"NOW, IS EVERYBODY READY ??? Out standing ! ! . . . . First, we need to create a folder for our DVD work before hand. This is a place on your HD where DVD Decrypter can put it's work after it decrypts your DVD (rids it of that encryption thingie) and where DVD Shrink can work on the movie files just prior to burning it to your blank DVD. Try to put it someplace where you won't forget it. I made a folder on my Desktop, - i.e. Desktop, ALL DVD WORK.

Within that folder we'll put 2 more folders. The first folder will be named for the movie, i.e., "Resident Evil, Apocalypse" - RIPPED. Inside that folder, create another folder called, VIDEO_TS (write it just like that, it's case sensitive). This is the "Destination" for DVD Decrypter to place your decrypted files. Notice that I put "Ripped" after the movie's name. The reason I do this is because I may have to return the DVD to the "Playroom" before the Kids go nuts and, by saving it like I did, I can finish it now OR, a week from now and I always know what work has been done OR, what work needs to be done. At one time, while awaiting an order of DVD's, I had a total of 27 movies on my HD. It was a good thing I had over 600 GB of HD (Lol).

The second folder will also be named for the movie, i.e., " Resident Evil, Apocalypse", FINISHED". This is the folder that DVD Shrink will use to put the completed DVD files or the ISO image prior to burning to disc.

Once files are in the "FINISHED" folder, if you are pressed for free hard drive space, you can delete the "RIPPED" folder without a worry about your project. As you see, there are "safe" spots to stop should you wish, not so with most $$$$ programs.

Time for a short break . . . So far, it may sound confusing BUT it's really not. I just want you to know why you're doing certain things. It's so much better than wandering about in the dark (I get accused of that all the time, Lol). Why all these folders ? Well, there are many different types of DVD encryptions and while DVD Shrink can rip quite a few by itself and doesn't need the extra folder, DVD Decrypter does a much better job BUT requires a folder. :)

There are other programs that can decrypt DVD's without the need of a folder. One is DVD43 which, like both of the programs we're using today, is absolutely FREE. The problem is that DVD43 can only decrypt about 96% of the encryptions while DVD Decrypter will handle 98% of all encryptions. Another program is AnyDVD and while it can handle 100% of all encrypted DVD's and CD's, it isn't free. Though it is updated frequently, sometimes breaking an encryption before the encryption is released, after it's 21-day free trial, it does cost $$$$. Both of these programs work automatically, behind the scenes, so-to speak, so that once you have downloaded them and installed them, you don't ever have to touch them, you hardly see them working. Operating in the background, they both render discs region free and encryption free as soon as you place them in your PC. I'll give you the links for them and if you wish, you can take them out for a spin around the block.

1. DVD43 (FREE).(Only works on Win2K and XP) It works behind the scenes, automatically, so there's nothing for you to do. Just download and install it and let it run. A "smiley" face will tell you that it's working. It will break 96% of the encryptions:

Download:

DVD43 from Mr Bass

2. AnyDVD, (Free trial; for 21-days then $39.99) It works behind the scenes, "automatically", so there's nothing for you to do. Just download and install it and let it run. Because it is a $$ program, it works on 100% of the encryptions and is constantly updated. I suggest you use it for the 21-day Free trial period to see how you like it.

Download:

AnyDVD

Remember, those 2 programs are excellent options, however we don't need them today,

Time to get back to work . . . .

Let's go get one of your favorite DVD's to make a copy of, so should something unforeseen happen, like a waterspout hitting the Mojave Desert and destroying the original you'll have a backup of it. We'll also need some pretzels and a cold beer - they're all needed to make our backup. The DVD for you and the pretzels and brew-ski for "Uncle" ScubaPete.

Place your original DVD in your DVD-ROM drive and a DVD blank in your burner's drive. (Of course, if you only have a single drive, place your original in that drive.) When using DVD Decrypter, after you hear the "finished" tune, remove the original disc and replace with your blank media.Then, first chance you get if you have room, buy yourself a DVD-ROM to ease the strain on your burner.) DVD ROMs were designed to read (lots of stop and go involved) and can do a better job of it than can a DVD burner, not to mention, adding years of life to your DVD R/W drive. If you have a CD R/W and a DVD R/W, lose the CD R/W in exchange for a DVD ROM, you'll never be sorry for the trade. :)

Ooohhh, the pretzels and the Beer, set them right there by the monitor, I'll be able to get them from here ~ "Thanks," ~

Now open up DVD Decrypter - and under "Mode", select "File." In the main window, under "Source", Browse to your DVD-ROM for your DVD. Select for your "Destination" your "RIPPED / VIDEO_TS" folder. Remember to select the VIDEO_TS folder, if the files aren't there, DVD Shrink can't pick them up. There, all set. - Let's "Click" on the Disc to HD icon and allow DVD Decrypter to do it's decrypting thing while we continue with DVD Shrink. We'll wait until we hear DVD Decrypter play it's, "I'm finished now." tune, to know when it's done.

