hello im new here and new to computers and i had a couple of questions ... i bought a dvd writer yesterday from walmart and was i wondering if guys could tell me if its good heres the link to the dvd writer ... http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3600676 and i was gonna buy some dvd blanks but i didnt know what kind or which kind to buy so i thought it would be better to come in here and ask to make sure ..whats the diffrence between this blank dvds and what which dvd blanks are this each used for ? and are which are compatible with my dvd writer ? DVD-R DVD+R DVD-RW DVD+RW another question is what the best software for backing up dvds ? i see u guys talk alot about dvdshrink and DVD Decrypter and Nero ..whats the diffrence between this 3 ?...are this free software or do i need pay...?..can u plz post the links where i can get them and the how to use guides thank thanks for taking your time to read this message
Welcome to Afterdawn Your burner is very new to the market so user reports on it are few and far between. HP drives are decent enough so it should serve you well with good media such as Verbatim Metal AZO, Taiyo Yuden or RiDATA. You can read up on media recommendations in our DVD Media forum here: http://forums.afterdawn.com/forum_view.cfm/47 I'd recommend getting several rewritable DVDs to use until you get comfortable with the process. I'd also recommend burning no faster than 4X for starters since the slower speeds generally give better results. As for software there are many combinations that all give great results. Some are free such as DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter and others are well worth the money such as Elby's CloneDVD2 and Slysoft's AnyDVD. Here's an outstanding link that'll get you familiar with the different apps, techniques and terminology: http://www.dvdplusvideo.com/ There are plenty of us hanging about if you have any other questions
Kevinnn, As u can see, I'm a newbie as well. I bought the exact same drive last week. I had not found out about this site, so stupid me I invested in a burning program that was crap: DVD CLONER II. Well, after reading many posts, I found out about DVD Shrink and Decrypter. Man, dat is all you need! I bought some Maxell DVD+R just to try my drive out. Backed up 2 dvd's flawlessly using the "COMPRESS VIDEO WITH HIGH QUALITY ADAPTIVE ERROR" and one without. Well, the one backup gave me problems, so I will stick with that option. Here's a great site: http://home.comcast.net/~bbmayo/shrink_decrypter.html
