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DVDShrink project introduction

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Author

Rick Saunders
ozzzy1@gmail.com
#Mandrake (Undernet)

Piracy
These utilities are NOT meant to be a method of pirating DVD's. They were written to provide a method of:

Creating a 'fair use' archival copy of a DVD movie, or

To create a copy of a movie which can be taken to the lake or to a party/gathering which, if damaged, does not remove the use of the original DVD from the user and will remain in the possession of the owner of the original.

Neither script contains any code that allows the decrypting of any DVD protected with CSS. If this ability exists, it exists in the libraries and tools that they call. Find information elsewhere.

Piracy hurts everyone.... be responsible!

FILES (2.4.2 and later) 

batchrip.sh       Shell script to 'batch' rip DVD titles
dvdshrink         The main shell script that does the magic
dvdsfunctions     The functions file for 'dvdshrink'
install.sh        A shell installer
xdvdshrink.pl     Gtk2 GUI for 'dvdshrink'
README.txt        This file
INSTALL           How to install from the tarball
example.xml       An example of a simple XMl file
batchrip.txt      Some information on 'batchrip.sh'
gpl.txt           The GNU Public License

Definitions
Audio stream
    In it's current state, dvdshrink can only handle AC3 audio. The MPEG2 file is comprised of a video stream (MPEG2) and perhaps many audio streams along with (perhaps) several subtitle streams.
Authoring
    As a DVD has a specific (highly specific) format you can't just burn the files to a blank and hope that it works. Dvdshrink will author the new DVD properly for you.
Burn speed
    While the burning application (growisofs) is smart enough to determine on it's own the speed that a blank DVD can be safely burned at, there may be times when you want a slower speed (cheap generic blanks for example)
DVD5
    A single-layer 4.7G blank DVD.
DVD9
    A dual-layer 8.5G blank DVD.
Episodes
    A DVD with more than one 'feature' such as a season of a TV show is split into titles with each title being one episode of the show. Each episode will have a video stream along with at least one audio stream and perhaps one or more subtitle streams.
ISO file
    An image of a DVD that can be used to burn to a blank.
MPEG2 file
    The file format used in DVDs. On commercial DVDs it consists of a video stream, one or more audio streams and one or more subtitle streams.
Project name
    This is a name you can select for the project. It determines the filenames and directory structure that dvdshrink will use. For example: if you select the name 'mymovie' then if your base directory is /tmp all of the files will be in /tmp/mymovie.
Read device
    The device that the original DVD will be read from. Usually in Mandrake this will be /dev/dvd unless you have multiple devices.
Shrink factor
    The amount that the _VIDEO_ stream will be 'shrunk' by (known as MPEG re- quantization) to make the original fit onto a smaller DVD blank. Dvdshrink will calculate one for you if shrinking is needed.
Sub stream
    The subtitle stream(s) embedded in the MPEG2 file.
Title
    Every DVD has at least one title. This is how DVDs are split up into episodes, or into movies and special features etc. The main title of a DVD is usually number 1.
Video stream
    Each DVD title will have an MPEG2 video stream (the video portion).
Write device
    The device that the new DVD5 will be written to. Again, usually in Mandrake this will be /dev/dvd unless you have multiple devices.