Computer

Do you need to make backups of your movies on DVD? Try DVDShink

DVDShirk is a program developed to make backup copies of DVDs that are copy protected. It has the possibility of being able to bypass different protection measures and to be able to save the image of our hard disk in ISO format or as a VIDEO_TS folder. It is worth mentioning that the program is in charge of transferring the image to the hard disk, but it does not allow us to burn the image to DVD, for which we will need another complementary program to carry out this task.

This software will allow us to discard all the content of the DVD that we are not interested in saving, such as subtitles or different audio languages, and in the event that a movie occupies more space than a DVD, it will reprint the video to be able to adjust it to the capacity of the disc. It is capable of compressing disk saving space without affecting the quality of the disk, being able to reduce about 2.5 GB. Of course, it also allows the cloning of the disks to have a complete backup of it.

It also offers compatibility not only with traditional 4.7 GB DVDs but also 8.5 GB DVD9. In addition, it has an integrated player where you can view the video of the DVD of which we want to make the copy. In addition, it consumes little resources and has a zero weight of its installation on a hard disk (~ 1 mb).

Steps to start using DVDShirk

Once installed, we execute DVDShirk so that its main menu appears with an interface that seems outdated, which is completely in English and that at first may not be very intuitive, but to which we should not take long to get used to it. that the steps are not complex to carry out, beyond the language.

DVDShink interface

Select source drive

To start making backup copies of our discs, we must make sure that we have inserted the DVD in the reader unit of our computer. Later we must press on the section of “Open disk” (Open disk), select the reader unit and click on Ok (Accept).

DVDShrink select drive

DVDShirk will then take care of recognizing all the contents of the DVD for a few minutes. Later it will be in charge of showing us all the content on the screen. From the result, it gives us the possibility to choose which are the elements of the same that we want to copy (Subtitles, audios, extras, etc). In the left column we will see a breakdown of the folders, while in the right columns we can choose the quality of the video, select the audio tracks and the images it includes. In the lower left we will have a player from where we can view the content of the DVD. Once the DVD is recognized, we will have two options: copy everything or select the content we want to copy.

DVDShrink display disc content

Copy all the contents of the DVD

To do this, we must access the “Full Disk” section from where we can configure the copy. We click on «Main Movie» to set the video quality, and it is advisable to leave it on «Automatic», so that the program itself adapts the quality according to the size of the disc. We also uncheck the languages ​​that do not interest us, as well as the subtitles.

If we want to lower the quality of the menus so that with the space we gain we can achieve a better quality of the video, we will do so from the “Custom Ratio” section and we will lower it to the minimum. For the same reason, we can also remove additional languages ​​that do not interest us.

Once these steps have been carried out, we have our DVD configured to be created. Now we just have to press the «Bakcup» button and we will have three options available:

  • Copy only to hard disk.
  • Create an image of the DVD on your hard drive.
  • Burn it after transferring it to the hard drive.

DVDShrink backup DVD

Copy the movie and add whatever you want

In this case we must access the “Re-Author” section and double click on “Title 1”, where we can configure the copy and add any other extra that may interest us. In the tab “Compression Setrings” (Compression Options) we can remove the audios and subtitles that we do not want to include.

DVDShrink Re-author

Once the above is done, just click on “Backup”, and we will find again the three options previously available. We select the appropriate option and at the end a message will appear indicating that the copy has been made satisfactorily.

Conclusions: is DVDShirk worth using?

DVDShirk is an efficient and free burner, but somewhat old and lacking in updates, and despite the fact that it works you may have problems with recent anti-copy systems that may not be able to unlock. We can always try it and see first-hand if it can make copies of our DVDs, and if not, opt for other alternatives. Given his Older does not have Blu-ray Disc compatibility, something that many moviegoers may miss and an interface in Spanish would not hurt for the most inexperienced users. In addition, it does not allow recordings, so for this it will be necessary to have complementary software.

DVDShirk free download

DVDShirk is a free application, although it is currently discontinued since its latest version 3.2.0.14 dates from July 2004, so it is very old software but it is still capable of working on Windows 10. It is still possible to download it from the developer’s website, although free, requires a donation. For this reason, we must download them from other secure third-party pages, such as, for example, from here.

Alternatives to DVDShrik

In the event that we are looking for a program with which to burn our copy-protected DVDs, we can opt for some more modern and up-to-date alternatives to DVDShirk, such as:

Free DVD Ripper

It is possibly one of the best options for decrypting DVD movies. It is a program capable of getting the job done with a great success rate. It is free for Windows and is capable of removing DVD copy protection (region code, Sony ARccOS, UOP, Disney X-project DRM, among others). In this way, its main mission is to decrypt and copy DVDs with all the details, offering compatibility with more than 200 audio and video output formats. We can download it from their website.

MakeMKV

This is a DVD decryptor with which it is possible to copy encrypted DVD and Blu-ray files to MKV simultaneously, preserving all the audio tracks (including HD audio) and video, as well as all the information of the chapters. You can unprotect AACS and BD + protected copies and preserve the output MKV files in high quality. It is a multi-system application so it is compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS computers. We can download it for free from this link.

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