Looking for an easy way to bring your DVD collection into your Windows 7 Media Center movie library? DVDShrink may have just what you’re looking for.  DVDShrink provide a simple and efficient method for even novice users to bring their collection to exactly where they need it. With an easy to use interface for selecting compress levels, included tracks and features as well as the ability to retain menus and extras DVDShrink is an excellent choice for the chore at hand. Of course, this won’t work with DRM protected disks without special third party software not included in the DVDShrink package.

To get started download and install the DVDShrink software. Once you’ve got the program installed and the disk you’d like to backup to the hard drive ready and inserted into the drive, open up the DVDShrink program. Begin the process by selecting the Open Disk option at the top of the screen.

Once you’ve selected your disk DVDShrink will begin analyzing the content. The benefit of using DVDShrink is the ability to retain all the information on the disk including menus and extras in addition to the main content.  You can watch the progress of the initial analysis inside the small dialog preview window presented during processing.

Once the analysis has completed you see the file structure of the DVD in the main DVDShrink window. You’ll also be presented with the option to include or exclude specific tracks such as audio languages and subtitles. To cut down on size you can disable the inclusion of any tracks you’re unlikely to use, such as languages you don’t speak.

Also available is a basic compression option under the Video heading on the right. Setting this to Automatic or No Compression will likely suit most users but you can also select a custom compression rate if necessary. After narrowing the options down to just what you’d like included in your DVD rip press the Backup button at the top of the main interface. This will bring up a dialog where you can select the location to save your backups.

In the upper drop box of the Target dialog you can also choose whether to save the backup as a standard Video_TS format or as an ISO file format. Saving backups as an ISO will require a third party plugin to playback inside Media Center, such as Media Browser, while Video_TS are supported by default.

Under the Quality settings tab you’ll also find a few options to improve the video output of your backups. Selecting the “Perform deep analysis” option will improve the quality of your rips by performing a second pass of the content though this will drastically increase the time to complete the process.

Once ready press the OK button and DVD Shrink will begin processing your disk.

That’s all there is to it! As long as the location you’ve ripped the disk to is accessible to the Windows 7 Media Center movie library you should now be able to access the full disk from inside.