•  Windows 98
•  Windows 2000
•  Windows XP

Ain't technology grand??  It seems like only yesterday that I wrote my article about ripping DVDs to CD-ROM.  Since that time, two things have happened: the price of DVD burners have come down to under $75 and software has progressed to the point where you only need a couple of easy-to-use programs to copy a DVD disc.  I know that my DVD ripping guide was pretty complicated for the casual user - it certainly doesn't pass the "mom test".  But just look at the history of MP3: way back in olden days (1997) you typically needed 4 or 5 different programs to make MP3s - one to rip the audio CD, another to encode the MP3, another to add ID3 tags, etc.  Of course, nowadays most folks use just one "all-in-one" program to copy those CDs.  The good news for you is that while we're not quite at the "all-in-one" stage yet with DVDs, we're close.  So go ahead and read this article, then read the DVD ripping article and tell me which one's easier.  Go ahead... I'll wait.  You back?  OK, good!

To copy a DVD movie you will need the following:

Summary:

We will use DVDDecrypter to copy the DVD's files to your hard drive.  We will then use DVDShrink to remove extraneous parts of the disc and re-encode the video.  Lastly, we will burn a copy of the re-mastered movie to a blank DVD disc using standard burning software.   

Why?

Most DVD movies you buy in the stores are "dual layer" discs.  This means that the DVD has two layers on which to store data, unlike CDs which only have one data layer.  At this point in time, most DVD burners can only burn "single layer" discs.  This means that a DVD disc you buy at the store can have up to 9GB worth of data, while the most data can can fit into a "home brew" DVD is 4.7GB.  Because of this, you can't simply do a "Disc Copy" like you can with audio CDs or most CD-ROM discs.  You will either have to burn 2 discs using paid-for software like DVDXCopy *or* remove any superfluous data and re-master the DVD (this is the path we'll take).  Additionally, every Hollywood DVD is protected with CSS (encryption) and Macrovision (copy protection) both of which must be removed before a backup can take place.

Assumptions

This "how-to" article assumes that you are trying to copy a "single format" DVD movie.  This is a DVD with either the full-screen or widescreen version of the movie, but not both.  Copying DVDs of TV shows (or other "short form" features) and DVDs that contain both full-screen and widescreen formats is a bit trickier and will be covered in a "part 2" of this article at a later date.  Also, this article is assuming that you're making backup copies of your own DVDs for archival purposes. 

Please respect the copyright laws of your jurisdiction and DO NOT make backup copies of any discs that you do not legally own!

Step By Step:

1) Download DVDDecrypter and DVDShrink.  DVDDecrypter has an actual installation routine; DVDShrink only requires you to unzip the downloaded file and run the DVDSHRINK.EXE file when the time comes.  Also, if you haven't done so already, free up 12-14GB worth of space on one of your hard drives.

2) Insert the DVD movie in your DVD drive, then start DVDDecrypter.  You will see a screen that looks like this:

(Click to enlarge)

3) DVDDecrypter will, by default, select the hard drive with the most available disk space.  You can change the output location to a different disk if you'd like by clicking on the folder icon in the "destination" section.  If you're happy with the destination location go ahead and click on the "DVD to Hard Drive" icon at the bottom of the screen.

4) Copying the DVD to your hard drive will take around 20-30 minutes depending on the speed of your computer and the length of the film.  Once it's done you will get a confirmation message.  When you get this message, close DVDDecrypter and open DVDShrink by double-clicking on the DVDSHRINK.EXE file.  Once DVDShrink is open, click on the "Open Files" button and point to the .IFO file in the folder DVDDecrypter created in step 3.  You will then see the following screen:

(Click to enlarge)

Here's some explanation of the screen above: the left-hand column shows the contents of the DVD: the menus, the movie and any extras that appear on the disc.  In the right-hand column you have (from top to bottom): the video re-encode ratio (more on this in a minute), the audio portion of the movie, the subtitles and a preview window (the black space at the bottom). 

