|
It can seem confusing so I'll try and go over it here.
Programs:
DVD Shrink:
This program is used to read and analyze your commercial DVD. It will remove the CSS which is the encryption found on the original. It will apply the needed compression so your original movie, which is way to big, to fit on your blank. DVD shrink cannot burn at all. It can use Nero or DVD Decrypter to burn with, but only if you have these programs installed.
You must provide a temporary folder for the processed files.
DVD Decrypter:
A program that can remove encryption better than Shrink. It can also burn. It cannot compress though. What I'm describing here, in this reply, is a procedure that uses only Decrypter's ability to burn. We are not using it's decryption or "ripping" feature.
Two programs made for each other:
One of the last things the developers of Shrink and Decrypter did before development ended was to let these two programs work together as one.
All you need to do is change one setting in Shrink and it will open Decrypter automatically and begin the burn process.
This works so well that many folks think that Shrink is doing the burn.
Before installation:
Do a disc clean-up and defragmentation. Make sure you have plenty of room on your HDD. you should have at least 15 GB of free space, hopefully a lot more than that. You should have a minimum of 256 MB of RAM. 512 MB is better and 1 GB is excellent. There are a few other things that should be checked at some point, but I'm not going into them now.
Hopefully you will read posts here at AD and learn more about PC setup, media selection and some of the various ways you can copy DVDs.
Install the programs:
This is easy enough, just download and install in the default locations.
Install Decrypter
You do not need to open it or do anything else with it yet. Just install it and close.
Install Shrink.
Once your installation of the two programs is complete, you can get ready to copy your movie.
Start by getting the burn speed setting you are using set in Decrypter:
At this point, both programs are installed and closed.
Put your blank media in your burner and let it get spun up. This usually takes several seconds.
(The reason the blank is in and spinning is to let Decrypter take a look at your media and determine useable speeds for it. Otherwise you will be presented with default speeds or "maximum" which you do not want to use.)
Open DVD Decrypter.
From the top menu select "Mode".
Select "ISO".
Select "Write".
At the lower right select your burn speed. For your first burn select 2.4X. If this works OK you can go back later and change it to 4X which is a reasonable speed in most cases.
Close Decrypter.
It will remember the setting you just made.
Getting Shrink ready:
It has a lot of settings you can change, but for the most part the default settings are OK.
Shrink Icons:
Now look at the top of Shrink's window. Across the top you will see six icons. These are where you control and call for the various functions Shrink can do.
Shrink Menu:
Above these icons, on the left find the Shrink menu. It has File, Edit, View, and Help.
Size bar:
Below the icons please notice the silver bar that goes all the way across the window. This is the indicator that lets you know how large your project is.
The thing to remember is that red should not be showing. Shrink will try to add as much compression as needed to fit the movie onto your blank, if your movie is too big then red will appear in the bar. The bar will be green with no red when you have a movie in the program and it is fitting correctly.
The left and right areas below the bar:
You will see different items on both sides once the movie is in the program.
The large dark area is the preview screen.
A few changes to get Shrink ready:
From the menu, top left, select "Edit" and from the list, Select Preferences.
This opens the tabbed DVD Shrink Preferences menu. See the tabs?
The first tab, Preferences shows a DVD target size of DVD-5(4.7 GB).
Change it to "Custom" and then type in 4364.
Below that, uncheck the "Run analysis and backup in low priority mode.." box.
Check the two boxes above that, at this point it does not matter.
Next click the File I/O tab and uncheck "Enable burning with Nero" if it is checked.
Click OK to save the settings and close the Preferences menu.
Open your movie in Shrink:
Place your movie in your reader and give it a minute to get up to speed.
For your first movie, use an older movie. This is so you don't run into one of the newer protections found on a few of the newer movies.
Close any media player that may try to install itself.
(Please note that if you have the Interactual player installed then you may have problems. Remove it if installed.)
Make sure that whatever movie you use, that it is clean and relatively scratch free.
Shrink will analyze the movie:
Once the movie is up to speed in your drive, click the "Open Disc" icon.
This opens the "Open DVD Disc" window. Select your drive with the movie in it from the drop-down menu and then select OK.
This starts the analyzing process which will take a minute or two.
The movie is in Shrink and this is what you see:
Once the analysis is complete, both sides of the Shrink window have a bunch of stuff in each one.
Take some time and look at what is there.
Look at the size bar. It should have turned from silver to mostly or all green. No red should be showing.
On the left you will see your movie broken down into Menus, Main Movie, and Extras listed along with the size of each item.
On the right starting at the top:
This is the Compression Settings side or tab.
We are going to leave this in Automatic for this exercise.
Below where it says Automatic, look at the number. We want that number to be as big as possible. If it is below 60% it is a good idea to remove a few things so lets do that.
Get rid of a few things to improve your compression number:
Starting at the bottom of this side, uncheck all Subpicture boxes. These are the captions that are on the movie for the hearing impaired.
Above that, uncheck all the unneeded audio tracks. Remember that at least one needs to remain checked. I always leave the AC3 5.1-ch English box checked.
Once you have completed that, take a look at your compression number. It has gotten larger, which is good.
Getting the burn process ready:
Click the "Backup!" icon at the top.
Now in some cases RCE, or region protection is present on your movie. If it is, then a "RCE Region Protection" window will open. If it does, do this:
Figure out the region of the movie. Look at the case the movie came in, or just figure if you bought the movie in North America it's region 1, if Europe, it's region 2. Using the drop-down menu, select the region you found on the case, then select OK. That is all there is to that.
The Backup DVD Menu
After selecting Backup! the Backup DVD tabbed menu opens. The first tab is The Target Device tab. This is where we tell Shrink to open Decrypter to do the burn.
Find the "Select backup target" dropdown menu. Click to open it and select "ISO image file and burn with DVD Decrypter".
Below that Set up your "target image file". Simply click the browse button and then make a new folder in an area on your hdd that has enough room for the movie.
Next click the Quality Settings tab. Uncheck everything because using these will improve the quality but slow down the process.
A quick overview before starting the burn process:
You installed the programs.
You opened Decrypter and with a blank disc in the burner, you set Decrypter's burn speed and then closed.
You opened Shrink.
You went to Edit > Preferences and set your target size. You unchecked the "Run Analysis and backup in low priority mode.." box. You unchecked the "Enable burning with Nero" box on the File I/O tab.
You placed the movie you want to copy in your reader, selected "Open Disc" and Shrink analyzed it.
You removed unneeded audio and sub-picture streams.
You looked at the size bar and know the movie will fit
You selected Backup! and from the Backup DVD menu you enabled Shrink to use Decrypter to burn with, you created a folder and turned off the quality settings.
You still have the backup DVD menu open so at this point, select OK and Shrink will begin the encoding process. Once that is complete, Shrink will then open Decrypter for you and the burn process will begin, at the speed you selected. While all this is occurring please do not use your PC.
I think I covered everything for the basic process. Once the settings are made you do not have to change them again. Just proceed slowly and after a couple of movies the set-up process can be completed in just a couple of minutes.
This is a basic description of the "full disc" method. For large movies you can "Re-author" them to copy the main movie only.
For newer movies with additional protection, you can use other programs with the basic Shrink /Decrypter combo.
Hope this helps,
Frank
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16. January 2006 @ 09:49
|
