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Using DVD Shrink to Burn Your Favorite Episodes from Several DVDs to a Single DVD
~~Vic Ferri, WinTips and Tricks

In this article, I will answer the following real question which describes the common intent more specifically:

I have three dvds with different tv programs on them and I would like to compile a new dvd with four of my favorite shows from the three dvds. Two are on the first dvd and one on both the others. I would like the resulting dvd to run and advance automatically from show to show without the need for menus. Is this possible and if so is it very complicated? I'm using Nero to do all my cd and dvd burning.

Answer:

You'll be happy to hear that what you are trying to accomplish is not only possible, but very easy.

The first thing to do is to download and install DVD Shrink, which is absolutely free. You can learn more about the utility and download it from here:
http://www.dvdshrink.org/where.html
The current stable version at this time is 3.2.0.15

Installing the program is a simple and quick procedure. For convenience, you may want to choose to have a desktop shortcut created during install.

Once DVD Shrink is installed, follow these steps:

1. Place your first dvd in your dvd-rom drive.

2. Open DVD Shrink and click the REAUTHOR button as shown below.
   
   
    

3. Use the drop down list on the top right-hand side to select your dvd-rom drive. The DVD you inserted will then be auto detected and you will see the contents of it in the window below. Now simply select the two titles you wish to add and just drag and drop them
   to the left side pane. If you are not sure which title is which, select it and click Play on the Preview player to view and identify the title.
   
   As you can see in the image below, two titles have been added, 3 and 4.
   
   
    

4. Now Remove the first dvd from the dvd-rom drive and insert your second dvd. Repeat the above procedure of dragging and dropping the titles you want to the left hand side. Do the same with the third dvd.

5. You should now see on the left hand pane the four titles you selected. You can also rearrange the order of the titles by dragging them into position. You may be able to control the compression of individual titles by clicking the Compression button. For best quality, remove any unnecessary features such as subtitles and unneeded audio.
   
   As you can see in the image below, extra audio features have been unchecked, and the quality for the four titles is the same as the original - 100 percent (no compression needed)
   
   
   
   Normally, you can fit about two hours on a standard 4.7 gb DVD without having to compress so if your episodes are half hour long each, you can fit all four without any loss of quality. You can also edit the start and end points of any title you added. For example, you might want to remove the intro and the ending credits to help increase quality if less than 100%. It's incredibly simple to do:

   1. Select the title you wish to edit.

   2. Slide the Start Frame slider to where you want the show to begin.

   3. Slide the End Frame slider to where you want the show to end.

   4. Click OK.

   
    

6. Once done, hit the BACKUP button. Doing so will give you the option to save your video files to your hard drive or you can burn them directly to dvd since you have Nero installed.
   
   
   
   For those of you who don't use Nero, save the video files to your hard drive. Or you can even have them saved as a single iso image file. Then use your preferred dvd authoring software and select the files or iso image from where you saved them on your hard drive and burn away! The resulting dvd should play automatically on your set top dvd player without any need for a menu and you should be able to advance to the next title by clicking Next on your remote.

Enjoy!

Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks and Registry Answers.  Subscribe to either and receive free Windows and Registry Tips.  He is also in charge of the Printing Tips  pages at Linda's Computer Stop.  Vic has also created a program which allows you to Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME.  Read more and get the free demo here.  And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.