Now, into DVD Shrink we go, let's "click" "Edit", then "click" "Preferences" on this page we're going to select "DVD Target Size" as "Custom", we'll find this by using the "drop-down" menu where it says, "DVD-5 (4.7GB)", and now we've selected "Custom", let's set the size to "4360MB". This is closer to the actual amount of free space we have on a regular DVD plus a small amount of "wiggle" room.. We do this to make sure that we don't burn to the very edge of the disc. When using poorer quality media we may have to go lower still, as the dye toward the edge many times is uneven or even absent. In the case of some poorer quality discs, such as Memorex, we may have to reduce the size to 4200MB in order to avoid burning errors. I'll tell you about media after we finish setting up DVD Shrink.

The next 3 tabs, the Preview, Output Files and Stream Selections are fine in their default settings.

Lets go now to the "File I/O" tab.

The top box, "Enable overlapped I/O", is fine as long as you stick with a good quality media for your DVD backup work. When using poor quality discs OR experiencing burn errors, you may have to un-check this box. This "Box" controls your burning speed and, by un-checking it, you'll then be able to access a drop-down window in the "Backup" section of Shrink, where you can lower your burning speed. This will help reduce the chance of errors while burning.

Now click, "OK".

Working with CD's isn't anything at all like working with DVD's. Only the very best quality media should be used for DVD Video backups. Price unfortunately, is not a reliable gauge for determining quality. Many times, a good, consistent quality disc will cost less than a disc manufactured without any noticeable quality controls. We lQQk for a good dye, applied evenly from the inside to the outer edge of a high quality disc. Believe it or not, decent quality isn't necessarily expensive. Go Figure,Huh ? [ A consistently hi-quality media would be; Phillips, Sony, TDK, HP, "Branded" RiData G03's, Maxell +R and Fuji +R’s BUT not the -R's as they cannot be trusted, Ritek G04 and G05's (not the 01's or the 02's), Verbatim DataLife, Verbatim DataLife Plus and media boasting "Advanced Metal AZO" BUT, it must say "Advanced METAL AZO", this indicates a superior dye and dye application on a good composite disc. Other discs such as Memorex, “Great AZO”, and Princo are, in a word, crap. As a general rule, the majority of discs manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi, RICOH are good bets. Only those Ritek named above are to be trusted. Look closely at those discs we recommended, you will see some dye types not listed by us. Those are poor risks even though the same company makes them. Prices online from SuperMediaStore.com, Meritline.com OR Newegg.com have gotten Ritek G04 starting at about a $ .36 (USD) a disc - and just recently, a "Super Sale" had 100 Taiyo Yuden discs, 4X for $.25 ea.(USD). An added PLUS, the above online stores all have an excell ent return policy. As a passing note, when buying Verbatim's anywhere, they come with a lifetime w arrantee. Return any bad discs with your online sales slip OR retail register receipt and a new one will be shipped to replace it, esta no problemo`.

For some excellent, online media stores to shop, try -

Mertline.com

Newegg.com

Supermediastore.com

When in doubt, use "DVD Identifier" to check a discs manufacturer -

Download: DVD Identifier fromcdfreaks.com

This might be a good time to use a DVD RW if you have one. We don't use them regularly because for one, many DVD players won't play them and secondly, they cost too much (Lol). We use rewritable discs in the beginning so that if we make a mistake, it won't cost us a disc. Once we master our steps, we'll then switch to our single-write media. (Though if you're following this guide to the "letter", you should have a great backup, poor media excluded.)

"Hey Good Guy, Did you hear that ?" That was the, "I'm finished now !" tune. DVDD is finished ripping the encryption and the movie is on our HD. You don't need the original any more, if you like, you can put it back in the box.

I could use another Beer, that last one is history, ~ Thanks ~ :)

Now let's burn a DVD, OK?

Kweel! Alright then, let's open DVD Shrink and click "Open File "and "Browse" on your Desktop to, ALL DVD WORK, Resident Evil, Apocalypse, "RIPPED" then your VIDEO_TS folder with our DVD files there and "Click", "OK". We'll have to wait anywhere from 30-seconds to a minute for DVD Shrink to analyze your DVD then we'll be ready to proceed . . . .

If you wish, we can edit your movie (clean it up a bit :)

To trim some unnecessary items from your movie, under audio, you can "un-tick" some extra audio you don't want, like the foreign audio streams, i.e. Klingon, Solarian Cluster Mush OR Eastern Himalayan Yak language selections or the Director's comments (also known as Outer Mongolian). This will result in your DVD requiring less compression and therefore providing you with a better quality picture. Also, some DVD's have "sub-pictures" - NO, they aren't pictures of submarines. and NO, subpicture streams aren't something I'll get into here . . . Enough to say that subpictures generally contain sub-titles in different languages and such. They're things we can well do without like a bad case of flu, Sooo, iffin' Ya got'em, un-check'em. They'll give us more space for our main feature. This will result in your DVD requiring less compression and therefore providing you with a better quality picture.

