I’m No Electrician | Tech Gadgets & Gizmos

This is the 2nd part of the “How to copy a DVD” guide, the first part can be found here.

In this part of the guide I will assume that you have used DVD Decrypter or another suitable program to get the DVD video files onto your PC and they are sat in a folder on your hard drive. What we are going to do is take a DVD 9 or dual layer disc and make it fit on the more common DVD 5 (4.7GB) disc. Here we go.

Step 1 - DownloadDVD Shrink, again this is free software.

Step 2 - Install the DVD Shrink following the onscreen prompts and when complete open the program. You will be met with a screen that looks like this:

When you first open the program you will be met with a lot of blank boxes so follow this process:

A - Choose “Open Files” and navigate to where the DVD video files are that you backed up using DVD Decrypter. Once you open the location a box will flash up on screen and analyse the DVD content.

B - Shows the folder structure of the DVD

C - Shows the audio tracks that are available, if there are any you don’t require simply untick the box. It also lets you change the quality of each video file by using the slide bar just beneath video. (If this is disabled click “automatic” and change it to “custom ratio”) Remember that the file sizes combined will need to fit on the blank DVD you have. The total DVD size is given be the green bar at the top of the screen.

D - This area will show a preview of the file you have selected, so you can play through extras and see if you really need them.

E - The Re-Author options gives you a blank screen on the left and all the DVD files on the right, it lets you drag and drop them into the area to make up the DVD how ever you want it.

F - Once complete and happy with the DVD choose “Back Up”. You will be met with a pop up screen that gives you the option of either creating a ISO image of the disc (if you have used DVD Decrypter you will get the option to create the ISO and burn with DVD Decrypter) or you can select a folder on the hard drive to save the revised DVD files to burn at a later date.

I hope you found this 2 part guide useful. If you have any questions on the subject just leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer them.

This 2 part guide will show you how to copy a DVD to your computer or to another disc.

There are many reasons you might want to copy a DVD, maybe you have a DVD of your son’s soccer game or a wedding DVD and want to copy it for friends/family. Or lets face it maybe you’ve rented a movie and may want to watch it again without the extra cost. These two scenario’s throw up a different issue. Protection.

You can pretty much assume that with any home authored DVD there will be no protection on the disc and it will usually be burnt on a standard 4.7GB disc. The latter may differ nowadays with the drop in price of dual layer discs and burners. If the disc has no protection and you have a blank disc of the same capacity then a straight forward copy can be completed using burning software such as Ahead’s Nero Burning Rom or Toast on the Mac.

However, that would be no guide would it. So I’m going to assume that the disc is protected and/or you do not have a blank disc (or do not have one the correct size). This part of the guide will address getting the files onto the PC.

Step 1 - Download this great free program that will enable you to rip your dvd to the PC hard drive. - DVD Decrypter

Step 2 - Install DVD Decrypter by following the on screen prompts. Once complete, start the program.

Step 3 - Insert your DVD into your PC. You will be met with the following screen:

A - Gives you some information on the region and protection.
B - Shows the DVD files on the DVD.
C - Shows the destination where the files will be ripped/copied. (Click the folder icon to choose a different directory).
D - Click this button to start ripping the files to the hard drive.

Step 4 - Now the files are on your hard drive and if you have a suitable disc you can burn away.

In the 2nd part of this guide I will address the issue of resizing the image files to fit a dual layer disc onto a standard 4.7GB DVD.

As I mentioned in my iPod Review iTunes is not the best type of software to help you get music back off of your iPod and back onto your PC so you can either listen it through the PC or burn your latest mix CD back it up.

The solution we are going to use is free (which is always good) and only requires 1 piece of software, this software is called SharePod and can be downloaded here. The software is zipped up so it will need extracting with something like Winrar. (Windows XP and Vista both have a zip program built in which will do the job). Once the software has been extracted we are ready to go, no installation needed, just run the SharePod program and you will be met with the following interface:

All you need to do is select the track or tracks you wish to back up and hit the “Copy to PC” icon in the top left. You will be prompted with a dialogue box asking you where you would like to save the files and job done. Your tracks have been backed up to your PC and your music is back in your control.

Do you use a different method? Please comment below.