SBcheater
28.09.09, 12:51
There are lots of different programs around that will compress video files but I'll go with what I consider the easiest and certainly the cheapest (it is free) - DVD Shrink.
GETTING STARTED
This step is optional - but recommended. Before you do anything else it is worth tweaking a couple of settings.Click on Edit in the main menu and select Preferences. A DVD Shrink Preferences box will open. Change the following for each tab:
Preferences - Change Target DVD size to custom and then type in 4400MB. This lessens the chance of errors at the end of a disc by allowing a little space. Click on Hide audio and subpicture streams of insignigicant size.
Click on Automatically open VIDEO_TS subfolders. If you are going to be doing other stuff on your computer while your title is shrinking then also click Run analysis and backup in low priority mode. This will use less resources, but will take longer.
Preview - Click Enable video and audio preview. Here you can also fiddle with how you want the preview's sound and picture to be shown.
Output Files - Make sure the following are ticked:
Remove macrovision protection
Remove P-UOPs
Remove layer break
Split VOB files into 1GB chunks
Stream Selections - Here you can choose what audio and sub-titles will be the default when you open a DVD. In my case I have chosen English - all types (that way all english sound tracks will show up and I can then later decide which to keep). You can also chose a particular language for the subpicture because each language takes up room on the DVD. So by only keeping the one/s I want I can save some compression. If you don't want to be bothered with subtitles then tick Disable all subpicture. This will take the majority out and again save compression.
File I/O - If you are going to use Nero to burn as part of the DVD Shrink program then tick Enable burning with Nero and Always erase non-empty RW media.
Untick all the File I/O setting boxes.
LOADING YOUR DVD
What are you going to shrink? If it is on disc click on Open Disc. If you have more than one DVD/DVD-RW drive you will need to select the one your disc is in. If you have already have the files on your computer, click on the Open Files button instead, and find the folder (usually titled VIDEO_TS) where the VOB files are.
Once you have chosen your files, DVD Shrink does a quick analysis. The time this takes depends mainly on how big the DVD is. Most of the time it will be less than a couple of minutes. Of course it also depends on how fast your computer is. Once the analysis is finished make sure that the Full Disk button is pressed down at the top of the main toolbar.
Look at the green bar at the top of the screen. If part of the bar is grey, and the size is less than 4,464 MB (or 4400 in our case as we chose custom settings), you won't have to compress anything to fit it on a single DVD±R disc. You can go straight to BACKUP.
If part of the bar turns red, then you'll need to shrink it or Re-Author to get it onto a single DVD±R disc.
Before we move on take a look at the lower left part of the screen. You will see a preview window for the selected title (movie). You can view the title and listen to specific audio tracks. The preview window is great when you are considering what to keep and what to chuck out.
PREPARING YOUR DVD.
On the left of the screen you will see the structure of the DVD. This works the same way as any Windows tree structure.Click on the Main Movie and take a look at the % figure to the left. This is the ratio of the compressed video versus the original video. The idea is to keep the % as high as possible so you shrink the DVD as little as possible.
You can increase the percentage in two ways:
1. - CHANGE THE PERCENTAGE ON INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE DVD
If your DVD percentage is in the 90 - 99% range sometimes you can bring this back to 100% or as close as possible to 100% by customizing each section of the DVD. As an example try this - in the left hand tree structure highlight Menus. Then on the right side under compression
settings click on the arrow next to Automatic and change this to custom. Then use the slider to reduce the percentage. Click on main movie in the left window and see what happens to the percentage as you change the other section. If I decide I want to keep the menus and extras I often take the % down to around 10 - 60% as it doesn't really matter if the quality isn't as good as the main movie.
2. - TAKE OUT UNWANTED FEATURES:
Audio tracks and the extras take up alot of space. If you decide to keep everything then you can still take out particular audio tracks and subtitles. Just make sure the tracks and sub-titles you want are ticked. For example - if there are 2 English audio tracks I'll often remove the 2 channel one as I will only use the 5.1 track.
You can also remove the menus and/or extras completely. This is a very simple process. Click on Re-author in the main menu and a DVD Browser window will open up over the compression settings window. If the main movie is all you want then just right click on the title under the main movie heading and choose ADD. That will carry the main title over to the left which is now the DVD Compilation window.
