How do I burn a DVD bigger than 4.7 GB?

[Rayroshi]

I'm new to this, so please keep your answers at a novice's, step-by-step level. I'm trying to copy a DVD that contains 6.51 GB of info., but all I have is a bunch of regular DVD-R discs, which are able to hold only 4.7 GB. So how does one go about that? I want to be able to burn a DVD that will play on a regular laptop, such as my Acer, which has a DVD-Super Muti DL drive (whatever all of that means), not on some kind of a special player.

Is there a way to compress the original disk, so it will fit onto the DVD discs that I have, or do I need to get a different type of DVD disc which will hold the 6.51 GB of info.?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[mike20021969]

You either need to copy them to DVD9 discs (8.5GB/dual layer/DL), or if the DVD's you're talking about are movies, compress them to DVD5 (4.7GB) with something like CloneDVD2.
Or use DVD rebuilder which is free.

[Rayroshi]

Wow, that was a quick reply! Thanks, Mike. Okay, I will try to find that DVD Rebuilder which you mentioned; not sure where, though; probably on CNET, I would imagine. I hope it's not too technical, 'cause, like I said, I'm kind of a retard, when it comes to navigating my way through the techie world.

So all I have to do is use the DVD Rebuilder to compress it, then I would be able to burn it onto a normal DVD-R disc, which holds 4.7 GB? By the way, what's your recommendation for a good copy program that is super user-friendly?....as in without a whole bunch of cryptic terms that only the pros know.

Thanks again for your help.

[levick]

DVD Rebuilder has a link meaning it will be tool featured right here.

[jman98]

DVD Rebuilder is NOT user friendly. At all. It's a good program but it's not for newbies.

The old DVD Shrink program will work fine for most people to shrink DVD content to single layer size and it's something that a newbie could come to grips with, particularly if you look for some documents on the internet on how to use it. If you decide to burn to DL media then I VERY STRONGLY suggest that you ONLY use Verbatim DVD+R DL media. If you ignore that suggestion, don't come back here bitching about how you keep making coasters on the cheapo DL discs you bought at your local brick and mortar store.

[mike20021969]

If your disc is a commercially available (pressed) DVD:
If the disc contains structural protection, then DVD Shrink wont work on it (correctly), and DVD Rebuilder doesn't decrypyt at all.
So therefore you'll need a decrypter such as AnyDVD (paid for) or DVDFab HD Decrypter (which is free) - these can rip the files to the hard drive then you import them into DVD Shrink or DVD Rebuilder.

DVD Shrink is simple to use, but I prefer (AnyDVD +) CloneDVD2.

[Bjs]

If the title is already ripped to hd then use dvdshrink to shrink the title down to 4.3gig ... not 4.7gig ... anything greater then 4.31 generally will not fit SL dvd media.

Dvdfab Hd Decrypter = from dvd to hd
Dvdshrink = 6.1 to 4.3gig (use reauthor mode to remove useless content and to reduce overall bit picture loss)
Imgburn = burn new authored title to SL dvd media

[Rayroshi]

Wow, this site has a lot of help; that's great. So, after reading those posts, am I correct in saying that I have to follow these steps?:

a. Rip the original disc to my hard drive, using Dvdfab Hd Decrypter
b. Compress the ripped file on the hard drive, using Dvdshrink
c. Copy the ripped, compressed, to a new, blank DVD, using Imqburn

[mike20021969]

am I correct in saying...

Yes. That should work.

[Nelson37]

Don't forget to look at the re-authoring feature, often just by cutting out all the extras other than the main movie, it will fit on a disk with no compression at all. Compression will make it look slightly worse and should be avoided if at all possible.

[Rayroshi]

Okay, once again, thanks for the advice. I ripped the DVD onto my laptop, and everything looked good, so far. I could click on each file and play it with Windows Media Player. But, when I tried to go to the next stage, compressing the files with Dvdshrink, I got the message "Could not find the files," (or words to that effect). Any ideas?

[october262]

please note that Dvdfab Hd Decrypter will not work for most newer movies. it lags 30-60 days from the paid version. in other words it's not updated for some new releases as fast as the paid version.

[mike20021969]

Any ideas?

So, DVDFab HD Decrypter ripped the files to the HDD and (should have) created a VIDEO_TS folder. (You can check that within this folder are a number of .IFO, .BUP and .VOB files).
Then launch DVD Shrink 3.2 and click the Open Files button. Then navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder itself.
The files should then be automatically scanned/analyzed and imported into DVD Shrink 3.2.
Then click the Re-author button.