I have just started to look at DVD burners so I know nothing. Here are my questions: 1. I want to copy my movies, just the movie, not the extras, trailers, menus, etc. Since I will lend the disk to my wife's parents and their tech skill is limited to putting the disk in and pressing 'Play'. No jumping thru hoops to see the movie. 2. Quality is paramount since I have a 52 inch big screen HD tv. I don't want to watch a DVD with VCR quality. 3. Do I wait for the dual-layer burners or, since I only want the movie (And hard drive backups) will a good 8X burner sold today work to put the movie on one disk? 4. Software: I don't mind springing for the 'good' software if I only have to buy it once and it will do the job I need. Which is the recommended software? I have cruised the forums and got a few answers but need to ask anyway. Thank you in advance fore any replies. Soja
if you feel the need to wait for the dual layer burner then I think they come out in june 2004 but if want to start burning now, then 8x would be your best bet. The model of burner you need is total up to you, in my opinion-I think the pioneer a107 is the best- but then again that's my opinon. The software I recomend getting is dvd shrink and dvd decrypter (it's free) just search this site and you will see why it's the best. the quality of the prograams above are great, even with shrink you can re-author the movie so you can just get the movie and no extra thing's you don't need. when it comes to quality of the movie you will never notice the difference between the original (only in some cases when the movie is like 3hrs then the compression isn't so great) but for the most part there free-So go ahead and try it. If you have any troubles with anything come back and post it and everyone will do their best to help! best of luck to you and WELCOME!!!
Hi Soja, Your movies will have the best quality without compression however removing all the extras, menu etc will reduce the size of most movies enough to keep compression to a reasonable rate. As geestar 20 said, DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink are an excellent choice and the price is right. I would consider getting the complete Nero 6 suite. That gives you programs like Burning ROM and Recode 2. All these programs are pretty easy to use, a variety of guides and tutorials are available and lots of us here at Afterdawn use them, so help is always available. geestar 20 has excellent taste in burners as well. I find my Pioneer A07 to be fast and reliable. I have hacked the firmware to get 8X burns on 4X -R media with good results. For media I have found Verbatim to be the best with Ritek G-04 second. This is based on comparison testing of burned movies using Nero's CD-DVD drive speed checker. Movies burned on the Pioneer at 6X-8X tend to fall on their face at the 6X-8X transition. The only brand that did not was the Verbatim Digital Movie Maker 4X -R. The movies burned at 4X had no significant glitches. I did not test any 8X media. All the movies played fine in my Pioneer and Emerson DVD player. At $3.00+ ea, The Verbatim lose the competition though. Based on that, I would consider the Pioneer A06 4x burner using the Ritek G-04 media. Especially now, as dual layer burners are due out within the next few months. I am hoping for a D/L firmware update for my A07 but I think Pioneer and the others may just come out with new models, they can sell more that way. Just My Humble Opinion Your Results May Vary BTW welcome to Afterdawn!! Cheers, Frank
Although Shrink is a nice program several (if not all) the commercial programs will produce better video quality on longer films. The best offer free trials.
Great info so far... Thanks. As far as commercial programs go, I don't mind financing a commercial program as long as it does the job and I don't have to keep buying programs cause the one I just bought 'doesn't do it'. These programs you recommend, I just downloaded from this forum but is there a recommended commercial program that will "Do It All"? I went to NERO's site and looked around but came away confused. The learning curve on this program is high plus I don't really know what are the 'Basic Steps' if Nero is gonna do it. Thanks again for the info. Soja
How are you doing Soja, If you really wanna know which program can do it all.. it's dvd shrink, you have total control with this program--you can take out the menu's and extra features and chop the movie with frame by frame feature's on this bad boy also take out sub-titles with the differnt language's or just back up the movie it's self... Now tell me this program won't do it all. OH YEAH..IT'S FREE If you have problem's setting up just come back with ? and we'll help you to get going. Commercial program's you have to pay for and does all the same if not less than shrink. GEt shrink!
DVD Shrink seems like the one to use, thanks. I allready have it downloaded from this site. I guess It's time to order the burner! Thanks all for the info. I'll keep cruising the forums while I wait for my burner to arrive, then I'll test it out and put my results here. See ya in a couple of days/ a week, or so. Soja
If the objective is to play them on a 52" HDTV like Soja, I wouldn't recommend shrinking a DVD at all except in cases where there is an obvious waste of bits, which I've only found in a few cases. If you're not recompressing the quality from Shrink should be the same as other programs. If you are going to recompress and want to view on a TV like that, CCE Basic (along with a couple of freeware programs) is a better solution than any of the shrinking programs and you can buy it for $58.
Soja, Before you start buying a bunch of programs, get your burner (I wouldn't install the software that comes with it), and try Shrink and DVD Decrypter. With these free programs you can make quick, easy copies of movies without menus or extras, that will look just fine on your wife's parents TV. I noticed you found the Nero website to be confusing and the learning curve for the programs to be high. Using a program like CCE Basic is going to be a bit more involved, to say the least, although the results will be better on a longer movie. With your new burner, these free programs and a couple of blank discs you can use your own eyes to see the quality of the finished product. They will definitely be better than VCR. If you find the quality unsuitible, then it would be time to step up to more complex programs. IMHO, it is just not that big of a deal to make a copy of a DVD, I don't like to spend more than a few minutes doing it and the original is pretty easy to put in the player instead of some copy I spend hours making. If I had to have a copy without compression, I would just split the thing onto two discs. Cheers, Frank
Since I may not have been completely clear before, I should mention that I agree with fasfrank on this one. Start with Decryptor and Shrink and split discs that are too big for a single blank (especially considering your TV). I'd add that it's not worth worrying about which backup program you use until you have the burning part down. For burning I'd recommend either RecordNow Max or Nero 6, and I'd stay away from Nero 5.5.x since it caused many problems for some people. You shouldn't have any problems burning with a newer program, but you should burn a test disc or 2 to make sure. I'd use Shrink for this test, either with a DVD-5 or a title where you can fit a movie only backup on a single disc. Once you're confident you don't have problems burning you can worry about more specifics of doing your backups.
WoW! Thanks for all the info people.... I have allready bought a small package of re-write disks to experiment on and have ordered my burner. I'll play with Shrink and DVD Decriptor (Which I have downloaded) for a bit and let you know what the result is. I also notice that Nero lets you try the program for 30 days. After I get confortable burning, I'll try that and see if it'll be worth buying. I have a PC magazine that compares the burner programs and they say Nero wins. SOOoooooo...... I will proceed and let you know what happens at each step. I also want to say thanks for the nice people here that offer to help a newbe. This spirit of co-operation and sharing is refreshing. Soja
Goodness me, someone quick tell our newest Club member, Soja, that we consider the mention of VCR quality as cursing here about these parts. We wouldn't tolerate a Newbie having to lower themselves to that level - We would NEVER, EVER let anyone use a program that had that poor a quality, - welcome aboard, Pete
