i am searching for someone who can advise me on what software to buy, i have dell inspiron notebook and i just recently purchased a dvd burner for it, my only goal is to take movies i borrow from friends and make copies for myself, movies such as Van Helsing, Man on fire, just to give you an example what kinda movies i mean. and advise someone could give me would be amazing thanks for your time in reading this!
.....the best advice you can get is, do alot of reading on this forum. Lots of great info here and you only need to do a little bit of work ........
My advice is to don't buy anything. All I use is "DVD Decrypter" and the softwear that came with my burner, which is Nero 6. If your softwear won't recode (compress) then use "Shrink". I usethe DVD Decrypter in file mode because I like to burn and shrink with Nero 6. Decrypter will burn also if in ISO Mode. Lastly I use DVD identifier to know who actually manufactures the blank DVD's I buy. All of these programs are free in the download section.
swm04a look at the top of this page go under guides and read the one Copy entire DVD-9 movie to a single DVD-R using DVD Shrink its under DVD-R about the sixth one down this will help read the other guides also then post back with any problems. you'll get it.let us know how it goes Ive done all those movies.do not buy programs dvd shrink and dvd decryptor are free you can download these great programs in the download area of this site you may need to buy nero that is it. alot of dells come with roxio uninstall it get nero it is so much easier and far better of a program.
swm04a DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter are very good Freeware Programs If you Actually want to buy Software to do your Discs with Try Elbys Clone DVD2 and Slysofts Any DVD Any DVD can also be used with a Disc burning app like Nero or Roxio's EZMC/ECDC to burn movies that will fit on 1 disc Clone 2 is great for Compressing DVD9s to fit one a DVD R It also supports Dual Layer Been using this combo for about a year now without a coaster Works Great They both have 21 day FREE Trials that you can Dowload from this site 59 US Dollars to buy them If you Purchase them using the Slysofts Any DVD link here at Afterdawn You also help support Afterdawns site
thanks everyone one more question (vedas),i fi think a movie can fit on a disc without "being shrunk" then do i just use decrypter?
swm04a you can try not shrinking but 9 times out of 10 you will need to unless you are not doing feature movies. it also depends what type of burner you have most movies are put out in dvd-9 format which will not fit on a single disk without being shrunk but if you have a dual layer burner then you could get away with not shrinking movies
thanks again i looked at the information about my dvd burner and it does have dual layer writing capability but im not really sure what that means could you elaborate a little thanks again
DL media has 2 layers on one side of the dvd, the end result is, instead of 4.38 gig (which is 2 hours of good quality video) per side you have over 8.5 gig of disc with which to put on your movie. As many dvds come with extras & movies can be over 2 hours long, a standard 4.38gig disc is not big enough. This means no compression is needed, ergo you have no loss in picture quality. If a movie is compressed too much then the picture quality will deteriorate so much it will look awful! This is as you have to loose picture quality (which is basically information) on the disc to make it fit onto 4.38gig. Hope this helps, kind regards, Pulsar
Dvd Shrink used in conjuction with nero is a very good way to start. The 2 pieces of software work quite literally hand in hand. Shrink compresses (if needed) the movie to make it fit onto 1 4.38gig disc. If you have nero as your burning engine (shrink does not burn, just encodes the movie onto your hard drive) then shrink recognises it & will burn for you automatically without you having to lift a finger! It is a very good combination & is well tried & tested. I have never used decryptor, so i cannot say much about it. To copy my copies I use either nero or alcohol 120%. Both of these are fine programs. To overcome region code, macrovision & copyright protection I use Slysofts' AnyDvd. Both Nero & alcohol are capable of utilising multiple burners, (that can be very handy!) and of storing the images you have read, (although this can quickly fill up big hard drives) This is so you can burn off a dvd without having to read the original again. This is an obvious timesaver.
sorry swm04a i do not own a dual layer dvd burner yet i looked for a guide on dvd-9 to dual layer but did not see one but im sure its all the same you just do not need to compress the movie.but now i have a question ive always been told and read that dvd-r is more compatable with tv top dvd players if that is true way do i only find DL media in +r format and the only dual layer dvd-r sounds like you burn on both sides of the disc is this true.did i miss something what is the scoop on this.
In the old days there were compatibility issues with standalone players & + media. Today the story is very different, if you get a player now the previous issues have now been sorted out. You should not really have a problem. Even if you buy a cheap player it will almost definitely work with nearly all burnt dvds. As long as you get good media you should not have a problem with playback.
