I need a Step by Step Process for "backing up" a DVD

I just purchased a computer with a DVD burner..I thought this was cool untill i ran into "copy protection" I was told to Download "Alcohol 120", i did so, and i also ended up downloading "clonyXXL"...My first problem was that clony was in german....and i have no idea what to do with either clony or alcohol.......ALL I NEED IS A STEP BY STEP PROCESS TO "BACKUP" MY DVD MOVIES ONTO MY BLANK DVDs....Here is my system...
D:Samsung DVD-ROM SD-616D
E: NEC DVD+RW ND-1100a
P4 3.0 gig
1024 mb ram
I'm not an idiot when it comes to computers, but i know nothing about copying dvds.....so please be basic...Thanks for taking pity on an newbie!

1) Download DVD Decrypter. set Mode > File. Pop DVD into drive. Select all files in the right window. Click DVD to HD button.

2) Download DVD Shrink. The program is used to compress your original DVD to fit on a 4.38GB DVD+R/-R. Play around w/ it. Push Backup when you're satisfy w/ the final size.

3) Download Nero. Select DVD-Video profile under DVD. Open Video_TS folder on the left window. Find the files you just compressed from DVD Shrink from the right window and drag everything over to the left side. Burn.

Edit: I'm sure there are numerous methods, but IMO, this is the best free* method.

*Nero is free if you buy a Lite-On CDRW.

Ps. Remember, you don't need DVD Shrink if your original DVD is under 4.38GB. Just rip it w/ DVD Decrypter and burn it w/ Nero.

---

Last edited by Stoner; 24-06-2003 at 08:58.

Thanks Stoner. It would be great if they could make this a sticky.

You're much too kind. As there are a number of ways to do this, if the method I posted gets sticky (god forbid), I'm sure a lot of "paying" customers will be very unhappy.

couldn't agree more. it should be a sticky...
oh, and thx stoner

I just tried your method, and it worked great. It's better than the "other" way in that I can leave out things I don't need. I can even keep them in and compress them.

I can't say I'm totally against DVD X Copy though. My Dad uses it to back up his DVD collection. He's 71 years old though, and there's no way I'm trying to walk him through this method.

I just tried the method listed earlier here and it didn't work with a commercial movie DVD I own. DVDDecrypter created a folder on my harddrive OK with a bunch of files in it. I use Intervideo WinDVD 5 Platinum to play my DVD CDs. It was able to play back the harddrive files just fine when I manually reffed it to the harddrive location. Then, as per instructions here, I used Nero 5.510 to burn that onto a blank DVD+RW disk with my Sony DRU-500a. Nero finished the burn with the usual success message. HOWEVER, that disk will NOT play either in the Sony or my playback-only Pioneer DVD Drive! Windows explorer shows both the harddrive movie folder and burned DVD content folder with exactly the same files. Seems odd to me that WinDVD will play the original version and the harddrive version but not the cloned burned version!
It won't play automatically upon insertion in the Sony or the Pioneer. So as a work-around, I started up WinDVD manually and reffed it to these 2 drives but it still wouldn't play.
Next I manually selected WinDVD's "play from folder" option, and selected the file on the burned DVD disk that's also on my harddrive. But WinDVD gives me the following error: "The selected folder does not have valid DVD content." Well, go figure! It has EXACTLY the same files as the folder on my harddrive. Yet it won't play. Something apparently happens in the burn process that makes the disk unplayable. Is it because I used a DVD+RW disk? (I've wasted so many blank DVD disks that Im gun-shy and am using the RW).
I've had my DVD recorder system for 6 months now and I have yet to make even one DVD movie back-up copy! What am I doing wrong?
BTW, in the step by step process no mention was made of the inability of FAT32 to copy files larger than 4 gigs. DVD Decrypter points out that fact. Fortunately although my harddrives are FAT32 none of the files on the commercial disk I own are larger than 2 gigs. Should I change my harddrives to NTFS anyway? Thanks.

