I have downloaded a few programs I have no clue how to make them work. My question is "is it against forum rules to have like a tutor to do walk thrus with another member?" Is there a guide for reauthoring with shrink? Any help, ideas, etc is greatly appreciated.... Cheers
No problem, and honestly, your best tutor is yourself. It's nice to get a few pointers from who I beleive are the best, which is right here @ afterdawn. But I've always learned from sitting down and trying pretty much every which ways the utility is able to be used. Of course, you would want to do this with garbage media. Get yourself a small spindle and do test runs with the same movie. Find out what you like most. This is going to sound ridiculous, but my curiousness, [if thats a word] has caused me to pretty much download and test more or less every single rip and burn software utilities made. The best made to me seem to be DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter. Both of which are freebies. Other chaps seem to be happy with TPMGEnc. I've heard terrific things about this utility. Except it's hard for me to convert when I've utilized something for so long. I've been working a little with Slysofts utilities lately as a backup measure when Shrink or Decrypter don't seem to work. These utilities have never failed me. Good thing is, their menus and gui is almost exact to that of Shrink and Decrypter, just set up of course in a different fashion. Hope this helps.
@rp_024 The programs that have worked best for me has been the dvd shrink, the dvd decrypter, dvdfab decrypter, and then burning it. Until this week I could rip and burn anything, then I started getting error after error and it just frustrated me to no end. I never back down from a challenging situation. I am worried about reauthoring I got the links but in the glossary it doesn't mention some of these abbreviations. Does it matter that my pc will let me burn with any kind of blank dvd (-/+, rw, etc.)? Do I use the guide copy dvd-9 to a single dvd-r using dvd shrink? Thanks Cheers
I have two ideas. Firstly, yes it does matter what type media you are utilizing, especially if the burner is media type specific. Meaning, some burners can utilize both +/- media, on the other hand some burners are only + media, while others may only be - media. If your burner is media type specific, you may have very well purchased the wrong type. Now, if the burner is able to utilize both +/- you may very well have a completely different issue. Have you recently applied any patches, windows updates and hotfixes, or installed any new software or hardware? Sometimes additional utilities interfere with either or. The second being the firmware for you burner. Is there an update for this particular burner? And if so, has this firmware update been applied?
@rp_024 My burner accepts dvd-r/rw, dvd+r/rw, and dvd+9r double layer discs. Although I haven't had much success with the +r discs, so I have been using the -r discs. My pc is almost a year old, not to be dumb, but I haven't seen an update for it or really even thought about updating the firmware. Ummmm, where do I find such updates? I do my windows updates when they pop up. I have a program called bigfix which addresses any issues on my computer and directs me on how to fix them. As far as that I have only downloaded the various programs to burn with, do you think maybe I have a bigger issue that I am just not seeing or recognizing? Thanks for all your help, you're truly awesome. Cheers
Firmware is the software or "utilities" which make your burner function properly with the hardware it's attached to. Sometimes when updates are applied to a pc such as hardware updates from microsoft, this will leave the firmware of the specific peripheral outdated. Which means you might wind up now having problems with your burner because of update compatibility issues. Find out the manufacturer, make and model of the burner. Go to their site and look for a link with some kind of verbiage like "Support and Downloads" or "Software/Hardware Updates", something of that nature. You may find the model of your burner requires some kind of firmware compatibility update. Then Download and install. However, the firmware must be specific. Not all burners are the same, so you cannot download and install any firmware you see. Could wind up making things worse. If you aren't sure, there is always the company support which should have an email address or phone number. Give them a shout to find out specifically if there is some kind of update available and if they are aware of any particular version or compatibility issues with your specific software. As far as the media is concerned, I would recommend staying with -. I've found + to be a pain is zee arse. Hope this helps.
@rp_024 Thanks for that heads up on firmware. I am not computer illiterate but I do listen and do what others advise me to do, so I will definitely be checking out the burner issue. I am gonna stick with the - discs, they perform and burn faster and easier than the + discs. If ever can help you, gimme a shout and I'll try my best to help out. Thanks again. Cheers
