Completely Revised Newbie guide

[Dr.Khron]

Some friends of mine just got started in backing up thier DVDs, and they have been driving me nuts with basic questions. Since the info in the Newbie sticky is outdated, I went through and revised and expanded the whole thing. Maybe we could replace the old sticky with this one.

Comments, feedback welcomed. I'm sure I made a few errors here and there.


Welcome to Doom9.
WARNING! This hobby may consume you.

- How do I backup my DVDs?

You have two basic choices: you can burn a copy of the DVD onto a blank DVD R with a DVD burner (making a replica of the original disk, which is referred to as burning); or you can re-encode the video from the DVD into one or more computer video files, such as .AVI or .MKV files (this is sometimes referred to as ripping, and is analogous to making MP3 files from your audio CDs, only much more complicated). While you need a DVD player to play a DVD R, video files are more flexible: they can be encoded for playback on a wide variety of devices: PCs, portable A/V players (such as iPods), and multi-media devices (such as Xbox and home media servers).

Which is better? Well, there is no answer to that, sorry. In fact, when it comes to backing up your DVDs, there is almost never a “best” way to do it. Almost everything in the world of digital video is a tradeoff in one way or another.

Which is better for you is the real question, and it comes down to how you want to use your DVDs. Most people like the simplicity of using a standard DVD player hooked up to a TV. In this case, backing up to DVD R is the way to go. But if you want to play DVDs on your computer, or your Xbox (or what have you), ripping them is your best option. You can also hook your TV up directly to your PC (or iPod) and play the re-encoded video files on the TV (just like plugging your Ipod into a home stereo for music).

Personally, I have a PC hooked up to the TV in my living room, so it’s convenient to watch AVI or MKV files on the TV. However, these files take up a lot of hard drive space, compared to blank DVDs which are infinite in supply. My solution is to back up my movies to DVD Rs, and to rip TV episode DVDs to MKV files on the hard drive. This is because it’s not much of a burden to get up and put in a DVD for a two hour movie, but with TV show episodes it’s much handier to be able to browse a directory with all of the episodes in separate folders by season. For the movies, I keep a binder-style DVD flip case with all of my back ups; all of the original DVDs are stored in a box in the closet.

Also a factor is your own technical competence, and your willingness to tinker with things. While both of the above methods can be complicated, software is available to automate most of the process. Commercial software (ie, cost $$) provide the highest level of automation. But if you want to use free and/or open-source solutions, you are going to have to teach yourself how the tools work. In general, re-encoding the video is more complicated then burning DVDs, but it depends on what you are trying to do.

Confused yet?
Don’t worry, Doom9 is chock full of helpful guides, advice, and people. That’s what its here for. We all started out somewhere, so as long as you are willing to roll up your sleeves and learn, keep and open mind and follow the forum rules, we can help you get to where you want to be.

However, if you are a total computer noob, and/or have no desire to learn any of the technical details of these processes, your best bet is to buy a commercial DVD copying application, and just back up all of your DVDs to DVD Rs. Then you won’t need Doom9 at all. Shoo, Shoo.

[Dr.Khron]

- How do I make a backup of a DVD to DVD R?

This is not as simple as running your copy program and making a copy. DVD's are encrypted to hinder copying, and must be decrypted first before they can be copied or altered in any way.

The other major hurdle is that most commercial DVDs are DVD-9, which means they have two layers (Dual Layer or DL). Until recently, blank DVD-9s were prohibitively expensive, as were the drives capable of burning them. Therefore, many people still backup their DVDs to DVD-5 (Single Layer or SL). Blank DVD-5s have only one layer, half the space, so you will need to either copy to two DVD-5s or make some decisions on what you want to keep and how you are going to make it fit.

Of course, you can also just make a full back up to DVD-9, which is a much easier and simpler process. Making full back ups to DVD-9 is becoming increasingly popular as the price of blank Dual Layer DVD Rs continues to fall.

And finally, the other problem is that in order for the DVD to work in stand-alone DVD players, you have to make sure the files and format are correct. You have some reading ahead of you. But first, you need to decide whether you want to back up to Dual Layer or Single Layer DVD Rs.


