Tools Needed:-
DVD Player e.g. Power DVD
Smart Ripper
Re Mpeg
Spruce Up
IfoEdit
Step 1
Insert DVD into DVD reader and play the film for a few seconds.

Step 2
Open up Smart Ripper.



Step 3
Select the Stream Processing tab.



Step 4
Now there is a lot of information there. All we want ticked is Audio English (if there is 5.1 + DTS you pick what one you want to keep) and Video Pal / 4:3 / 720x576 (if its NTSC it will have different settings but that is ok).

Now deselect all the rest of the options and click on the video as shown below.



Step 5
Here we select Demux To Extra file while clicked on the video we want (leek to the left of the video you have selected the options are there.



Step 6
Do the same for the Audio you selected



Step 7
Select the directory you wish to Rip the movie to.



Step 8
Check settings are the same as below.



Step 9
Hit Start and sit back and wait for it to finish.





Step 10
Open Re Mpeg 2



Step 11
Click open and select the .m2v file located in the directory which you ripped your DVD to.



Step 12
Sit back and relax until re-mpeg has completely opened the file.

During the process of opening your screen will look like this



When complete it will look like this.



Step 13
Now we need to do a bit of calculations

Open up the calculator in windows by going to the start bar à Accessories à Calculator.



Now we need to check the size of our film.

Go to the directory where you ripped the files to and right click on the .m2v and select Properties.



For doing the calculations we will use the format in GB and not bytes. As you can see this file (the film only no sound) is 5.72GB keep note of that.

Now click ok on that properties box and right click on the .ac3 file for the audio and also select properties.



Now we can see the audio needs 397MB of the DVD (to keep yourself within the limits count it to the next 500MB e.g. if it was 599MB count as 1GB etc…) now for this one we will count it as 500MB.

Now we know that we have got 4GB of DVD space for the movie so we need to do our calculations.

On your calculator put the size of the film that we just got in (5.72) and divide it by 100. This gives us 0.0572 which now we need to divide 4 (GB) by 0.0572. We get 69.93006993006993006993006993007 as the answer so lets say we need to encode at 60% to get the right file size to fit (to make sure it will fit we do another calculation, we take 60 and X it by 0.0572 and the answer comes out as 3.432 which we know will be fine as we only want it a max size of 4GB) its better to go down a little extra as when I done this guide the 1st time I tried to write and it didn’t fit L Nero said it was about 100MB over.

Step 14
Now that we know we need to encode at 60% we can start after setting options.

Select percentage and make sure rest of options are same as mine (remember I am doing a pal film so output resolution is slightly different but just select the closest match to mine.



Step 15
Click the tab button called Main and select Encode and select your destination for your new (smaller) .m2v to be placed and give it a name (please make sure you include .M2V at the end of your filename) then you are done (best to do this overnight while you sleep as it can take anything from 4hours – 24 hours.





Step 16
Close ReMPEG2.

Open the original directory where you ripped the movie to.



Step 17
Open the directory where you saved your Re-Encoded .m2v file and right click in the window and select Paste.



Step 18
Now right click on the .ac3 you just pasted and select rename.



Rename the file to encoded.ac3 (replace encoded with the filename you saved your .m2v as so that they are the same only different file extensions)



Step 19
Close the window and now open up Spruce Up.



Now Click on File then Prefrences and make sure your region zone is set accordingly to the zont that your original DVD is from (e.g. Pal for a Pal film and NTSC for an NTSC Film)





Click on the 3rd tab at the top with the film strip picture.



Step 20
Right click in the light blue section and select Add Media Asset…



Select the .m2v that you re-encoded.



Now press Open and wait for the file to be imported into Spruce up (if you renamed the .ac3 correctly then it will automatically import that aswell.



Step 21
Now that Spruce Up has finished importing your screen will look similar to this.



We are particularly interested in the following bit which will tell us if the audio was imported correctly along with the video.



This bit is information about the film. Tells us the filename, total play time, format (MPEG-2 = DVD) also it tells us how many chanpters are in the film at present and if the sound icon is present there is audio linked to the movie and if movie strip displayed then the video is present.

To add chapters right click on the box shown above and select Clip Properties.





Now to add chapters we move the slider underneath the red flag and then click the red flag icon with the + sign in it.

Add all the chapters you want until you are happy and here is an example.



Now click close.

Step 22
Left click on the movie and keep hold of the button and drag it to the bottom in the box next to Export. And let the mouse button go.



Now we can see that there is a picture of the first frame on the bottom where we placed the link to the film which is a good sign. Also we can see that the DVD is close to its maximum size as the picture of the DVD is in the orange zone which is also ok. The only time where you haven’t followed the calculations properly is when the DVD picture overlaps and the green bits go red.

Step 23
Click on simulate and make sure the film plays.



now due to when I take a screenshot it doesn’t take a screenshot of the film playing but you can see the tie has moved and its playing.

Step 24
Now click on Export.



Notice the output is set to my DVD writer (well to be safe I always set to Title Set) so set it to Title Set. And set your folder path.



Now click on write and when prompt save the project as whatever you want and then wait till complete J





When this is complete your screen will look similar to this.



Press OK and exit Spruce Up.

Step 25
Go to the directory where you told Spruce Up to save the make the Title Set.



Now this looks like the directory structure exactly like a DVD. Open the VIDEO_TS folder.



Now I save my project just as Untitled so we have an Untitled.LAY file (which is not needed as we have no menu and I think this is only used for menu and when deleted the film still works ive tried ) so delete the .LAY file you have and then also delete the rest of the files (excluding VTS_01_1, 2, 3, 4, 5) as these will be re-made and wont be associated with Spruce Up. The following is what you should be left with.



Now close the window.

Step 26
Open up IFOEdit and select Create IFOs. Select the path you just deleted files from.



Select the first file (VTS_01_1.VOB) and hit open then hit save.



This is now making new ifo’s for you.

When complete Click Get VTS sectors and click OK/YES to all prompts then close ifoedit and re-open.

Now click open and select VIDEO_TS.IFO and click ok. Click Region free on ifoedit and select ok to all prompts that appern then quit and test dvd in your dvd playback software.

Now the long process is over and its time to burn your dvd.

Please ready my guide to burning DVD-R movies with Nero Burning Rom.