Is there an easy way to lose everything but the movies+menu?

[The_cranky_hermit]

I have a bunch of DVDs that I'd like to back up onto an external hard drive. I estimate that if I can shave a gigabyte from each of them on average, they'll all fit. So, for each of them, I want to keep the movie and the menus, and lose things like the copyright notices, featurettes, commentaries, foreign language tracks, etc. I thought DVD Shrink might be capable of this, but it apparently doesn't save the menus (or less importantly, lose the extra audio tracks).

I also don't want to have to re-encode anything. Aside from that it would take an eternity to re-encode everything I want to back up, quality loss is inevitable.

So, is there a relatively easy way to accomplish this? Preferably with free software that doesn't have "expiration." IFOEdit left me utterly baffled, plus it kept crashing, so I'm hoping there's something easier than that.

[nevragain]

ripit4me (free) has a menu + movie option

dvd fab platinum also might but you must pay for it

[dialysis1]

RipIt4Me or DVDFab can rip the movie and menu only or you can backup the full disc and then blank what you don't want with VobBlanker.
http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides/VobBlanker/blanking/index.php

[The_cranky_hermit]

Thanks for the suggestions. Ripit4me seems pretty easy (though it does make me wish for a smidgen more flexibility). The VobBlanker tutorial has me staring blankly at it like a stunned cattle, though.

[jeanl]

You can do that with shrink only, by selecting the stuff you don't want and using a custom compression set to "Still Image". Of course, the material isn't entirely eliminated, but very close to it...
IMHO that's the easiest and quickest way to do that...
Jeanl

[setarip_old]

@The_cranky_hermit

Hi!I thought DVD Shrink might be capable of this, but it apparently doesn't save the menus (or less importantly, lose the extra audio tracks).You are mistaken. Even in full disc mode (retaining menus), you can eliminate any undesired audiostreams by simply unticking them.

Additionally, I don't think you should refer to eliminating audiostreams as "less important", as each audiostream is typically of rather substantial size - particularly, if DTS or LPCM stereo...

[olyteddy]

Why keep the menus if you get rid of the extras? What are they gonna point to? Main Title Only mode in DVD Shrink Reauthor keeps the chapter marks and allows you to drop unwanted audio and subtitles, resulting in the smallest footprint.

[SamuriHL]

Why keep the menus if you get rid of the extras? What are they gonna point to? Main Title Only mode in DVD Shrink Reauthor keeps the chapter marks and allows you to drop unwanted audio and subtitles, resulting in the smallest footprint.

Some people keep the menus because of the chapter selection capability. Yes, the chapter marks are there, but, who wants to keep hitting next on the remote to get to a favorite chapter when they could just use the menu to jump right to it? That is why a lot of people keep the menus even if they drop the extras.

P.S. To keep on topic, CloneDVD from Elby/Slysoft has the ability to select movie only plus menu built in. It is not, however, a free product.

[bmp956]

Another reason to keep the menu is so you can access the subtitiles for the hard of hearing folks. Personally, I use DVDRebuilder. For a mere $29.95 for the pro version, you get updates for life. Of course, the disc has already been ripped, so if I'm off-topic, a thousand apologies.

[miltHTPC]

CloneDVD2 is also a good tool for striping down your rips. It is not
free (40 euros), but it is very easy to use, very flexible, very
capable and you can try it for free. You do also need to install
AnyDVD (50 euros), but I think lots of people already have that.

Look at slysoft.com.

--Milt--

[SamuriHL]

I use CloneDVD to strip titlesets/audio tracks/subtitles I don't want. If it still doesn't fit on a DVD-5 I use Recode or DVD-RB to compress it so that it fits. This method works great. Also, VobBlanker can remove some things that are embedded that CloneDVD is not able to remove, so, that is also another possibility. I HIGHLY recommend DVD-RB if you're doing compression. Recode works well for things that don't require too much compression, but, nothing beats a good reencode. :)

[captain_video]

Try VOB Blanker. It allows you to keep the menus and inserts dummy files in place of whichever parts you want to eliminate. It updates the ifo files to reflect the new file structure and gets rid of whatever portions of the movie you don't want to keep.