I have had success backing up and burning just the main feature of different movies. I have a lot of disc space left on some, even with no compression. Now I'm trying to leave as many special features in as possible using a resonable amount of compression and trimming the start/end of the main title. (thanks ddlooping, for the great tutorial) however I can't get the on-sreen menus to work (access to chapter selections, outtakes, etc.) If I do a back-up using X copy express I can get them to work, but I end up with two discs and can't access anything on the second disc obviously. Im just looking for a bit of insight on this. Am I attempting the impossible or is it merely difficult?
Frank

There are a couple of ways you can do this:

1) Use CloneDVD, which is the only DVD backup software that lets you completely eliminate some video features (and the audio and subtitle options that you don't need) while keeping the menu and parts that you want.

However, this program is definitely built based on user friendliness, so it doesn't satisfy the advanced user's desire to know exactly how big the resulting complilation will be or how much compression will actually be applied.

CloneDVD has a 30-day full working trial.

2) Use DVDShrink. This program will not allow you to eliminate the features that you don't want, but will allow you to compress them to still pictures and get rid of the audio. This means that they take up fairly little space.

The nicest thing about DVDShrink is that it clearly shows how big each audio/subtitle/video segment is, how much compression is being applied, and how big the resulting compilation will be -> meaning that you can tailor a DVD to fill an entire DVD-R by pickign and choosign what goes on it.

Shrink is a VERY classy product and the price is right: free.

I'm sure there are other ways....but that should get you started

Thanks Yuriv,
I'm using shrink to compress and remove some parts by using the re-author feature, I pulled over each title I wanted in the same order as listed in the opening window, applying commpression to each. The main title automatic compression ended up at 79% (started at 49%)I also removed the subtitles and one audio stream.
Frank