Nearly all commercial dvd movies disks are encrypted with CSS (Content Scrambling System) which prevents you from copying the disk in a traditional (disk copy) manner. Commercial dvd disks will also have locked sectors denying you access to the files unless you go through a process known as authentication. So, whether you want to backup a dvd to another dvd, or convert the dvd to another format, AVI for example, you MUST first get past the dvd encryption, this is where dvd rippers come in. Before you do anything, you need to use a ripper to decrypt and copy the dvd to your hard drive. Ripping a dvd disk has begun to get a little more tricky with many new titles because of the advent of new anti-copy techniques used by the movie companies, namely RipGuard and ArCCoS, so further processing may be necessary with certain dvd disks. One such recommended modern ripper is - DVDFab Decrypter

These programs will remove all the dvd encryption, including the latest anti-copy methods, and leave you with the dvd files on your hard drive ready to be processed further depending on what you require. There is something you need to now decide... Why are you ripping the disk? If you plan to make a backup of the dvd then you will need all these ripped files from the dvd disk, if you plan on converting the movie to an AVI then you will only need the main movie files. If making an AVI, checkout the 'AVI.NET' section. If you want to make a dvd backup, read on.

Now you have all the ripped dvd disk on your hard drive you can either used ahead's nero recode 2 or the free dvd shrink to re-encode and re-write to a dvdr disk. Nero's recode 2 is fast and of good quality, dvd shrink is not as fast and its quality is not quite on par with recode 2, though it is still very good, and it's free.

To use recode 2, run the program and click the 'Import DVD' button. The first thing that happens is a little preview box comes up and you'll see your ripped dvd being analysed, you'll also see a quick preview as recode 2 does its stuff, the process should only take a minute or so then you'll see a screen similar to that shown below (left). What it is telling you is how big the menu's, main movie and extras are along with audio channel and subtitle information and by how much it will be compressing them.

For the purpose of this guide there is nothing we need to change, nothing at all, just click the 'Next' button. We're now presented with the next screen (above right) where we can make our final selections. The 'Destination' option is quite obvious, your DVD writer, or, if you prefer, you can write to an image file and store the image on your drive for burning at a later date. Make sure 'Advanced analysis' and 'High quality mode' are ticked to make sure we get the best possible copy of the dvd. That is it, just click on that start button and let Recode 2 do it's stuff.

To use dvd shrink, run the program and click the 'Open Files' box at the top and like the Nero program, we again get presented with a analysing box so just wait until it does its stuff. We're now presented with this screen giving us all the information about the various sections of our dvd (below). All we need to do now is select the 'Backup!' button at the top.

You are now presented with the above dialog box (right), it has many settings, but should already be set, all you really need to do is select the backup target which of course, again, will be your dvd writer or an image file if you prefer, click OK to start.