DVD Shrink Burning Problems

[Alienverse]

Hello all, I recently purchased an Aopen 16x Dual Layer DVD Rewriter. I have some movies on DVD that I want to back up just in case they get scratched or if a friend wants to borrow the movie and is not trustworthy. My friend told me that there are two programs that you can use to duplicate copy-protected discs. They are DVD Decrypter in combination with DVD Shrink.

I was able to use DVD Decrypter on the movie with no problem and the whole movie was saved to my hard drive. I then started up DVD Shrink 3.2 and opened the files that needed to be compressed and then put on to a DVD. The program automatically compressed everything and then I clicked on the 'Backup!' tab and I selected all the proper options with the destination of the content, what speed to write at, etc. The movie was compressed no problem but then when it began to burn to disc it kept giving me error messages about the disc not being big enough. I knew that was not the problem since the size of the movie was approximately 4.5 GB (compressed) and could easily fit on to a 4.7 GB DVD-R. I then tried using Nero (it came with the burner) and I selected the 'Recode DVD-Video' option. I found the movie that DVD Decrypter ripped off of the DVD and I used it with Nero. The movie was analyzed and encoded no problem but when it came to the burn stage it went up to 1.5% and then stopped and ejected giving me some generic error message (if I do recall it was something about the disc). I tried to use the option on Nero where it encodes and burns at the same time and the exact same thing happened. I can rule out some problem such as a problem with a DVD writer because I have already made a Data CD no problem. I don't think it is an error with the discs cause nothing was recorded onto them and they are Sony DVD-R's and should work with 99.9% of all DVD burners.

Please help me as I am desperate to get my burner working. I have been trying to figure out the problem and I have used several programs all giving me the same response. I am beginning to get frustrated as this is very time consuming and all I want to do is make some DVD copies. Any help would be great, thank you!

[jtoolman2000]

DVD 5 is actualaly about 4.38 NOT 4.7 as the packages so proudly display.

Read up on this little mistery. Has to do with the way a megabyte is NOT 1000kb
Adjust your DVD Shrink preferences so you do not go beyonds 4.300 and I assure you all will fit happily

[Alienverse]

Thank you for the reply jtoolman2000. I will try to fix the problem using your suggestion. I will post with the outcome after I am done.

[Alienverse]

Well, I tried your method jtoolman 2000 and I am still having problems. I compressed the movie to 4.296 GB and tried burning it to a blank DVD. DVD Shrink encoded the movie with no problems but as soon as the burn process began it started for two minutes and then stopped with nothing written to the disc. I checked the data log and the problem was a disc speed error. Now I tried to check the speed of the DVD but there is no speed on the case. I have been working on this since Tuesday and I still have no luck. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do next please feel free to post.

[waheed]

Try burning with DVD Decrypter

[Alienverse]

Try burning with DVD Decrypter

How exactly would you do that waheed? Would I have to save the movie as an ISO Image File and burn with DVD Decrypter? Also, would it work if I used Nero Recode DVD-Video to burn the original file that DVD Decrypter ripped off of the DVD and compress it to under 4.3 GB? Any help would be great.

[waheed]

DVD Shrink has the option of outputting the DVD is ISO mode. Output as ISO, then burn with DVD Decrpter.

[laspis59]

Try burning with DVD Decrypter

How exactly would you do that waheed? Would I have to save the movie as an ISO Image File and burn with DVD Decrypter? Also, would it work if I used Nero Recode DVD-Video to burn the original file that DVD Decrypter ripped off of the DVD and compress it to under 4.3 GB? Any help would be great.

You can use a tool such as IMGTools (Classic,Recommended) to create an ISO file in no time at all.Then burn with DVDDecrypter.I think this would be the best option.

Edit:Sorry I didn't read the topic very carefully waheed answered your question.But of course IMGtools Classic is an alternative.

[Alienverse]

Well, I just did what waheed told me to do and it is still not working but I know what the problem is. When I used DVD Shrink to compress ISO file I forgot about the whole 4.3 GB rule and compressed it to 4.68 GB instead. Now I am going to encode the whole movie over again but this time I will compress the ISO file to under 4.3 GB. Hopefully this time it will work. Makes me wonder why DVD Shrink isn't programmed to shrink the movie to under 4.3 GB...

[laspis59]

DVDShrink is set to encode to DVD-5 by Default (4464MB)Look at preferences it should have this setting "DVD-5"
I've never had problems with DVDShrink recoding to a size that is unable to fit on a single layer DVD.If you use Advanced Analysis it helps to ensure that the output size is correct.
You could alternatively use custom settings and change the target size to a little less than 4464MB.

