DVD Backup

Some of us now have stepped into a new technological age, and we now carry DVDs. Like any other storage device though, there's bound to be failure and/or damage to result in data loss. Why not backup your DVD easily and for free with simple DVD backup tools. Here's a step by step guide of one way to backup a piece in your collection.

Warning: As like many other things, this can be used for illegal activities, and The Risen Realm condemns such activities! You should use this on your own stuff that you have made and own the copyrights to, or only if you have the rights to perform these operations. We are not responsible for your actions.

Warning: Depending on the DVD, the outputted file could be up to 10 GB (or larger), and may eat a chunk of your hard disk space.

First, Decryption

The DVD you want to get may be decrypted though, and for that reason, you need a tool to decrypt it! For this, I recommend DVD Decrypter.

If you're using DVD Decrypter, insert your DVD, run the program, and select the source and destination. It will auto-select, but you may want to customize the configuration. Now, hit the red button to start the decryption and "ripping". Depending on the speed of your computer and DVD drive, you should have the contents of the DVD in 10 to 30 minutes as DeCSS'ed VOB files on your hard disk.

Right now you can view them with your favorite DVD player or media player such as PowerDVD, WinDVD, and the likes. You can also re-encoded them to different formats such as MPEG1 (VCD), DivX, or anything else you may want to.

Now, if you want to go a step further and burn them to another DVD, you must be warned! The DVD you were trying to "rip" may have come from a "dual layered" DVD meaning it has two layers to store information, and thus can hold up to 10 GB and more. It's unlikely your personal DVD burner supports dual layer writing, so you will have to shrink the DVD to a more manageable size.

Second, Shrink the DVD

For this operation, I recommend DVD Shrink.

If you're using DVD Shrink, run the program, and select the DVD file you want to shrink. Select the features you want, and choose a good compression rate for your final DVD backup. Once done, click the Backup button to begin. The process should elapse about an hour, but it will depend on your DVD and hard drive speeds. Once it's done, you should see folder names for the DVD file you wanted to compress.

Third, Burn the DVD

Using your favorite DVD writing software, burn what you made to a blank DVD.

Of course, you can also keep it on your hard drive and just watch it from your computer

Resources

• DVD Shrink Additional Help
• Alternative DVD Decrypters

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