You can add any of the extras that you might want to keep the same way. If you start fiddling with parts of the menus and extras then keep in mind that the actual menu won't work in your DVD player. I always check for any decent extras such as music videos or particularly funny outtakes and I'll add them. They will then play after the main movie - or before if that is where you put them.
Every now and again I'll make a compilation of music videos for the kids to watch. I just go through what I've got on my HD and ADD each one - they play through one after the other.
BACKING UP
Once you are satisfied with your preparation click on the Backup button.
The Backup DVD dialog window will open up and here you can set different options before you start burning. Each tab has various settings.
TARGET DEVICE - You can choose to back-up to your burner (you will need to have Nero installed for this step). Or chose a back-up folder or if you prefer, an ISO image on your HD. You also need to select where you want the ISO image or Video folder to go. If you are using folders Tick the Create VIDEO_TS and....... box.
DVD REGION - Tick region free - however if your stand-a-lone DVD player doesn't play region free then choose your region/s by ticking the boxes.
QUALITY SETTINGS - For the best quality tick Perform Deep Analysis. If you prefer speed over quality leave this box unchecked. You can fiddle with the Quality Enhancements but that would take waaaayyyy too long. The default is Sharp which is probably what most people aim for anyway.
BACKUP OPTIONS - You get a second opportunity whether to run the backup in low priority or not here. If you are setting this up before going to bed you can tick the Shutdown Computer box so that the computer will be turned off once the backup is complete. If you want to be notified by a sound when the encoding is done tick the Play Sound box.
You can also choose any sound you have on your computer by choosing Browse.
BURN SETTINGS - If you are backing up to a hard disc folder or ISO Image these options will be greyed out. If you are burning to a disc you can change or choose a disc label and alter your burning speed. If you are using DVD+R discs tick the Book
type box and make sure the last box is also ticked.
ENCODING
When you've got the settings how you want them, click OK to start the backup process. The time this takes will depend on how fast your computer is, the speed of your DVD disc and Burner and how much compression is required.
If you chose to burn to disc, DVD Shrink will automatically start this once the encoding is finished. If you chose to backup to ISO image or HD Folder then image or prepared VIDEO_TS folder will be ready for burning or whatever you want to do with it when the encoding finished.
GETTING STARTED
This step is optional - but recommended. Before you do anything else it is worth tweaking a couple of settings.Click on Edit in the main menu and select Preferences. A DVD Shrink Preferences box will open. Change the following for each tab:
Preferences - Change Target DVD size to custom and then type in 4400MB. This lessens the chance of errors at the end of a disc by allowing a little space. Click on Hide audio and subpicture streams of insignigicant size.
Click on Automatically open VIDEO_TS subfolders. If you are going to be doing other stuff on your computer while your title is shrinking then also click Run analysis and backup in low priority mode. This will use less resources, but will take longer.
Preview - Click Enable video and audio preview. Here you can also fiddle with how you want the preview's sound and picture to be shown.
Output Files - Make sure the following are ticked:
Remove macrovision protection
Remove P-UOPs
Remove layer break
Split VOB files into 1GB chunks
Stream Selections - Here you can choose what audio and sub-titles will be the default when you open a DVD. In my case I have chosen English - all types (that way all english sound tracks will show up and I can then later decide which to keep). You can also chose a particular language for the subpicture because each language takes up room on the DVD. So by only keeping the one/s I want I can save some compression. If you don't want to be bothered with subtitles then tick Disable all subpicture. This will take the majority out and again save compression.
File I/O - If you are going to use Nero to burn as part of the DVD Shrink program then tick Enable burning with Nero and Always erase non-empty RW media.
Untick all the File I/O setting boxes.
LOADING YOUR DVD
What are you going to shrink? If it is on disc click on Open Disc. If you have more than one DVD/DVD-RW drive you will need to select the one your disc is in. If you have already have the files on your computer, click on the Open Files button instead, and find the folder (usually titled VIDEO_TS) where the VOB files are.
Once you have chosen your files, DVD Shrink does a quick analysis. The time this takes depends mainly on how big the DVD is. Most of the time it will be less than a couple of minutes. Of course it also depends on how fast your computer is. Once the analysis is finished make sure that the Full Disk button is pressed down at the top of the main toolbar.