You will notice in the picture that the video re-encode ratio is currently at 45%.  This means that the movie will be compressed at 45% of its original quality in order to fit all of the discs' contents onto one DVD-R (remember how genuine DVDs can hold twice as much data as DVD-R discs?).  You can certainly go ahead right now and make copy of the disc, but at a 45% compression ratio, the picture won't look very good.  You could uncheck the boxes for any foreign subtitles and soundtracks - this will certainly save space and decrease the compression ratio to maybe 50% or 55%.  But the picture still won't be as good as it could be.  In fact, if you are trying to copy a movie with a lot of action scenes, you will probably need as much space for the movie as possible.  This means getting rid of the menus and extras.  If the compression ratio says "100%" - which might happen if you're trying to copy a short film or one without extras and/or foreign language soundtracks, you're ready to burn.  Skip ahead to step 11!

5) Click on File > Deep Analysis.  This will examine the movie in greater detail and will provide better quality video.  Completing the "Deep Analysis" will take around 20 minutes or so, depending on the length of the movie and the speed of your computer.  It might also change the compression ratio a few percentage points in either direction.  Come back in little while then continue with step 6.

6) You now have a choice to make.  If you want to preserve the movie in its entirety - with the cute animated menus and all the extras - uncheck any foreign language audio tracks and subtitles and be sure to keep EITHER the Dolby Digital OR the Dolby Surround OR the DTS soundtrack (if the disc has DTS as a sound option, some don't) then skip ahead to step 9.  If you'd like to make the movie look better by getting rid of the extras, continue to step 7.

8) Click the "re-author" button near the top of the window.  A new DVDShrink window will open up.  Drag the main movie - which will be something like "Title 16" - to the new DVDShrink screen.  The screen will now look something like this:

(Click to enlarge)

Notice that without the extras the compression ratio is now down to 78%.  This is much better.  If you uncheck all of the soundtracks except the Dolby Digital (AC3) one and all of the subtitles except for English subtitles the compression ratio goes down to 99%.  This is means that the video quality will be essentially unchanged from the original.  You may prefer to use DTS over Dolby Digital, but since that soundtrack is bigger, the compression ratio goes up to 93% - not bad, but not as good as Dolby Digital either.  As a rule, I prefer DTS over Dolby but since I still don't have my rear speakers set up, I really don't care either way - picture quality is paramount in my mind.  Because of this, I'll stick with Dolby Digital:

(Click to enlarge)

9) Click the "Backup!" button.  You will be presented with the following screen.  Select an output directory and check the region-free box if you wish (I always do!).  If you skipped the "Deep Analysis" in step 5, check the box to do so now.  If you've already done this step, the box will be ghosted out:

(Click to enlarge)

10) DVDShrink will do its thing.  It will take around 10 minutes if you've already done the Deep Analysis or 30 minutes if you elect to do the Deep Analysis at this stage.  Once it's done, you will have a folder full of .IFO, .BUP and .VOB files - much like the files you copied to disk with DVDDecrypter in steps 1-4.  All we need to do now is burn the files to DVD!

11) Open Nero (or whatever burning software you use).  Select New > DVD video.  Nero will create a new DVD layout.  Simply drag all of the files you created in step 9 to the red VIDEO_TS folder on the new blank disc:

(Click to enlarge)

12) Insert a blank DVD and click the "Burn" button!  You're done!!!  Don't forget to delete the original and re-authored VOB folders after testing the new DVD disc!

That's all you have to do to copy a DVD!  Note that if you re-authored the movie (that is, you did steps 7 & 8 above) you will not see any menus or FBI warnings or anything when you put the DVD in your player - the movie will simply start playing!  You'll probably need to play around with this some to get things working just the way you want to.  When I first authored this article, I was terrified to have any compression ratio of less than 90% on a copy.  Since then I've dealt with movies that have been shrunk down to 65% or even 45% with very little loss in quality.  For example, The Last Samurai will shrink to around 58% of the original even if you re-author the disc and remove all extras and foreign language soundtracks.  I suppose this is due to the length of the film.  However, the difference in video quality is hardly noticeable to me!