1) Don't know about Pioneer stand alone players or DVD drives, but I know for a fact (well, 2 Sonys and Playstation2 to be exact) that Sony stand alone players have no problem playing DVD+R media. Regarding media type, I suggest you try a DVD+R instead of a DVD+RW. Chances are the Sony stand alone doesn't like DVD+RW, but that's just my guess as I've never burned on one.

2) Is there any chance you can give PowerDVD a try? After DVD Shrinking the original DVD, use the Open DVD File on Hard Disk Drive function, and select the VIDEO_TS.IFO file.

3) File system was not mentioned in the short guide because I assume the user is using WinXP w/ NTFS format. Yes, definitely convert your file system to NTFS. The biggest advantage is faster system speed (I'm serious), better error correction and management, and a big plus if you encode large files like DVD all the time as it doesn't have a per file limitation like FAT32. You can either convert FAT32 to NTFS from windows (what version are you running anyway? WinXP?), or do a complete reinstall by formating HD, boot with WinXP setup CD and instruct it to convert partition to NTFS format, then install WinXP.

Given the above discussion, I want to ask if some variation in the above world help me with my question. I travel a lot and have a Tablet PC. Rather than carry my DVD drive around, I would like to create a virtual drive and put several of my movies directly on my hard drive.

What is the easiest way for me to do this? I don't mind buying software if it will make this process much easier -- I just want to minimize what I carry around !!

thanks for any step-by-step suggestions on how I can set this up.
Sheila

The system requirements for PowerDVD are as follows -

Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Processor: Intel Pentium II 350MHz* or above, or any Athlon processor
Memory: 64 MB RAM or above
To enable audio effects, 128MB of system RAM is recommended.
Screen Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels min., 1024 * 768 recommended
Audio Device: PCI sound card, USB audio box or motherboard built-in audio device


If your Tablet PC has more than enough juice according to the specs above, you'll be able to playback a "virtual DVD". What you need to do is -

1. Copy (or rip) the original DVD to the hard drive following step 1 in the guide above.
2. Buy the standard edition PowerDVD.
3. Open PowerDVD, click the circled button pictured below and select "Open DVD File on Hard Disk Drive", then find the main folder of which the DVD was copied to, follow by opening the VIDEO_TS folder, and finally double clicking the VIDEO_TS.IFO file and you're set to watch the movie without the actual DVD.


PS. One last thing. An average DVD takes up around 4GB to 8GB of hard drive space, so check your hard drive capacity before doing the above steps.

---

Last edited by Stoner; 01-07-2003 at 07:18.

concerning the non-playable DVD mentioned earlier in the thread, I don't know if this sound stupid, but forty6er, did you rip all of the DVD's contents with DVDDecrypter by pressing CTRL-A? It could be that you skipped some files ending with a "non-playable DVD format", as PowerDVD likes to call it...

OK, I think I figured this thing out. (Remember, I AM a newbie!)Thanks for the replies. Apparently what Nero did (or what I unknowingly instructed it to do) was to copy the individual files from the harddrive to the blank DVD-RW, and NOT THE WHOLE VIDEO_TS FOLDER. The files must be embedded in this folder for correct playback. Simply having the correct files on the burned disk will not do.

So I reburned it with the whole folder and it plays OK now.

But I still have another question. Why are there so many missing files? The original commercial disk has 25 files totalling 4.32gbs under VIDEO_TS while the folder created by DVDDecrypter has only 5 totalling 2.99gbs? There's plenty of left-over space on the DVD-RW !!

Are you sure you've read my previous post? DVDDecrypter's default setting is to rip only the main movie files in File Mode

Looks like you ripped only the movie. You should go into settings and change Select Files to All under the File Mode tab so DVD Decrypter will auto select all files next time you rip a DVD.

Hello

I try to save my DVD as STONER describe

There is no problem during step 1 and 2

so I decide to check the result (after DVD shrink)with powerDVD with opening my VIDEO_TS.VOB in VIDEO_TS directory

but it can not read it
I have no error message

I decide to check the result (after DVD decrypter) and I have the same result

I try to open with Window media player and it is OK

I have power DVD 4 XP

Conclusion
1) Why powerDVD cn not read my file?

2) If powerdvd can not read my file, is it possible that after step 3 (burn with nero) it will be ok?

Thank you for your help