I’m pretty new to the idea of making backups of my DVDs, but I’m using Shrink and so far it’s not that difficult. Thanks to this site for the excellent guides. I searched for explanation of a term that is probably fairly basic, but I don’t understand it. Exactly what is a “disk image” ? and how is that different that the files that I am burning using shrink? Thanks, Steve This is an awesome site.
disc image is just 1 big file (that contains everything you ripped). if you select this, and have dvd decrypter, it will burn the image for you. Otherwise you will rip individual ifo, bup, and vob files which need to be burned with nero for example.
Well, the definition of this is a little loose. Technically, a disc image is a byte-for-byte replica of an original disc, be it CD, DVD or whatever. Typically complete replicas are called ISOs (even though the .iso image format is distinct, people just use it generically). Real ISO files have the extension .iso, and can be "mounted" (like loading a virtual disc into a virtual drive) with tools such as Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% to name but two. You can also get disc images which are selective images - for instance, you could have an image of a DVD, which has been decrypted (i.e. the CSS content scrambling and Macrovision bits have been stripped out of the original video data to render the disc image region-free). Sometimes, if you're shrinking down an image of a DVD to fit onto a DVDR (which has a capacity of 4.3gb, or 4.7gb depending on how you count it) you might want to remove some of the other features, leaving space for the main DVD movie. When it's all recomposited, you can make an image of the disc, which can then be burnt to a DVDR with tools such as DVD Decryptor (which can also make images of original discs). So, in short, an disc image or image file (you can recognise the files, as they're BIG (typically as big as the maximum capacity of the disc for which they are destined / sourced from), and have various extensions. Here's a guide to some of the different subtypes of image files: .iso = standard(ised) image files (hence the ISO file extension) .bwt = Blindread/Blindwrite format image files .cdi = DiscJuggler format image files .b5t = BlindWrite format image files .ccd = CloneCD format image files .nrg = Nero format image files .pdi = Instant CD/DVD format image files There's also some "descriptor" or "cue" files that you can find along with the actual image files, which help some tools to load up the images - they tell the program where in the image file the data begins, how many bytes the actual data in the image uses - like a virtual track descriptor. The most common of these are the .cue files and .mds files (Media Descriptor Files) - DVD Decryptor is amongst various tools which can generate MDS files for use with disc images. I hope you find this useful. Cheers Christopher
thanks for the help, it's starting to make sense. There is a whole bunch of new terms to try to learn for sure. Hey Sly. you said ""disc image is just 1 big file (that contains everything you ripped). if you select this, and have DVD Decrypter, it will burn the image for you. Otherwise you will rip individual ifo, bup, and VOB files which need to be burned with Nero for example"" is there any advantage to either method? (ie. burning one large image verse buring the individual ifo,bup,VOB files?
to clarify the other poster, it's sometimes quicker to just burn the individual files to the VIDEO_TS folder of a Video DVD (if you ripped a DVD on your PC, for example, using a tool like Smartripper - which I love - and you can't be bothered to make an image of the decrypted DVD, which is a bit pointless anyway if all you're going to do is burn it to DVD again). Disc images are more suited to transfer via the Internet or similar medium (like local network) - you can be sure that you have every single file you'll need to play back the DVD at a future date. For immediate replication though, there's not really any need... Unless you like putting in extra steps for no reason
