How to convert a 9GB Movie into 4 GB?

[ajayritik]

How can I compress a 9 GB DVD movie to 4 GB movie? So that I can store it or burn it to a 4.7 GB DVD! I know about 4gb to 700 MB rip but how about 9 GB to 4 GB?

[sandeepk]

I you want to make a movie DVD then there are several programs available for that. Use DVDShrink. Its a very easy tool. If you have Nero installed then it also contains a similar tool called Nero Recode.
If you want to convert it into AVI then you have also many softwares like Auto Gordan Knot.

[raksrules]

I suggest you convert / shrink the DVD9 to DVD5 and copy the content on a standard 4.7 Gb DVD. I will tell what i used for this.
1. Shrink to 5
2.CloneDVD2

I used shrink to 5 to shrink and copy the contents on DVD9 on the HDD. Then used the CloneDVD2 to burn the standard DVD.

[ajayritik]

Are the above softwares free?

[Faun]

dvd shrink

[goobimama]

But I'd suggest you better just convert it into a 2-2.5GB x264 instead of using DVDshrink. Horrible blocking during high action scenes, it's almost unwatchable.

[faraaz]

^^ - +1 ... I used it a lot and it works great. Its probably a shareware version and if it is...there's ways around that yeah?

[ajayritik]

goobi mama give me more details how to burn a movie of 9 GB into 2 separate DVD's of 4 GB each?

[goobimama]

Well I'm no expert at encoding, I hardly encode any of my stuff so I can't help you there. But you could google around for info on how to encode to x264 codec. It's somewhat like Xvid, only it has better output at lower file sizes... so if you keep it at a high 2GB per DVD9 movie, there should be no noticeable loss in quality. You could even make it 700MB with a 5.1 soundtrack and it still looks good...

[The_Devil_Himself]

^^it takes ages to encode in xvid.This sux!

[RaghuKL]

Clone DVD is very good and very fast

[ajayritik]

Is it possible to break a 9 GB movie into two equal halves and then burn the first half on a 4.7 GB DVD and the other part in another 4.7 GB DVD? I guess there will be problem with the sequence. I feel if we compress the movie from 9 GB to 4 GB there maybe some loss of quality especially with the picture quality.

[raksrules]

@ajayritik
The best way is the compress the DVD9 to DVD5 and burn. The above mentioned softwares by me are not freewares. Shrink to 5 is shareware and clonedvd2 comes with 30 days free trial. I have used this within the trial period and have burned 5 to 7 original DVD9 discs to DVD5 using this tool. Total time taken for 1 DVD to complete the whole process was approx 45 min. Loss of quality is there but you wont notice much.

[ajayritik]

But is the loss of quality too apparent? Is it more loss of picture quality or sound quality?

[raksrules]

Sound will stay as it is 5.1 etc or whatever it has. The picture will definitely loose its quality but the difference wont be that evident. This is what i feel. If you are a videophile and cannot tolerate the loss then the best option is to convert the DVD to a 2 CD Xvid. But the effort required to too much for doing so and hence it is not recommended.

[ajayritik]

rakoo7 as I told you earlier I'm OK with burning an 8 GB DVD into two 4GB ones. You have suggested "convert the DVD to a 2 CD Xvid". I don't want to convert to CD.

[raksrules]

With 2CD rip i meant that the DVD9 gets ripped in two AVI files totalling to 1.36 Gb (approx). As far as your requirement goes of burning the DVD9 on two DVD5s then i am sorry i dont have much idea on how can you split the same.
On workaround is that you can use DVD Decrypter and copy the main movie from the DVD9 on to your HDD then split the DVD files and individually burn them on DVDs in DVD format only. But this technique is not tried and i would recommend you dont try it.
May be if you have the requistite time to invest then i suggest (only if your DVD player is capable of playing DivX/XviD) you rip the DVD in a custom size (say 3.5 to 4 Gb) and also the sound as 5.1 AC3 DOLBY DIGITAL then you will get excellent quality rip. After you get the output video you can burn the same on a DVD and play it in your player (but like a normal avi/Divx file)

[cpyder]

you can use DVD Shrink for splitting DVD9 into two DVD5 discs. Although its a kinda workaround.

launch DVD Shrink -> Reauthor -> DVD Browser

Drag initial tracks onto left pane - usually one track would be .99 GB, so you can place upto four tracks. You can adjust compression settings ofcourse.

Click 'Backup' to make an image/burn it.

Repeat the process for the remaining tracks and burn onto second disk.

Caution: You will lose Menus with this method, but the movie quality will not be compromised if you dont compress it (obviously ). The disks will be compatible with standard DVD players as well.

And I love DVD Shrink because of two reasons :
-Its free.
-Its so small!! Its not even 1 MB and does wonders.

[suniltr77]

Although DVD Shrink is a superb tool but it fails when a DVD size is more than 7.5 GB, as the result DVD5 will be more than 4.38 GB and normally available DVDs are of 4.38 GB(written 4.7GB).I too search for a tool by which I will have control over the size. I tried the DVD rebuilder but on a core-2-duo 2.2GHz machineit took around 5hours to complete the job. Has anybody any idea about something better