Backing up a miniseries from dvd to dvdr

[Mattsensei]

I want to backup a copy of Gimme Gimme Gimme (Series 2; R2/PAL, non-widescreen). Ordinarily I would just use DVD Shrink but this DVD totals 208 minutes which I (think) is probably too much to put on 1 dvdr without noticeable quality loss, right?

There are 7 episodes in all so I want to put 4 on one disk and 3 on another. I guess I could use DVD Shrink and choose the 'still pictures' option for the episodes I don't want in full on each disk, but that doesn't strike me as the best way of doing it.

Could someone kindly recommend the easiest way of doing this over 2 dvdrs, maybe with very basic menus, and preferably on the cheap as I have no expensive dvd authoring software.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

[andkiich]

You can still use DVDShrink, but go re-author mode.

Rip out the episodes you want, shrink if necessary, build new menus if you want, then use TMPGENC DVD Author/DVD-Lab(or whatever author program you have that will accept VOBs)

Using stills for en entire episode will take up more room than you really want, which can be used to keep the other episodes looking better.

This method requires a little more effort on your part, but I think it would be worth it to you to get better quality, yes?

[Mattsensei]

Yes, thanks for that, it sounds good. I've used reauthor mode before, but only when I wanted to pull out the main movie only.

I wasn't sure about reauthor mode in shrink for doing episodes, because I was unsure about how you do menus. When you say 'build new menus', do you mean in the tmpgenc dvd author program? If so, is it fairly straight forward?

[dimad]

DvdReMake is the tool for this job:

1. Decrypt the original disk using DVD Decrypter.
2. Now there are many IFO, VOB files in source directory.
3. Launch DvdReMake.
3. Highlight only the episodes you do NOT wish to copy, right click them, and then select "Hide All Blocks".
4. Those blocks are now close to 0 in size.
5. Export the DVD - it will write a new set of IFO and VOB files to a NEW destination directory?

And that's that...!

Above steps will produce a full DVD with menus, languages, subtitles, special features, and the rest, but with just ONE episode!

[Mattsensei]

1. Decrypt the original disk using DVD Decrypter.
2. Now there are many IFO, VOB files in source directory.
3. Launch DvdReMake.
3. Highlight only the episodes you do NOT wish to copy, right click them, and then select "Hide All Blocks".
4. Those blocks are now close to 0 in size.
5. Export the DVD - it will write a new set of IFO and VOB files to a NEW destination directory?

And that's that...!

Dimad, many thanks for that, I shall try it tonight. MS