- What is DVD-9 and DVD-5 and why does it matter?

Each layer in a DVD can hold 4.3GB of information. In order to fit more information on a single side of a DVD, studios often glue two layers together, so that it becomes a dual layered disc. That is why you will see the layer change pause half way through the movie. Most new major studio releases are dual layer; only very early DVD releases were Single Layer. Dual Layer DVDs are called DVD-9 and Single Layer DVDs are called DVD-5.

(note that Dual Layer means both layer are on the same side of the disc. This is not the same as a Dual Sided disc, which usually has a Single Layer on each side. These are called “flippers”, and they were replaced by Dual Layer discs, since who wants to get up in the middle of a movie and flip the DVD?)

The reason it matters is that most blank DVD R media (+R, +RW, -R, -RW) are only single layered, and most of the DVD burners currently in use cannot burn Dual Layer DVD Rs properly, if at all (however, most new DVD burners are Dual Layer capable). It is not possible to simply recreate the full original DVD on a single layer DVD R, unless the original is a DVD-5, which is rare. If you buy Dual Layer DVD Rs, and your DVD burner is new enough, you can backup DVD-9 disks directly.

However, if you want to backup a DVD-9 disk to a DVD-5 disk you have some work to do. You can use one or more of the following methods: you can split the DVD to two disks, remove enough unnecessary data to fit the movie on one disk, or compress the files to make them smaller. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these options.


- What is the process for backing up my DVDs to Dual Layer DVD R?

1. Decrypt the DVD
This involves copying the files from the DVD to your computer, and using software to remove the encryption, regional coding and other content-protection schemes from the DVD.

2. Edit the structure of the DVD
This is actually an optional step, but many people like to remove studio splash screens, trailers, and Prohibited User Options. Also, some people like to make their DVDs jump directly to the movie or main menu. Various tools allow you to change the logical structure of the DVD to suit your needs.

3. Create image file (.ISO file)
This takes all of the DVD files and creates a single image file that represents the DVD contents. This is a very important step for burning Dual Layer DVDs, because it is critically important to set the Layer Break correctly.

4. Burn the image file to a Dual Layer DVD R
Use a burning application to make the final product. If you did all of the other steps correctly, this step is a piece of cake.


- What is the process for backing up my DVDs to Single Layer DVD R?

The first thing you have to determine is what you want the final DVD to look like.

If you want only the movie, and no special features or menus, then you will need to see how large the movie is. The best way to start is to open the disc with DVDShrink, which will show you a simplified version of the disc’s structure, including information on how large the titles are. If the main title is smaller than 4.3GB, then you can fit the entire movie onto a Single Layer DVD R without compressing anything.

If you want to keep the menus and special features, or if the main title is larger than 4.3GB, then you will need to either: split the movie over two disks while keeping the original bit rate (and therefore quality), or you need to make the disc smaller. “Shrinking” the DVD is the most popular method, because having a DVD spread over two discs is less convenient.

Making the disc smaller means using one or more of the following techniques: strip out unwanted audio, video and/or subtitle streams to save space, or compress the disc contents to a lower bit rate so that it will fit. Keep in mind that compressing the data will decrease the quality: the more compression, the greater the quality loss.

1. Decrypt the DVD.
Same process as for Dual Layers, see above.

2. Edit the structure of the DVD
Same process as for Dual Layers, see above.

3. Solve the size problem.
This means your choice of: splitting to two DVDs, or stripping unwanted content and/or compressing the data. This is the most complicated step, as you have decisions to make, and the process will be different for every disc you backup. It may take you a while to learn how to do this well.

4. Create image file (.ISO file)
For Single Layer output, this is an optional step. If you wish, you can burn your final DVD R directly from the DVD files, since you don’t have to worry about setting the Layer Break (a Single Layer DVD has no Layer Break).

5. Burn the image file to a Single Layer DVD R.
Same process as for Dual Layers, see above.


- What is the process for backing up my Single Layer DVDs?

