Hacksar

Everywhere you look, new technology is emerging. Ranging from Blu-Ray disks to FiOS HDTV, the rage these days is quality, quality, quality. But, how important is it, really? Do you NEED to see Laurence Fishburne’s pockmarked face in The Matrix? I’d hope not. Thankfully, plain old DVDs are still here, and are a LOT easier to make backups (aka burn) of.

You may have a booming collection of a variety of DVDs, but may be too frightened to actually remove them from their case, lest they become riddled with fingerprints, dust, and scratches. Many DVDs come with encryption and copy-protection on them, but there are many honest people out there who simply want to make backups of their legitimately purchased DVDs, such as if they are going on vacation, etc. There exist MANY programs out there that can simply make copies of DVDs 1:1; however, that may not be good enough. Virtually all movie DVDs nowadays are dual-layer (meaning they hold 9.4 GB of data), while most DVD burners / blank DVDs you find are single layer (hold 4.7 GB of data). Your computer is your best friend; use it to make backup DVDs of your precious authentic ones without busting your wallet with extremely expensive dual layer disks. Keep reading for the guide on how to both set up and install the necessary programs (one-time) and then the short instructions for the actual copying process.

Setup / Installation (One Time)

1. Download and install the program DVD Decrypter v3.5.4.0. Use this link or Google to find the install file. This is the latest and final released version. DVD Decrypter has no official homepage because it was literally too good – the government requested its developer to cease development of it all the way back in 2005, but it STILL works on the majority of DVDs. (He cracked Sony’s “new” encryption within 24 hours of its release, for those of you who like to be in awe.)
2. Download and install the program DVD Shrink from this link (DVD Shrink v3.2.0.15) or using Google to find the latest version.
3. Confirm that you have some sort of DVD burning software installed (I use Nero Burning ROM 7). If you don’t have Nero, then I suggest installing ImgBurn (freeware) and setting it up according to this guide.
4. Verify you have at least 15 GB of free space on your hard drive.

Once all that is set up, you can move onto the actual backup process. Pick your favorite DVD and let’s go!

Backing Up DVDs

1. Insert your DVD into the DVD drive on your computer and open up DVD Decrypter. It may ask for what region the DVD is from, but most likely it will be USA (or whatever country you purchased the original DVD from).
2. Select whatever folder you want the DVD to be ripped to and then hit the giant Decrypt button (picture of DVD -> Harddrive).
3. Once it finishes decrypting, it’ll play a cheery jingle to alert you. This should take anywhere from 5-30 minutes, depending on your computer power. Now, quit DVD Decrypter and open up DVD Shrink.
4. On the main menu, press Open Files and find the folder you just ripped to your harddrive using DVD Decrypter. Open this folder and it should start analyzing automatically. Then, it will bring up options such as Video Compression, etc. I strongly suggesting dropping the audio tracks (and even subtitle tracks) for any language you will never be using as it’s just taking up valuable space and degrading your video quality. Leave the video compression to automatic. Once you’ve unchecked all the things you don’t want, just make sure that the green bar up top is completely green (no red at all) and reads at most 4,464 MB at the right. If there is red (or if it’s higher), you need to get rid of more things. This may only happen with very long movies, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.
5. Hit the large Backup! button at the top and let it do its thing. When telling it where to save the files, make sure you say “Create VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders”.
6. Once that has completed, close DVD Shrink and open up Nero Burning ROM. Go to the Nero Wizard and go DVD -> Compile a New DVD -> Other DVD Formats -> DVD-Video. It will then ask you to drag files into VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. Find the files that DVD Shrink created and put those in their respective folders. (Note: VIDEO_TS is the only one that should have files – I’ve never found AUDIO_TS having files in it.) Hit burn, making sure you have a blank DVD in, and let it fly.
7. Once Nero is done, you’ve successfully “backed up” your DVD!

I’ve found that DVD-R work the best (rather than DVD+R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW) for burning movies. Also, (ironically) the cheap DVD player companies (Apex, Daewoo, etc) play the burned DVDs the best. Expensive company DVD players (such as Sony, etc) seem to be very finnicky with what they play and often spit the disk back out as unreadable. So, there’s another reason to avoid buying those expensive DVD players!

So now go make backups of all your friends’ library’s DVDs.

Disclaimer: Piracy is illegal and is not encouraged by Hacksar. This information is purely for informational purposes. You should not make a backup of a DVD if you do not own the original.

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