For occupying less space, should the DVD be saved in an image file?

[coody]

I see the saved DVD movies occupying a lot of space in the HD. should I save them in the image files? Will the image (or other types of) files occupy less space? If so, can the DVD be saved as the image file by the DVD Shrink3.2 or other free tools?

[redwudz]

No, an image file is just a container. It's likely to be a bit larger, rather than smaller. An image file has the advantage of combining several files into one single package. But not much use for making a file smaller.

And, yes, you can save a DVD as a image file with DVD Shrink and other programs.

Of course you can convert a DVD format video to other formats like Xvid or Divx and save quite a bit of space. The quality will be less, but that may not be a big problem. It depends on what you want to display it on. On a smaller screen, you may not see a lot of difference.

Try AutoGK, it can convert to Xvid or Divx. Lots of other options, depends on what you want to do.

[johns0]

Image files dont save space,they are just containers of multiple files.Easier to move around without losing the files contained within.Also certain programs will only burn image files such as .img and .iso.

[coody]

To make the DVD file smaller saved in the HD without loss of the picture quality, what is the best way to back up the DVD movie? Is converting into the Xvid or Divx format the only best way? I want to back up the DVD into the HD but try to make it occupying the HD less space so that I can back up more DVDs.

[redwudz]

You will always get some loss of quality when re-encoding. Xvid/Divx is one way to reduce the file size and still keep some quality. AutoGK is one program that works fairly well. I would suggest trying a small representative clip of one of your videos and try to encode that to Xvid/Divx with different bitrates to see what they look like.

If the quality is acceptable with one of the settings you try, then you may have found your solution. Xvid/Divx quality is about the same. They just vary in the settings display.

Divx/Xvid are a good choice as they will play back on most Divx set top players if they are compliant to the players.

For Xvid conversions, I use a Xvid file size of about 1GB for most DVD movies. The Xvid videos from the net are often 700MB. I find that too small to preserve much quality. But try some different bitrates till you find what you like.

[coody]

The Xvid/Divx is good. But, the problem is some DVD players are incapable of playing it. It may be also not easy to convert it back. I try to shrink the DVD file or make it size smaller so that more DVDs can be saved in the HD or external HD. Seems I need to try find some software that can shrink the DVD files.

[manono]

Not hard to do. You could actually try searching out the available programs and guides on this site. They're listed in the Guides and Tools sections accessed by hitting the links on the left side of the page.

For quick but maybe not the best quality, try the free DVD Shrink. For the best quality, although a bit slower, maybe try the free version of DVD-Rebuilder and the free HCEnc encoder.