Program to set number of Discs to span?

[kelemvor]

Howdy,

I want to make backups of some of my DVDs and have seen two types of prgorams. I've seen ones that will take the entireDVD and compress it down so the entire thing fits onto one DVD, and I've seen some that don't compress it at all and make it take up to 3 or 4 DVDs.

Is there any program that I can choosehow much to compress and how many DVDs to span so I can still get good quality but not have to use more than 2 DVDs.

[Vejita-sama]

It should only take 2 DVDs period. Commerical DVDs are either DVD5 (single layer) or DVD9 (dual layer). There are a few double sided DVDs out there so unless you buy double sided blanks (they do make them) you'll have to use multiple discs.

However, each side is either single or dual layer. For backing up single layer discs just use DVD decrypter. For backing up dual layer discs you can either:

1) Spilt to two DVDR discs (no lost in quaility)
2) Compress to fit on a single DVDR (quaility lost but might well be below what your eye can detect)
3) Only backup the main movie (might have to compress but less of a quaility hit)

There are lots of programs that can do option #1. Freeware wise IFOEdit and DVDFab are popular. DVDFab is no longer freeware but previous freeware verisons are stll floating around here and at http://www.doom9.org