A Few Questions on Burning DVDs

I've taken a look at the guides on the site and there are so many that provide help but I really don't which would be the best for certain things.

1. Is there an all in one software the will allow me to burn a DVD?

2. If not, what software is necessary to burn a DVD?

3. If a a movie doesn't fit on to one DVD, would you recommend compressing it and losing quality or putting it on two discs?

Thanks for any help

 

1) Nero and imgburn will both allow u to burn to a disc, but they will not decrypt
2) dvd shrink will compress but less than 80%, I suggest dvd rebuilder and or split discs or burn to a DVD-9 (dual layer where there is no compression and you get a 1:1 copy)

 

sorry for the newbie question, but what does it mean to decrypt?

And how do I know what types of writeable DVDs are DVD-9?

 

The writable DVD media that will fit a DVD9 with no compression are called Dual Layer DVDs, or DL DVDs. One of the best choices,especially for DL are Verbatim discs.

 

loco what happened to step 2 and 3 = dvd flick - lol

 

double post dam it - lol

 

1. Is there an all in one software the will allow me to burn a DVD?

What kind of DVD?
If your looking just to make Data DVD's or copy films then yes, Nero can do that for you, so can Clone DVD and ImgBurn.

2. If not, what software is necessary to burn a DVD?

Again depends what you want to do.
For copying films you first need something to get rid of the DVD copy protection:

You can go with either AnyDVD (commercial) which defeats pretty much anything out there and supports Blu-Ray and HD DVD or DVDFab Decrypter, a freeware app, pretty much same support and features.

Second, you need something to either recode the DVD(basically reconvert it to DVD and copy it to a blank one) or rip it to your hard drive and burn it as an Image file:

Again, Nero Recode is a good application for doing this, or you can try Clone DVD, DVDXCopy, and DVD Shrink. All of those are "one-click copy" applications, that pretty much do it all with the press of a button, no need to fool around with any settings/image files. Also all are commercial, so you have to pay for them.

The longer way is to rip them to your Hard Drive and then make an Image file and burn that disc. It takes longer but gives you more control over what your doing.

You can again use DVDFab Decrypter, AnyDVD or DVD Shrink to rip a DVD to your hard drive and then use ImgBurn, Nero Vision or similiar software to make an Image and burn it to a DVD.

3. If a a movie doesn't fit on to one DVD, would you recommend compressing it and losing quality or putting it on two discs?

I would recommend compressing it in every case.
If you've got an ordinary 68-80cm, Non-HD Television, than 90% of the time your not going to be able to tell the difference between a DVD9 and shrunken DVD5.

If you get rid of extras, subtitles and unnecessary audio tracks you can pretty much squeeze the quality back up to around 75% or more most of the time, which is reasonably good and decent enough for backups unless your a complete videophile and are obsessed with quality.

All those "one-click copy" applications I mentioned before can do this. If you really value your quality than you can recode DVD9's onto blank DVD+R DL's, although they are slightly more expensive.

Don't bother with splitting a DVD onto 2 DVD5's, virtually no one does that, it's pointless.

 

Wow! Lots of info, hard to keep it straight! Just not to confuse people, DVD Shrink is not commercial,is free, and the "1 Click" feature for Clone DVD, that is attained only in conjunction with ANYDVD running in the background.Same for DVD Shrink, if also paired with ImgBurn. By themselves, they cannot work as a "1 Click" software. Also, there is the option of backing up "Movie Only", leave all the junk out...
Will stop here, enough for first lesson:~)

 

It is mainly for copying film DVDs. And I do have an HD tv.

I just bought this notebook and it does support dual-layering.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/380750/HP-Pavilion-dv6775us-Widescreen-Notebook-Computer/

I checked bestbuy.com and the dual layer dvds are expensive when compared to single layer so I'd prefer to just stick with single layering and removing special features cause I don't care for that stuff.

I'm looking for one-click freeware. Would you suggest using Clone DVD in conjunction with ANYDVD running in the background or DVD Shrink if paired with ImgBurn?

 

Clone DVD+AnyDVD are not free. Howerver, if you pay for AnyDVD, it is a good deal. You don't have to buy CloneDVD also, as you can use DVD Shrink instead.If you want freeware, I don't think you will get a "1 Click" deal. If you say you don't care about extras and other junk, "Main Movie" rip is the way to go.

