherwise the default setting will rely on how you have configured your DVD player to decide which audio to play. I'd recommend leaving it at default.
I just want you to have a look now and see how much of an improvement you made on your Compression Ratio. Mine is now 95.2%, another significant rise in quality. If yours isn't near this high and you've done everything that I mentioned, don't worry there are a couple of extra quality settings later on.