Look at the green bar at the top of the screen. If part of the bar is grey, and the size is less than 4,464 MB (or 4400 in our case as we chose custom settings), you won't have to compress anything to fit it on a single DVD±R disc. You can go straight to BACKUP.
If part of the bar turns red, then you'll need to shrink it or Re-Author to get it onto a single DVD±R disc.
Before we move on take a look at the lower left part of the screen. You will see a preview window for the selected title (movie). You can view the title and listen to specific audio tracks. The preview window is great when you are considering what to keep and what to chuck out.
PREPARING YOUR DVD.
On the left of the screen you will see the structure of the DVD. This works the same way as any Windows tree structure.Click on the Main Movie and take a look at the % figure to the left. This is the ratio of the compressed video versus the original video. The idea is to keep the % as high as possible so you shrink the DVD as little as possible.
You can increase the percentage in two ways:
1. - CHANGE THE PERCENTAGE ON INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE DVD
If your DVD percentage is in the 90 - 99% range sometimes you can bring this back to 100% or as close as possible to 100% by customizing each section of the DVD. As an example try this - in the left hand tree structure highlight Menus. Then on the right side under compression
settings click on the arrow next to Automatic and change this to custom. Then use the slider to reduce the percentage. Click on main movie in the left window and see what happens to the percentage as you change the other section. If I decide I want to keep the menus and extras I often take the % down to around 10 - 60% as it doesn't really matter if the quality isn't as good as the main movie.
2. - TAKE OUT UNWANTED FEATURES:
Audio tracks and the extras take up alot of space. If you decide to keep everything then you can still take out particular audio tracks and subtitles. Just make sure the tracks and sub-titles you want are ticked. For example - if there are 2 English audio tracks I'll often remove the 2 channel one as I will only use the 5.1 track.
You can also remove the menus and/or extras completely. This is a very simple process. Click on Re-author in the main menu and a DVD Browser window will open up over the compression settings window. If the main movie is all you want then just right click on the title under the main movie heading and choose ADD. That will carry the main title over to the left which is now the DVD Compilation window.
You can add any of the extras that you might want to keep the same way. If you start fiddling with parts of the menus and extras then keep in mind that the actual menu won't work in your DVD player. I always check for any decent extras such as music videos or particularly funny outtakes and I'll add them. They will then play after the main movie - or before if that is where you put them.
Every now and again I'll make a compilation of music videos for the kids to watch. I just go through what I've got on my HD and ADD each one - they play through one after the other.
BACKING UP
Once you are satisfied with your preparation click on the Backup button.
The Backup DVD dialog window will open up and here you can set different options before you start burning. Each tab has various settings.
TARGET DEVICE - You can choose to back-up to your burner (you will need to have Nero installed for this step). Or chose a back-up folder or if you prefer, an ISO image on your HD. You also need to select where you want the ISO image or Video folder to go. If you are using folders Tick the Create VIDEO_TS and....... box.
DVD REGION - Tick region free - however if your stand-a-lone DVD player doesn't play region free then choose your region/s by ticking the boxes.
QUALITY SETTINGS - For the best quality tick Perform Deep Analysis. If you prefer speed over quality leave this box unchecked. You can fiddle with the Quality Enhancements but that would take waaaayyyy too long. The default is Sharp which is probably what most people aim for anyway.
BACKUP OPTIONS - You get a second opportunity whether to run the backup in low priority or not here. If you are setting this up before going to bed you can tick the Shutdown Computer box so that the computer will be turned off once the backup is complete. If you want to be notified by a sound when the encoding is done tick the Play Sound box.
You can also choose any sound you have on your computer by choosing Browse.
BURN SETTINGS - If you are backing up to a hard disc folder or ISO Image these options will be greyed out. If you are burning to a disc you can change or choose a disc label and alter your burning speed. If you are using DVD+R discs tick the Book
type box and make sure the last box is also ticked.
ENCODING
When you've got the settings how you want them, click OK to start the backup process. The time this takes will depend on how fast your computer is, the speed of your DVD disc and Burner and how much compression is required.
If you chose to burn to disc, DVD Shrink will automatically start this once the encoding is finished. If you chose to backup to ISO image or HD Folder then image or prepared VIDEO_TS folder will be ready for burning or whatever you want to do with it when the encoding finished.