I'm an ole man but newbie when it comes to backing up dvd's. Yesterday I downloaded the trial version of DVD Fab ver 3.0.9.8. To try it out I backed up 5 dvd's including Casino Royal & Pursuit of Happeness. After making an iso file to my hard drive I clicked on the iso file and Nero automatically opened up ready to burn. All 5 backups worked flawlessly using this method, which b/t/w I got from this forum. With Casino Royal I had to use a Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL because of the size of CR. It took forever at 2.4x. I did Casino Royal again but this time I used DVD Shrink, another method I got from this forum, which I used right after DVD Fab and before Nero. This time I only used 1 TY DVD+16x for CR to fit. The observation I made is that apparently DVD Shrink compresses the file. My question: Am I right in assuming that Shrink compresses the file? BTW After the sucess I had with my first 5 dvd backups I bought the full version of DVD Fab and ordered a bunch of Verbatim DVD+R DL 8x. Thank you Andrew
the reason for shrink is to allow the movie to fit on a dvd5 you can remove extras and do just the movie by the way i am an old man
Hello ACC1389, Welcome to AD from one old man to another Anyway if you bought DVDFab Platinum then there really is no need for any of the other programs you are using. Shrink does infact do exactly as the name states it will shrink your original DVD to fit onto one single layer disk. It is not really compressing though. What all of these transcoders do is actually remove bits of the video in order to get the size smaller. You really can't notice this at all with the naked eye unless you are really shrinking it a lot then the picture will become more pixilated and noticable. In my opinion the best way to get a good back up now a days with all free programs (and these work just as good if not better than most pay programs) is by using the following sequence. [1] DVDFab Decrypter (Free) to rip your movie to the hard drive [2] FixVTS (Free) to clean up your files and get them just right [3] DVD Shrink (free) to shrink and re-author your movie [4] ImageBurn (free) to burn the movie to your blank DVD media Here is a guide if you want to have a look DVD BAckup Guide
Hey I thank both you guys for your help. I don't think we are that old it's just that everybody else is younger. Thanks again Andrew
Well I started really feeling old when I realized my daughter is graduating from college this year.. Man where did the time go!
bbmayo, I know where your coming from, I was 4 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked. BTW it was your DVD Fab Decrypter Tutorial that I followed yesterday to get the success in making my first backups. So thanks again Andrew
No problem glad to see you got it figured out, and I am not as old as you I wasent even thought of when Pearl Harbor happened ;-) so you probably have me by about 20 yrs. I guess I better quit thinking I'm old now ;-)
Amazing! A forum with old men I can interact with, although I am only 61 and that is a prime number! I was just a tadpole when the Japs were surrendering. Anyway, very nice to see posts from folks of my era and know I am not the only senior who backs up his movies. My wife says I should only need one movie, since I can't remember the last one I watched! But, I digress.... My question is this. I just started using DVDFab Platinum and love it. The interesting thing is that when I take them to Shrink and analyze them, they come out ready to encode at 100%??? Does this program Shrink somehow at the same time? Any senior assistance?
the reason you are seeing 100% is that the movie will fit on a dvd5 with out any shrinking some movies will require that you shrink in order to fit on a dvd5 by the way i wish i was 61 in a few months i will hit the big 70
This is weird. I am using DVDFab Platinum and decided to try to do a one-stop backup of my purchased DVD's. When I attempted to do the burn, I couldn't get the job done, so went ahead and went through Shrink like I have in the past and then use ImgBurn. Well, sir, since then my DVD drive on my laptop (XP) will not recognize a blank DVD. It will play a DVD, but seems to think every blank disc is a CD. Reinstalled drivers, etc., but still no go. Now, on our other computer I have been using DVDFab Platinum to rip movies and when I get to the step to burn using ImgBurn it will not recognize the media until I reboot the computer, then it works fine. Anybody want to take a stab at helping this old man?
I had a similiar problem with one of my DVD+RW drives, I have 4 of them on 2 PC's. You might want to try what I've been doing it might work for you. Uninstall the DVD+RW Drive (hardware) through Device Manager by right clicking the drive and then click uninstall. Reboot and you will probably get the message "Found New Hardware". It's a fast and simple proceedure and it worked for me in the past. Andrew
Andrew, Thanks for the idea, but I had tried that before and it did not work. I did try it once again this morning. I think I will be making another trip to Sam's Club and return the unit. HP has not replied to my technical request and I refuse to go through listening to someone from India ask me if I know how to turn on the computer or am I using a blank DVD and not a CD or all the other silly questions. Thanks for the feedback. One thing I am a little leery of is getting Vista and having more problems, but I imagine if I use DVDFab from the beginning it will be ok. I have managed to back up some successfully from the other computer which does have Vista. (Even though I have to reboot.)
crooner7, exchanging the drive will probably solve your problem. By the way I put 2 full versions Vista Home Premium on both my machines when Vista first came out retail and I love it. Good Luck Andrew
Good to hear that Vista is working well for you. I will probably be taking this laptop back tomorrow and exchanging it. Thanks for the feedback.
I have been unable to find a firmware update for this burner. I have used several different type of media, each of which I have used successfully before.
I just found http://www.dvdplusvideo.com/Guides/alkohol_guide1.html in which the author makes this statement: ..."NOTE: Before you're going to rip any DVDs/movies or insert any original DVDs into your drive, let's "disable AutoRun" (this is highly recommend) to prevent from getting hijacked by Settec's Alpha-DVD protection. Some DVDs will install bunch of craps into your system without your consent if you have AutoRun turn "On" and it will abort or crash your system when it's transcoding or burning. In addition, it even goes as far as removing your burners, etc...." Is it possible that by not having "Autorun" disabled that some of these protecting devices could have removed the burner??
