I would like to know if the free softwear for burning DVD's is any better than the paid softwear? Any words on DVD Cloner II?
I dont know anyone who's used DVD Cloner II , but on the other hand I have known LOADS of people to use DVD Decrypter & DVD Shrink ... with very positive results. Hence I would say the free software wins hands down in many ppl's eyes !! If you was going to pay for software , there are much better things than DVD Cloner II ... btw
I'd recommend starting with DVD Shrink, as Herbsman said. He also mentioned DVD Decryptor, which you'll want for any DVDs that Shrink has problems ripping and you can also use to burn if you don't have other software for that. If you have either Nero or RecordNow Max I'd prefer either one for burning, but many people use Decryptor for burning as well since it's free. In fact I used to use it myself. There is software that will give you better quality than Shrink for compressing, but it's not free. Not long ago I'd have said that the best solution for compressing is DVD Rebuilder (free) and CCE Basic ($58), and I'd still say that's the best way to go if you want to do full discs instead of movie only, or if your movie requires a lot of compression, but since I've started doing some testing on other software I'd say that for low compression there are other tools that will likely do a better job. I'm at the beginning of my tests right now, so I can't say what software I'd recommend for low compression, but if you check back in here at Afterdawn in a couple of weeks I'll hopefully have some results and some examples you can check out for yourself. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Backup A DVD With DVD Rebuilder & CCE Basic: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial.cfm Good Guides To Get You Started: http://www.chrismccann.co.uk/user_guides.htm RTFM - not just a good idea, it's the law![/small]
I can help you with this GatlinGun. I've paid twice for backup software. Only because I never knew about afterdawn. I have dvdxcopy platinum and dvdcloner2. platinum ran $129 and cloner around $59. Now to answer your question: no difference as far as quality of the burn, but as you already know a differnce in price. I mainly use dvdshrink then burn with dvddecrypter. every so often I'll still use dvdcloner2 and platinum, only so I feel like I get my moneys worth. every so often is like 10% of the time.
Oh, one small note. With dvdcloner2 you don't get the 4.35GB files left in your c drive. With shrink it will store a 4.35 file or image to your hard drive, which you can just delete. that's all
Once I download Decrypter and Shrink, is there any other programs that I need (Other than Nero) to make this work? I have a seperate Laptop/TDK 880n burner-writer, and Decrypter and Shrink is the only programs I'll have on it. Thanks!!
GatlinGun if you do have any problems with Shrink and Decrypter, try updating your aspi layer. I didn't find any problems, but some of my other backup software didn't work right until I did update. A thing to look for is a successful burn that has been fully written but nothing is on the disc. hope that made sense.