If you happen to own any of these, they are the simplest to back up. You can follow the same procedure as for backing up Dual Layer DVDs to Dual Layer DVD Rs, or you can use this simplified process:

1. Decrypt the DVD directly to an ISO file.
Using DVDDecryptor, you can rip directly to a ready-to-burn .ISO file.

2. Burn the image file to a Single Layer DVD R.
Same process as above.


- What tools should I use?

A tough question, as this is largely personal choice. The following is a list of popular options that you can use for free:

Decrypting DVDs:
-DVDDecyptor
Also known as DVDD, this is your only good choice. Some newer discs have extra copy protection schemes that causes problems for DVDD, so several add-on programs have been developed, including one called RipItForMe.

Splitting a Dual Layer DVD into two Single Layer DVDs:
-IFOEdit
-PgcEdit

Editing DVD Structure:
-PgcEdit
-VobBlanker

Removing unwanted content:
-DVD Shrink
-PgcEdit
-VobBlanker

Compressing data:
-DVD Shrink
-DVD Rebuilder

Building and Burning images:
-ImgBurn
Like DVDD, this is by far the best choice. It’s the only program known to properly set the Layer Break for a Dual Layer Disc every time.


You’ll see many references to IFOEdit in the Doom9 guides. Even though this is a powerful program that still works well, it is old and somewhat outdated. Most of what you can do in IFOEdit can be done with other, simpler programs.

Finally, DVDShrink is a flexible tool that can do most of these processes for you. As such, it’s a good place to start fooling around with backing up your DVDs.

Here are some guides to get you started:
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/dvddec.htm
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvdshrink31-main.htm


- What is the file structure of a DVD? How should the files look in order to make sure it will work in my stand-alone player?

There should be two main directories on your DVD, AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. AUDIO_TS is used for DVD Audio disks, and will most likely be empty on your final DVD. VIDEO_TS is where all your other files should go.

Inside VIDEO_TS you should see at least the following:
VIDEO_TS.IFO This is the Video Manager Information file. It is a master file.
VIDEO_TS.BUP Backup of the VIDEO_TS.IFO
VTS_01_0.IFO First Title Manager Information File. Contains details your DVD player needs to know in order to play correctly, e.g. chapter stops, language info etc.
VTS_01_0.BUP Backup of VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_0.VOB This is first video file of the first title. It is a container file that includes an MPEG2 video stream as well as audio and subtitle streams.
VTS_01_1.VOB This is the second video container file for the first Title.

Your DVD will most likely have additional VOB’s, and possibly more Titles as well. Each additional title will have its own set of IFO, BUP and VOBs. A second Title would be named VTS_02_0 etc.

For more information, see this guide:
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/dvd-structure.htm

[Dr.Khron]

- How do I backup my DVDs to computer video files? (such as .AVI or .MKV)

We need to start with some background info on how these files work. You may think of an AVI file as a single file, but its not. It’s at least two files combined: an audio track and a video track.

AVI is properly referred to as an A/V container file, simply because it contains A/V streams. Other popular container formats are: MKV, MP4, MOV, and OGG. A container file doesn’t just hold A/V streams though, because it also contains data about how the streams are mixed together, and how to play them back properly. This additional data is referred to as “overhead”.

To make a basic container file, you take two elementary streams, one video and one audio, and mix them together. This process is called multiplexing, or muxing for short (and the reverse process is called demuxing). Even the format of DVDs could be thought of as a container format, since it contains video and audio muxed together (although it has a MUCH more complicated structure then a simple AVI file).

Therefore, the basic process is as follows:

1. Demux the desired content from the DVD that you want to keep in your final output (including video & audio streams, subtitles, chapter info, etc. etc.)

2. re-encode the content into the formats that suits your needs (such as xvid or MP3)

3. mux the content back into a final container file

Of course, in the real world, there are a lot more steps, but that’s the big picture.

Different container formats serve different purposes; they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s important to decide which container you want to use before you start any work on your DVD backup. Here is a rundown of current container formats:

Ok, this is where I ran out of steam. I'll work on it later, but feel free to contribute if you like.


For more information on how digital video works, see this guide:
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/video-basics.htm