burning copy protected dvds

what does "branded" media mean?

 

pattykmn,
as far as I know, "branded" media has the actual name of the producer printed on the face of the disc. For the silver top discs, the brand is usually in the center ring. Please let me know if i am wrong.

 

I usually buy my DVD+R's from Office Max. It's a company called Value Disc. I typically don't have problems playing it but sometimes, when playing, the movie becomes fuzzy and stops playing or skips a little. I was wondering if this is due to the player or the disc because when I eject the disc and wipe it down, it plays fine. Are PS2's as good as regular DVD players? Also are DVD players built-in to the TV as good as a regular player?

 

So "branded" media is like their "A" quality in the factory and the silver disks, from the same company, are their "B" rate? Is that right?

I have one more question....
Can I do all this DVDShrink/Decrypter on Windows 98SE?
I just downloaded the programs and took a look at them and Decrypter gives me warnings that my drives/partitions don't support single files >4GB. I know this has to do with FAT32...
Since DVDShrink will be compressing the movies I want to backup, will this all work anyway if I just set my size limit in DVDShrink to 4000?

I can buy WinXP through work, but I'm not ready to take the time to save all my info right now, or to learn how to have two operating systems on one hard drive (not right now anyway - I want to get into this DVD backup!)

thanks

 

Hi peeps

Yes, Pattykmn

I'm running win98SE and have backed up a few movies already.... i just ignored the message about file size not larger than 4gb etc etc etc. When doing your setup, instead of setting max disc size to 4300 as recommended by scuba pete, just make it 4000. It's what i did and not one coaster yet in 18 backups

 

DVDShrink 3.2 was upgraded with the older FAT32 systems in mind. It utilizes a split file system so you don't have to worry about the file size. So, if all is working properly, put the disc to be ripped in and let Shrink go to work. Follow the appropriate directions of course and set up either Nero, Decrypter, or CopytoDVD to do the burn. Nero does it by default and you have to change the settings to do the others. BTW, Nero can be downloaded and used for 30 days with unlimited downloads.

 

What is a Coaster?

 

Pattykmn, marengo, and swim,

MEDIA is extremely Important! Use newegg or meritline and get Ritek G04(or 05)4x -R or Ridata 4x +R. They are under .50 each and have free shipping. The retailers also have an excellent return policy and stand behind their products. Make sure they are BRANDED, that is they have their name stamped on the disc! With unbranded, you never know what you're getting from one batch to the next. At .40 to .47 each good media doesn't necessarily mean expensive media. Use 4x, higher speeds will cause more errors and 4x or less is cheaper. What's 5-10 minutes when you have something you'll watch for years?

[bold] I was wondering if this is due to the player or the disc[/bold]
It is in all probability the media!!! That is not a good brand.

[bold]Are PS2's as good as regular DVD players?[/bold]

It is harder on the PS2, I would use a DVD player and save my PS2 for games.

[bold]Also are DVD players built-in to the TV as good as a regular player? [/bold]

The ones in TV's are fine, in fact, usually cheaper players will overlook mistakes better than more expensive players.

Point of fact, I just bought the Philips DVP 642 for 65.00, it will play all formats including Divx and mpeg, it's bios can be upgraded by using a CD DL'd from the net, it has zoom and several other neat features that are especially handy when doing DVD testing.

[bold]Since DVDShrink will be compressing the movies I want to backup, will this all work anyway if I just set my size limit in DVDShrink to 4000? [/bold]

That's going a little far IMHO, 4280 works quite nicely, gives you an edge to the disc and requires a little less compression to fit your movie. Remember, the less the compression, the better the quality.


[bold] just downloaded the programs and took a look at them and Decrypter gives me warnings that my drives/partitions don't support single files >4GB. I know this has to do with FAT32[/bold]

How big is your HD? It's not hard to partition it, just a few minutes and if you plan on doing much video work you really need to have NTFS. By partitioning it, you don't lose anything and still run your OS on FAT32, you're just saving a part of it for video work, but can still use your PC as you normally would.

If you're interested let me know and I'll give you step by step instructions on partitioning your HD. :>)

 

swim, a coaster is a failed burn leaving the disc useless for anything but a coaster for drinks and such.....I guess it could be an extremely small, hard frisbee ;>)

 

But NTFS partitions are not recognised by win98??
That's what i've heard... Anyway, i'm setting up my dual boot system this weekend .... Win98 on 10gb .... XP Pro on 20gb .... 30gb for various data files.... and 20gb for NTFS file system for dvd backups Is this good or not recommended?

 

Updated #2.

Big O: Thanks for that link that showed users feedback on different media, it was truly a godsend.

After researching, my two problem devices (Odyssee DVD and XBOX), people recommended Memorex 4x DVD-R. I'm no media expert, but always felt that Memorex was garbage.

