2 DVDs onto 1 DVDR

[jpsprack]

DVD Shrink
Whoever created this program I must give him/her my thanks. Being able to backup my large sized DVD collection has been a blessing.

I know some people have talked about 2DVDs onto 1 DVDR... Well I have to say it can be done... and done well..

The idea came from backing up my Ext. versions of Fellowship and Two Towers. Both are on 2 disks.

Well I have backed both of them up onto 1 disk each using DVDShrink and the quality is still great.

I also now am backing up 2 of my movies onto 1 disk to save me from using 1 disk per movie. Kind of what I used to do with my VHS movies back in the day.

I dont know if anyone else has tried to do this with DVDSHrink, but if not I will outline what I did:

Using DVD Shrink 3.1.4 w/Nero 6 installed
1- Create a folder on your desktop called DVDs(or anywhere you like)
2- Create 3 folders in the DVDs folder (I titled mine Disk 1, Disk 2, Dual Disk)
3- Use DVDShrink for DVD 1. Re-author only the main movie(usually located in main movie folder, choose only 1 file.. usually titled main movie), and none of the extras. Use the Start/End function to lop off the credits from the main movie. Also under compression settings take only English 5.1, and subpicture English that corresponds to the 5.1 sound
4- back it up to folder Disk 1 by selecting to burn to HardDisk, and hit browse and select folder Disk 1
5- repeat #3-4 except this time backup to folder Disk 2
6- Once both have been backed up. Close DVDShrink and reopen. Click Re-author, and then choose the folder Disk 1 only.. once opened drag main movie to the left side. Once that is done click go to folder Disk 2 and repeat(under DVD on the left you will see main movie 1, and main movie 1(2) )
7- at this time the compression settings should show each movie as between 47% to 58%.
8- You can now burn to disk. Hit Backup. Choose your burner. Use folder Dual Disk as temp folder. Make sure deep scan is selected, and in about 40ish minutes you will have 2 movies on one disk.

Quality on a big screen TV is great.. as well as on my computer monitor. Sound is sweet as well since i only have 5.1 selected. It will work if you only have 2 speakers as well(like my PC)

NOTES: you will not have menus, you will have chapters however for both movies and can FF by chapter. Understand though if you are watching movie 2 and want to go to Movie 1 you will have to stop and FF to get to the part in Movie 1 you wished to see. The DVD will play like a VHS. As soon as you put it in your DVD player it will start the movie. Once movie 1 ends it will go onto Movie 2.

I dont know how clear my instructions are, but ask me if something seems unclear

[bottle-necked]

You way sounds great. Here is how I've been doing it.

DVD Decrypter main movie only.

Tmpgenc DVD Author import 'DVD Video' and add both movies (1 movie in each track)

Create simple main selection menu.

Author to hdd folder.

DVD Shrink this folder to fit 1 disk.

Burn with RecordNow DX.

[Kingnog]

Ummmmm.......LOTR movies are on dual-layered disks. You'r putting 2 dual-layered disks onto one single-layered. That's cutting each disk's size in 1/4! What kind of TV do you have where the quality is 'still good', as you say...a 5 inch analog? I tried backing up LOTR, one disk at 50% looked OK, any more and it would have been disgusting..but 25%? Come on, thats VCD quality

[jpsprack]

The quality is great, on all my TVs including a 36 inch screen. Now is it perfect? No.. great.. yes... Any glaring problems? Nope... Sound is crisp and loud... picture is fine...

I dont have distortions, I dont get flaws.... dont know how you did yours, but if my old man will watch them I know that the quality is above just good...(He is crazy with his sound and video setups...)

Now if you must absolutely have 100% quality as opposed to say 97% then i guess anyway other than backing it up as is wont satisfy ya

[migf1]

Well, the original quality indeed goes way (way) down when shriniking 2 dual layer disks into 1 single layer, but the resulting viewing pleasure to the eye is always a subjective thing

But if anyone, for whatever reason, likes to go this way it would be a plus if he/she was enabling DVDShrink's "Deep Analysis" in the backuping/burning settings. This would greatly improve the resulting quality, but also would dramatically increase the time length of the whole process.

Best regards...

[mickle]

Just tried backing up Two towers extended edition for a laugh.

Ripped both discs to harddrive.

Used shrink to re-author both main movies to one disc, with subtitles and one soundtrack only. Also cut off end credits.

To be honest it looks pretty good.

Come on, thats VCD quality

Definately NOT vcd quality.

Mike

[jpsprack]

Yes, do use deep analysis(I thought I had written that... o well)

Yes, the time factor increases... but time for me isnt as big issue as much as saving the number of disks I use. I mean overall its pretty much the same time as doing 2 separate disks.

And yes quality is subjective, but unless one is a complete freak for 100% quality I think you will be pleased with the results.

[redwudz]

jpsprack: I like your method. It would be especially handy for some of the older DVD's ( I like 50's SciFi movies) that are not great quality to start with.

[Kingnog]

And yes quality is subjective, but unless one is a complete freak for 100% quality I think you will be pleased with the results.

No, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people..actuall, I've made fun of those people in other forums

A movie cut down to 50% is still very good on my TV...but anything lower looks horrible. On my old TV, VCD's looked perfect! (probably because it was 15 years old). Then I upgraded to 'digital' (not HD), which I think was a mistake, because now all my VCD's look disgusting. So it could be my TV. Oh well.