Doesn't anyone use the guides before posting "how-to" questions?

Hi there thietlong, welcome to aD,

All 17 pages ? My, you are a God among Newbies - if you know others like your-fine-self, send them over (lol)

As you can tell, having someone read first and then ask is rare BUT much appreciated

The time issue ? Yes, I can only say one thing to you, Quality = time spent. There are other programs, $$$ ones, that can shorten the time (not buy a whole lot though) and keep your quality and of course you can cut your quality down and reduce your time to 45 minutes or so depending on your PC's specs BUT, by and large, quality does take time.

We wish it weren't so. I will start by saying, if your compression is say, 90% or better, you can get by without the Deep Analysis and the Quality settings. Me, I use them all the time BUT - that's me. Back to the 90% figure, just go in and uncheck all the things in DVD Shrink's Quality settings and watch the time fly and the end result will still be quite good

You might wish to try Nero's Recode2, it works very much like Shrink, it will go faster with the Deep Analysis and Slow encoding keeping your quality AND it allows you to edit quite a bit as well while keeping your menus active. They have a 30-day FREE trial giving you plenty of time to play with it. Follow the guide in my sig and see how you like that -

Stop back and let us know how you made out -

Cheers and again, welcome to our little "Club,"

"P"

 

Hi Scuba Pete,

thanks again for the prompt answer and great help. I just have another question regarding the firmware issue...(I also take a look at your post regarding firmware)I download the program you suggested and it confirms that I have the latest firmware update from the manufacture. My question is that I know some particular forum that offer a modified version that would make small improvement on your dvd burner drive and I was wondering if it worth the update. I know that by flashing to the modified unofficial firmware would voided my warranty so I was checking to see if it worth the risk to increase the burn speed on the dvd? I currently have the NEC 3520A model. Thanks again for all the help and sorry for the bad grammar.

thietlong

 

hey, Im a complete novice at this, but I printed the guide and downloaded dvd shrink and im now copying my 5th DVD, its so easy, what a cool site......
Thanks and keep it up.....

 

Hey there thietlong,

About the firmware you're talking about - we call it "Hacked Firmware" and though you're taking a very small risk, I have never had a problem using "Hacked Firmware". One of my drives is a NEC1300A and I'm running a Hacked Firmware on it that allows it to write at 8X on 4X discs instead of 4X. After I got it I decided I was getting too many errors writing at 8X so I just turned everything down and went back to writing at 4X. Another drive of mine is a Pioneer107 and I "flashed" that with a Hacked Firmware so that again I could write to 4X discs at 8X. My new Pioneer drive doesn't have a Hacked Firmware for anything yet BUT if it does get something I would probably "flash" that one too. As you see, I trust them, all I can say; it's up to you.

The most important thing to bear in mind - Never, "flash" with anything unless it's for your drive EXACTLY. Trying to flash with a different firmware lead to disaster for sure.

As for your grammar ~ it's just fine by me

I only get upset with people who won't use spell check OR who try to be smart and talk in "code" - I'll be glad to talk with you all day long (Lol) I hope we'll fix your problem before then -

Pete


Doug121, welcome to aD,
Glad our forum was of help, we hope to see more of you - you don't have to have a problem to stop by -

Cheers,

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

Thanks again for the help. I have another question and it's a pretty silly one. If I was to burn a dvd movie from a copied disc, would all the quality and sound be as good as the original? (Don't worry, I will make sure both disc are of the highest quality...TY..Ricoj...etc)I think I should word it better; would I retain all the quality of the original movie, considering that it's in excellent shape. Thanks again for all the help Pete.

thietlong

 

If you copy from a copy, the copy will be exactly like what you're copying it from. You can never, ever get better than what you're taking it from.

When you copy from an original to a single sided disc, you will lose very slightly in video quality but it would be, IMO, unnoticeable. However, when you copy from that copy, it will be the same in every way. Unlike a VHS tape which lost quality copy after copy, when you copy a DVD it remains exactly the same no matter how far down the copy chain you go BECAUSE it is always going to be a 1:1 (zero compression required) disc.

I hope that answers your question -

Pete

 

Thanks again scuba for the answer. So far all my dvds burn pretty smoothly. However, recently today when I was trying to burn the Pianist for my friend, I run into some kind of problem. It went fine through the analyzing part, but when dvd shrink was trying to encode the movie, it froze around 50 percent and give me an ERROR message. I have a feeling that it may be a result of trying to compress it down too much, my compression level read around 56 percent. As a result, I went with Mayo split method and burn the movie on 2 dvds and it comes great. The only problem with this is I can't figure out how you can bring all the menus and extras along. I was wondering if you know away to burn the dvd uncompress on 2 discs, yet still keep all the features(menus..extras..etc...sorry for being too greedy here... )
Also regarding the earlier issue, is it a common one regarding recently released movies, because my friend try burning spiderman 2 and it works fine on his burner. Thanks again Pete and everyone else in the forum for all the helps.

thietlong

 

You can always make your own menu using something like DVDLab - that should cover all your bases.

DVDLab - excellent custom menu and authoring tool
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/

Me ? I'm doing the second season of Lost in Space again Cheers,

Pete

 

DvdLab and DvdLab pro are both excellent apps for custom menus. I use the pro version quite a bit. However if you're a novice another app you might want to look at is NeroVision Express(NVE 3), it's easier to use and comes with the Nero Ultra 6 package.