Here is a guide to do a DVD backup with every thing(except your discs!) free:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/494836

 

Not really gonna find one-click freeware, have to either buy, or use torrents and deal with cracks and keygens.
The best and easiest free way IMHO is
1. DVDFab HDDecrypter to rip to Hard drive. http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm
2. Setting DVD Shrink to re-author with main movie only. Then auto burning with IMGBurn. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/494836
Everyone else has given solid information too. The choice is yours.

Edit:the link was just given while checking over my links! I'm a little slow typing

 

Ok, so let me make sure I have this right:

If I want freeware, I go with DVDShrink and imgburn, and it's not one-click.

If I want to pay, I go with AnyDVD and CloneDVD, but its one-click.

Correct?

Can you tell me which download I would be purchasing on AnyDVDs site? I pasted them below.

Product Price Buy Bundle price
AnyDVD EUR 49.00 EUR 33.76
AnyDVD HD Option EUR 30.00 EUR 20.67
CloneDVD EUR 39.00 EUR 26.87
CloneDVD mobile EUR 39.00 EUR 26.87
CloneCD EUR 39.00 EUR 26.87
GameJackal Pro EUR 29.00 EUR 19.98

 

The downloads you would need from them would be AnyDVD and Clone DVD, on their website you get a deal for buying more than one product at a time, thats why there was 2 different prices. Those products come to 69 EUROS, and I dont know where you are but if Euros arent your currency it turns quite expensive (unless yer a Brit, cheers if so). Anyway, if you want to spend less many people say DVDFab Platinum or Gold is good http://www.dvdfab.com/index.htm and I dont know how well they work, I dont use either, but they incorporate a ripper that they also package by itself for free, which is about the best program around to rip a DVD to your computers hard drive. If 1 good program plus other peoples words mean anything than look into them, I believe they have a free trial.

 

mobster11:

Sure if your willing to pay and just want a simple, straightforward solution, Clone DVD and AnyDVD are good, but personally I recommend the combination of AnyDVD and Nero Recode 2.

Clone DVD does give you reasonable quality but it's shrinking algorithm and compression ratios are not as robust as Nero Recode's. Recode essentially uses DVDShrink's compression techniques, which absolutely top-notch, just read the reviews.

I've personally used both Clone DVD and Recode, and I'd say for one thing Nero Recode gives you slightly more features, as you can manually set the compression ratios yourself for different streams, tracks and parts of the DVD, also it allows to lock out subtitles, unnecessary audio tracks and extras.

Also Clone DVD can be a finicky and oversensitive to dirty or scratched discs.

 

Can anyone else substantiate this? I live in the US so yea I would have to pay more for the exchange rate. I couldn't find Nero Recode on Nero's site. Does it go by a different name?

Anyone use DVDFab? Is that a one-click software?

 

Nero Recode comes with the whole Nero Suite, so you have to get either Nero 7 or 8.

DVDFab is just a decrypter, the most it can do is the rip DVD's to your HD, that's it.

Look as I said before go for either:

-Nero Recode (Part of Nero Standard/Premium/Ultra)
-Clone DVD
-DVDXCopy or DVDXCopy Platinum

Those are all one-click applications your looking for. In my opinion Recode gives the best quality however.

 

DVDFab Platinum is another very good "one click" software. Is the paid-full version of DVDFab HD Decrypter. I think it is rather versatile, often updated for new encryptions. If you're looking for paid programs. Not my case.

http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-fab-platinum.htm

EDIT: Deadrum33 posted above about it. Sorry, didn't see it before posting.
@Admir
Your last post is a little misleading

I am not familiar with DVDXCopy, however, Nero Recode , needs AnyDVD in the background to use it as a "one click" application. It can not be "one click" by itself, as Nero does not decrypt.

 

cyprusrom:

Well you are right, but it's a given that your going to need to decrypt your DVD's before doing any reencoding, ripping or converting with them.

DVDXCopy is in general a horrible program, let alone when it comes to decrypting. Most new DVDs in my experience cannot be decrypted by it alone.