Note: a 4.7GB recordable DVD is 4,700,000,000 (4.7 billion) bits. This equates to[list=A][*]4589843.750 KB or[*]4482.269 MB or[*]4.377 GB[/list=A]4.377GB is really the size we are interested in 4.377 is NOT 4.38 either

Mainstream DVDs normally fit into one of the following types:

• DVD-5s, also known as single layer DVDs.
• DVD9s, also known as dual-layer DVDs.

DVD-9s are too big to fit on a DVD-recordable (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW). So DVD Shrink enables you to selectively remove unwanted extras (FBI warnings, trailers, ‘The Making Of’, prequels and so on), audio and/or subtitle/subpicture tracks, thus progressively lowering the overall file sizes. If they are still too big to fit on a DVD-recordable, you also have the option to apply different levels of compression to each part you decided to keep (even when you decided to keep them all). DVD-5 discs do not need any kind of compression for them to fit on a DVD-recordable. DVD Shrink will enable you to make 1:1 (meaning identical) copies. However, you can still use DVD Shrink features to remove unwanted content from a DVD-5. Once DVD Shrink has done its job, anywhere from 15 minutes to hours on a low-end Celeron, you will only need to choose the burning software of your choice (like Nero, RecordNow, CloneDVD, DVD Decrypter...), to write the files created by DVD Shrink to a DVD-recordable.

What you need:[list=1][*]Download DVD Shrink by dvdshrink from here. Install the app and create any shortcuts you need.[*]Up to 9GB of hard-drive space for the DVD files[*]DVD burning software[*]a DVD burner[/list=1]Insert a DVD into your reader or burner. Start DVD Shrink and this window will appear



Click on “Edit/Preferences…” and select your target size; for “Custom” you can try 4,482 MB but some DVD burning applications may choke on a total size so close to the capacity of a recordable; some applications will add the Lead-In and Lead-Out on top and blow your chances; make the other settings the same as mine. The next thing to do is to click the Open Disk icon, just below the menu Item “Edit” on the Tool Bar. Select the drive containing the DVD



A database of previous DVDs is maintained in C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\DVD Shrink 3.0 unlike CloneDVD which uses the registry. If the DVD has not been scanned previously, you will see a window like this:



This will finish, in time, according to your processor power and take you to the main dialogue. When the analysis is complete you will be presented with what appears to be an intimidating dialogue:



If you simply want to de-CSS (decrypt) the whole DVD and leave the files on your hard-drive, then choose “No Compression” throughout on the right hand side by choosing each main element of the DVD structure on the left hand side. Ripping ‘as-is’ allows you to play all of files in a software player like PowerDVD, write them as an .ISO file for mounting in a Virtual DVD-ROM drive (Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120% among others) or for later encoding (using the “Open Files” option, or indeed, another DVD transcoding application like CloneDVD.

Click “Backup!” on the tool bar.

If you did not set any compression levels and did not disable any audio or subpicture streams (because your DVD was within target size, or because you want a hard-drive backup at original size), then DVD Shrink will not be encoding the DVD, it will be copying. In this case the "Encoding XX%" status message will be replaced by "Copying XX%".

Size Exceeded Warning

If the Size Bar indicates that your DVD Target Size is exceeded, then you will be prompted with a warning. In general you should not backup your DVD until the size bar is entirely green, otherwise the output files from DVD Shrink will be too big to fit on a DVD-recordable. However, you will have particular reason to do otherwise if you use the backup option to save DVD output files to your hard drive (briefly described above) and then open them again with “Open Files” at a later date. If this is what you want to do, just ignore the "size exceeded" warning. If your DVD size is within target, or you get past the Size Exceeded warning, then you will be prompted with the Backup DVD Dialog.

And make sure you have disk space – You don’t want to see this at 99%!



To actually ‘shrink’ the DVD, click on to Part 2

Good luck. Got problems? Then post here

Part 2: Shrinking then Ripping …