It will allow you you to convert the files(It also converts faster than most of the other file conversion apps), add more than one file at once or seperately, create a custom menu for your compilation so you can navigate and go to any file you wish, set chapters, compress, and burn to DVD all in one app.

It even has a software remote control with which to preview your work and make sure it works and allows you to make any changes you wish before you burn to disc.

It comes in the Nero Ultra 6 suite, an entire suite of audio and video programs which you can use for free each and every month for the entire month til you decide to buy(which I highly recommend). You must reinstall it each month on the 22nd and then you are good to go to the 22nd of the next month.

 

Hi bigorange,

Thanks for the recommendation. I do have the complete Nero Suite and I saw NeroVision Express(NVE 3)in there. I was wondering if there's a particular guide in using Nero Express or once you click on it, it will automatically guide you through the various options regarding creating menus and chapters...etc. Thank you in advance for your help and pointers.

Thietlong

 

thietlong

Here is a simple NVE 3 guide I wrote, and if you have any questions you can refer to the NVE 3 manual at Nero's homepage. If you have problems, just shout and I'll get back to ya. :>)

http://www.zentarium.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43

 

Thanx again for the tips bigorange. I have a semi-off topic to you or scubapete. I was wondering do you guys know what wrong when you try to play a dvd in your dvd rom drive and it don't play, but when you put it in the dvd burner, it plays fine. This is what happen to me when I try playing a dvd I just got recently. I try it on both my desktop and my laptop but it won't play at all. However, when I placed it in my NEC burner, it reads the disc just fine. Both of my computers are less than one year old with the average specs out in the market right now. Thanks again you guys for coming to this newbie rescue.

thietlong

 

A quick update to my dilemma. Since none of my dvd rom drive can read it, I decided to read and burn the movie straight from my dvd burner. I try both shrink with decrypter and decrypter by itself, but everytime I get to the part of writing the file from my hard drive to the disc, I keep getting the following message:

DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME)Failed!
Device: [0:0:0]_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A 1.U7(G(USB)
Unable to lock volume for exclusive access.
Reason: Access is denied.

Does this mean the dvd file is corrupted? Thanks again you guys for your patience and help.

 

Well this should be my last update regarding this confusing matter. I decided to take another route on this issue. So I used shrink, and instead of encoding it as a ISO file, I just saved it as a hard disk file. Then I went and use Nero to burn it. So now when I played the copied disc on my dvd rom, it played just fine. I also try burning the copied disc using shrink and decrypter and it work now. What do you guys think as possible problem...bad media on the original disc maybe? Sorry again for all these updates and once more thanks for all the response you guys.

 

It almost sounds like a compatibility issue. It wouldn't be corrupt files or the copied disc wouldn't have worked. Did you burn the original disc with your NEC burner and as an ISO file? What type media and format, did you use? Also, did you try to play it in a standalone DVD player?

 

Bigorange,

The thing that troubling for me is that when I play the original discs on my standalone dvd player, it played just fine. However, both of my dvd rom drive on my desktop and laptop wouldn't read it. My NEC burner drive read the disc however. The discs were lend to me so I am not sure which media or burner did the person used. I try burning the original using shrink and decrypter and decrypter alone and I get the following message:

DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME)Failed!
Device: [0:0:0]_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A 1.U7(G(USB)
Unable to lock volume for exclusive access.
Reason: Access is denied.

I think it may be some media issue with these discs. Also now when I try to encode, it give me an error message about 14 percent through or so. It seemed to just froze. I try this with both shrink and nero recode program. Thanks in advance bigorange for further inputs.

 

thietlong

DVDD - Tools - Settings - ISO Write tab, uncheck "Lock Volume - Exclusive Access"

Then

DVDD - Tools - Settings - Device tab and uncheck all under "Lock tray During . . . ."

Cheers,

 

The funny thing is the message pop up once more right when I was reading your post, Pete. Once again, thanx a great deal, you my savier. As far as the other issue regarding the dvd not playing on my computer rom, I am still searching my way. Hopefully, I could get around it by using my NEC as both the reader and the burner, and it go through smoothly without freezing again. Appreciate all the help once again you guys.

thietlong

 

Scuba Pete and Big Orange,

I have another quick question. I try encoding a disc today and this time it gives me the following error message:

Data Error: Cyclic Redundancy Check

I was wondering if you guys know what wrong. I think this is a really bad patch of discs I got. It don't read on my dvd rom and when I try to encode it using shrink or nero recode, or even decrypter by itself, it still failed. The thing I don't get is it played fine on my standalone dvd player. Usually most other problems I heard in here is that the disc work fine on the computer dvd drive but failed to play on the standalone player. Mine is the complete opposite and it is quite frustrating to figure out. Anyhow, thanks again you guys for having to deal with all my problems.

thietlong

 

95% of the time, that message means scratched or dirty or bad discs. You might try cleaning it using warm water, detergent, and wiping with a soft cloth from the center out in straight lines. Don't use circular motions.

BTW, sorry it took so long to get back to ya, I'm working on a Home Theater room and haven't had much PC time. But the master seems to have taken care of ya, you can't go wrong with Pete's advice.