However, I bought a three pack to try them out and had great success. The Memorex DVD-R worked flawlessly in every DVD player I owned (Van, XBOX and PS2). Thanks a ton for your help!

I do have *one* quick question. When I "backup" a DVD to a hard drive, and burn it later... Why does it encode it again? Isn't that really redundant??

 

I agree with oukie that 98se does not support NTSF. I'm just not ready for the dual OS yet. My harddrive is 120GB and I have it partitioned into 5 drives. One of them is labeled "movies" and is 50GB. I did this with backups in mind, I'm just not ready to add XP, just not yet...
My question about setting DVDShrink to size limit 4000 had more to do with my file limitations in 98se.
However, if DVDShrink uses a split file system then I should be ok.... right? (I think?)

...aw heck, I'm just going to try it; then I'll know exactly where I'm at. Just got back from the store with some new media and my DVD recorder for the livingroom should be in today too WooHoo!

Update about 2 hours later:
IT WORKED!! I have one of those MicroAdvantage dual format burners that a couple people mentioned earlier in this thread, so I was a little worried.... and I have Imation media, not one of the recommended... but it all worked
This site and this thread are so awesome!! Thanks for all the help!!

don't worry, I won't leave -- now I'll have to learn to do even more!

thanks guys!

 

Hi there Pattykmn,

I totally understand your reluctance to switch. I'd still be using Win 95 if left alone but my new PC didn't give me a choice. The same with Win 98. HOWEVER, using XP can make your PC run at peak performance. It all but rids your system of "the Blue screen of death". There's really no reason to run 2 OS, when you make the switch all your "Stuff" remains the same. It's the same changing from Fat32 to NTSF, it takes about a minute and I've never heard of anyone losing even a single file –

No sweat, just letting you know something from someone who was dragged, kicking and screaming from my favorite 98 into the light (and I thought it was the end of the world)

Cheers,

Pete

BTW, Congarts on your sucess – YEA !!!

 

Patty,

I was a win98 person as well, until like pete said, I was forced into the WinXP world. I am so glad I am here now, yeah it takes up a lot of resources to run itself and uses a lot of hard drive space. But, the reality is that in 2 years, I have yet to reformat my computer, which says a lot. With Win 98 it was an every 4 month occurance to be formatting the hard drive and starting fresh. I don't know, maybe I didn't know as much about computers then, but win xp has yet to give me a blue screen of death.

I believe it is a worthy os, after using the previous versions of windows. I believe you can even change the settings to make it look like win98 if you wish.

gimpie

 

Hi Guys & Girls,

Just fell on this thread from a google search and my prayers have been answered. The guides to using Shrink and Encryptor are excellent.

I have just finished burning my 1st DVD on my shiny new NEC 3500 but the ISO took about 2 hours to copy to my HD. Some of the threads here mention times of 45 minutes.

What can I do to speed this up?

Many Thanks

 

Tuckster: " have just finished burning my 1st DVD on my shiny new NEC 3500 but the ISO took about 2 hours to copy to my HD. Some of the threads here mention times of 45 minutes.

What can I do to speed this up?"

I close all other programs in the background, it also depends on your computer specs. My specs below copy onto the hard drive in 30 minutes with Nero Recode 2.

 

Hi Kinza,

Thanks for the reply. I am running the following

AMD Athlon 2000 XP
60 GB Hard Drive
512 MB Memory
NEC 3500 8x Writer
XP Pro SP2

Any other ideas? or should I just try closing programs?

Can I close down EVERYTHING? or are some processes vital?

Also as a newbie I need to know how to get a gif from my website as my signature as right now, at my end, it's just showing a link????

 

Tuckster,

You don't want to close any processes labeled "system" or "local services" under the user name column. And don't close down "explorer.exe," if you end "iexplorer.exe" internet explorer window(s) will close. Your computer should be doing much faster than 2 hours. One tip that really affects the transfer speed is if you are signed off of the internet and that anti-virus programs are closed. Those two alone moved me from 59 minutes to 38 minutes. Hope this helps, and as for the gif/link thing I have no clue. Try posting in a different forum.
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]Pentium 4 1.6 Ghz
80 GB Hard Drive
128 MB Memory
8X DVD±RW/±R and CD-RW
Video Capture Card
Nero 6 Ultra Edition
Intervideo DVDCopy 2 Platinum
DVD Idle Pro[/small]

 

Thanks Kinza, I'll give it a go.

 

Tuckster make sure your primary and secondary IDE settings are DMA and not PIO. That will slow your PC down temendously. Lots of times the default settings are PIO.:>)
_X_X_X_X_X_[small][bold]GO VOLS![/bold].Dell Media4600,XP,Pentium 4 @2.80GHz/800Mz,1024MB,280HDw/8MB,17"flat panel,AIO-A920,8xDVD-ROM,integrated5.1 audio,HPdc4000,PlextorPX-708UF,LiteOn832S-DL[/small]