[Alienverse]

DVDShrink is set to encode to DVD-5 by Default (4464MB)Look at preferences it should have this setting "DVD-5"
I've never had problems with DVDShrink recoding to a size that is unable to fit on a single layer DVD.If you use Advanced Analysis it helps to ensure that the output size is correct.
You could alternatively use custom settings and change the target size to a little less than 4464MB.

Yeah, DVD Shrink automatically compresses the movie to 4.464 GB but in order to fit on a DVD it needs to be at least less than 4.37 GB. Obviously 4.464 GB is larger than 4.37 GB making the file unable to fit on to the DVD. I just started the encoding process on DVD Shrink and I used 'Custom Ratio' to compress the DVD to under 4.3 GB. After the encoding process is complete I will burn the ISO file to DVD using DVD Decrypter and hopefully this will work. If it doesn't I will put my fist through my computer...

[laspis59]

4464MB is not the same size as 4464GB (MB and GB are different sizes)
4464MB is about 4.37GB,I think or maybe less,cant remember.

[laspis59]

4464MB = 4.359375GB so its less than 4.36GB

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculatorBits.htm

[waheed]

Remember that 1000KB = 1024KB (Computer Terminology)

the 1000KB is mainly used by manufacturers to round off 1024KB.

Therefore 4464/1.024 = 4359.375, hence 4.36GB which should fir on a dvdr.

But I guess laspis59 has already stated it.

[Alienverse]

4464MB is not the same size as 4464GB (MB and GB are different sizes)
4464MB is about 4.37GB,I think or maybe less,cant remember.

Yeah, I said 4.464 GB not 4464 GB.

Anyways, I just encoded the movie again and it is still not working and now I think the problem is with DVD Shrink. When I was using 'Custom Ratio' to compress the movie the final product on the little bar at the top said 4.298 GB which is obviously under 4.3 GB. Now when I view the ISO file using Windows Explorer it says that the ISO file is 4.402 GB which could explain why it is not fitting on the DVD. Its not over yet though, DVD Decrypter picks up my blank discs as 4.7 GB as opposed to the 4.36 GB you two have been talking about. The burn process freezes around the 'Writing Lead-in' area. The error message I keep getting says something abhout an 'I/O Error' and I am not really sure what that means. I am getting really confused now so any suggestions would be great and would save my computer from getting a fist rammed through it.

[Alienverse]

Well my problem has been fixed and the problem was very simple. The blank DVDs I have been using were duds. I was using Sony DVD-Rs and my burner wouldn't pick them up. When I put in my LG DVD-R it began burning right to the disc. The problem was so simple I feel stupid now that I didn't see this earlier. I guess I under estimated Sony because they have an excellent reputation and I would have though that their blank DVDs were perfect. From now on, I'm buying cheap blank DVDs.

[jimmalenko]

TBH, you're making something that is reasonably straight-forward seem like rocket-science. Not to worry though - forget everything that's been said in this thread so far, and take a deep breath ...



Right - Let's start at the top ....



1 DVD5 = 4,700,000,000 bytes.

1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte, so
4,700,000,000 / 1024 = 4589843.75 kilobytes.

1024 kilobytes = 1 megabyte, so
4589843.75 / 1024 = 4482.27 megabytes.

1024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte, so
4482.27 / 1024 = 4.377 gigabytes.

This is how you arrive at 4.377GB as the capacity of a single layer "4.7" DVDR.

... and trust me when I say that a dual layer "8.5" DVDR has a capacity of 7.916GB - you could do the calculation above yourself to see how I arrived at that figure.



Now, as shown above, this theoretical capacity is 4482MB. By default, DVDShrink chooses to use 4464MB, which obviously gives you a buffer of 18MB.



So just set DVDShrink to exactly what I have in the above picture and I guarantee that DVDShrink will hit the correct size, every time (barring 1 situation where DVDShrink cannot shrink your material enough, but this generally only happens if you try to excessively pull something down to a much smaller size, and is very rare with DVD-9 to DVD-5 backups). As long as DVDSHrink says 4,464MB (or lower), and the bar is green, then it will fit on a DVD-5, no problem.



So now that we have the size concept understood, let's look at the burning side of things ...

Once you have all your settings worked out, and you press the backup button, you get this:



1 means temporarily create a VIDEO_TS folder on your hard drive and burn automatically with Nero.

2 means create an ISO image file on your hard drive. You can then burn this with any decent burning software at your leisure.

3 means create an ISO image file on your hard drive, and automatically burn it with DVDDecrypter.

4 means create a VIDEO_TS folder on your hard drive. You can then burn this with any decent burning software at your leisure.


Your burning problems are not anything to do with the shrinking process IMO. It's more likely that your burner may need a firmware upgrade to properly burn to the media you're using, or your media is crap to start with.



EDIT:
So here I go re-inventing the wheel ... and it turns out to be crap media