Option1, Editing-

If you would like, as I do, to get rid of all the extras and trailers thus compressing your movie as little as possible (giving you the very best quality picture), click "Re-author" then, under "Main Movie" select "Title 1"

If there are additional choices, look at the time and select the title with the longest time as that is usually the main attraction. "Click" and drag the "Title 1" from the right-hand side of the screen to the left-hand side, under the "DVD Structure" (DVD) and release it there.

Additional editing may be done by using the "Start" "Finish" controls to the right of the "DVD Compilation" heading on the left-hand side of the Re-author window. This allows you to trim off some of the beginning of the movie OR trim off the credits at the end if you want. To tell you the truth, It is only very rarely that I trim anything from the main feature. Using this feature allows you to reduce the main feature to the same size as your DVD-5 disc without any compression, providing you with an exact copy of the movie. Something else to consider, when ignoring this feature and compressing the entire DVD to fit on a single disc (a "Full Backup") I have never been able to distinguish any loss of picture quality with the naked eye.

Bingo, Bango, you are done editing, giving you the least compression (best quality), backup possible.

Now let's finish this "Puppy" off.

Option 2. A Full Backup:

NOTE: Iffin you want a "Full Backup", that's everything on the original disc on your backup. We just need to be sure that the "Full Disc" icon is depressed. Don't try to cheer it up and don't worry, it likes being "depressed". (Lol) There's no problem at all in doing a "Full Backup" as long as we don't see any "Red" on the size bar at the top of your window. If you should see some "Red" on the size bar, simply "Un-tick" any foreign languages you don't need, i.e. Klingon, Solarian Mush-mouth, Director's comments or DTS sound boxes until the "Red" disappears. I keep all AC3 2-ch (basic stereo) tracks and the AC3 5.1 Dolby stereo track. Deleting them may well provide you with a, "silent picture show". :) Remember to un-check those submarines (Ooopps,) I mean subpictures that contain the subtitles too. Actually, you can "Un-tick" all those unneeded audio and subpicture tracks anyway, it'll lessen the compression on your backup. (a good thing :) With no "Red" visible on the size bar we can just let the "Automatic" (Default) settings alone.

Since we are editing our DVD, DO NOT TOUCH THE "FULL DISC" BUTTON. Clicking the "Full Disc" button will erase our editing work and reset DVD Shrink to do a full backup.

"BURP" ~ ~ excuse me . . seems ScubaPete get's a tiddle tisspy on a single beer, :P) Esscuse me :D)

We're in the homestretch . . .

It's now time to select Backup". Take just a second and under the "Target Device tab," go to "Select backup target" once there, select "ISO Image File and burn with DVD Decrypter". Where it says "Select target image file", "Browse" until you find your created folder for your DVD Shrink files. LQQk on your Desktop for ALL DVD WORK, Resident Evil, Apocalypse, "FINISHED" and click, "OK".

Now, under "Quality Settings" tab, if it's SPEED you're after, "Un-tick" the box which says, "Perform deep analysis" and "Un-tick" the box for "Compress the video with high quality adaptive error compensation". This will give you a fairly acceptable DVD backup. If it's QUALITY you're after and have some extra time to spend, "tick" Perform deep analysis before backup to improve quality" AND "tick""Compress video with high quality adaptive error compensation."

There you may adjust quality enhancements to suit yourself. Practicing with the settings can produce even better end products. For a no-frills DVD's like "Paycheck" I like "Extra Smoothness" BUT for DVD's with a lot of special effects, like "The Matrix Reloaded", I use the "Extra Sharpness" setting. That's for me, you'll have to decide what you like :)

If all the boxes are "Grayed out" that's OK, it means your DVD is small enough that nothing will be lost from the original. Excellent, we're all done here.

That's it ! ! Click "OK" and enjoy a peaceful cup of tea. DVD Shrink will work it's little heart out, obeying your commands and putting a copy of your work on your HD while instructing DVD Decrypter to toast your DVD image to your waiting disc to a rich, golden "Done".

Believe it or not, the next time you do this will be faster than a slimy sloth sailing down a southern sunny slope ? We'll not have to mess with our settings again, our folders are all made, renaming them is all that you need do, the next time through, you should be finished in 30 to 45 minutes depending upon the DVD's size and of course, your PC specs. Since you haven't spent a cent on your software and since you can achieve a better quality backups than a lot of $$$$ programs, having to click your mouse 3 or 4 times seems like a fair trade (Lol and then some. :)

One last thing, . . . .

PLEASE, STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER !

It's far too late in the game to ruin a perfect thing. When your PC burns DVD's, it requires 100% of your processor to do the job correctly. Burning CD's is a joke compared to what it has to do now. So, for now, let's allow your PC to work in peace.

When the job is through, your PC will let you know.

Tell me now, . . . .

Wasn't that finer than frog hair . . . ?

Slicker than that slimy, slithery, sailin', Southern, three-toed Sloth . . . ?

Yea, ya see, . . . . I thought you'd say that, . . . Me and thee, what a team, :-D)

Remember, when you want a guide with an "Out of sight, Out of his mind" personality, shop ScubaPete :P

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