ISO file help

[wowthatshuge]

Hello,

I am rather new at this but i still have successfully made back up copies of about 5 discs. I shrink using DVD shrink, then burn with CopyToDvd. This is rather easy but the trial is running out and lately i have been burning coasters. It is quite odd. Don't know what is going on. Anyway, that topic is on another post. But basically, i am looking for new ways to make back up copies. I am interested in the whole ISO image thing but have had failed experiments. After shrinking the DVD, IMGtools will not read the Video_TS to create an ISO image. If i create the ISO image directly from the DVD, DVDShrink will not read that file to make a copy sizeable to fit onto a single DVD-r. PLease help and advise. THank you for your time.

[ddlooping]

Hi wowthatshuge.

There is a free burning software available that you might not have heard about: burnatonce.
It seems to be fairly early in its development (v0.99).

I was able to play the first (and only so far) backup I have burned with it, in my Pioneer DVD-626D set-top, my PS2, and the LG DVD-ROM and Pioneer A05 drives on my pc. [/url]

[Triple_Helix]

DVD Decrypter will decrypt to an ISO file, if you choose, and then burn it for you.

[wowthatshuge]

I understand the DVDdecrypter will do that. But my question was, how do i shrink the ISO after it has been made. Please refer to my original post. Thanks for the response though!

[FOO]

Possibly find a burning utility that accepts VIDEO_TS files sets ?

[freestyler]

Try Burn4Free. Nice piece of burning software that is, well, FREE.

[wowthatshuge]

Well how do u guys make back-ups of your DVD's???? Looking or new methods because i am still very confused. My question really didn't get answered.

[northcat_8]

Programs I use.

DVD Decrypter - only ripper I use, rips, burns, quick, easy, it's #1
Pinnacle's Instant Copy 7 - many hate it, but it works well for me.
(you'll also want to download "instant copy settings")
PDI2ISO - just a program to join the files from IC7 and converts them to ISO.
Daemon Tools - virtual DVD software that plays ISO or image files.



Go to doom9.net and download Daemon tools. This will create a virtual DVD drive on your computer and basically what it does is it plays your dvd from it's image file so you can check it, quality, menu's etc. For example on my PC, I have 2 DVD drives a burner and a normal DVD drive. When I installed Daemon Tools, I now have a 3rd DVD drive. When I open WinDVD 4 and go to the navigate menu, I have 3 DVD drives to choose to play my DVD from. That will let you check your DVD before you burn it to make sure you are not burning coasters.

How I backup my DVD's is pretty simple.

DVD Decrypter to rip. I rip in full mode and I rip the entire DVD. (Incidently, if you load an image file into Daemon tools, you can rip it using decrypter just like if you had the real store bought disc laying in a DVD tray!! and you can rip in any mode although ripping to ISO>read mode would be redundant=)

Next I use Pinnacle Instant Copy 7. I know several people don't like it, but I get great DVD's out of mine, it is pretty slow but I have always had great results using it and my quality is better than I could get with DVD shrink, or any other shrinking program. I strip out all the extra audio and subtitles, I drop any extra's that I don't care about down to 30%, when all is said and done, my main movie file is at no less than 85%, I like it to be around 90% or as high as I can get it. You will need to be able to add GB and MB together because IC7 does not report the correct file size...ever. DO NOT USE IC7 "automatic" compression, your movie will be around 57% and will look terrible.

Once I get the movie compressed, I end up 4-5 files with the extention ".pdi", so download pdi2iso (also available at doom9), run it and it will take those pdi files and create a single ISO file.

Then I start Daemon tools, load the ISO file I just created. Open WinDVD 4, select my virtual drive and check out the DVD to make sure everything works like it should, make sure to check quality in some high motion sequences.

If DVD looks good. I "unmount" it from daemon tools (not necessary, don't really know why I do that), open decrypter, go to MODE>ISO>WRITE and burn my DVD.

That's my method, it takes my 2.2 AMD athlon around 1.5 - 2 hours for most movies and almost all of this time is spent in IC7. I always burn with DVD decrypter and I burn at 4x and I only use Ritek04 DVD-R media and I haven't had a DVD fail yet. (knock on wood)

To answer your one question about shrinking an ISO file...you can't. Download Daemon tools, re-rip it and shrink it some more so it will fit on a DVD-R disc.

Foo - [Possibly find a burning utility that accepts VIDEO_TS files sets ?]

not sure what you mean, nero will do that although I have had trouble doing it that way.

Another way would be to go to doom9 and download IMGtools and create an image file of the VIDEO_TS folder and then you can burn it using DVD decrypter.