I was told that the copy protection on newer DVD movies can be an issue when burning copies. If this is true, can anyone recommend a solid drive to replace my NU DVD/CD R/W drive? I heard that Plextor worked well with copy protected DVDs but would appreciate specific recommendations. I hope this question is okay on this forum. I'm definitely a newbie.
Defeating copy protection is a software issue, not a drive issue... That being said, I would recommend Pioneer 109 or LiteOn 1693S as these are the drives that I have experience using. NewEgg is a great vendor for drives... As far as copy protections go, DVDFab Decrypter (rips to HD) is free, as well as DVDShrink and DVDDecrypter. DVDDecrypter and DVDShrink should probably be your starting point until you get the hang of making back-ups. DVDDecrypter rips and burns, and Shrink compresses. All have links to download right here on AD... AnyDVD is the best among users here for breaking encryptions at $40.00... Nero OEM Suite 3 includes Recode2 for compressing DVD9 (commercial movies) to DVD5 (most popular/affordable blank media) and Nero BurningROM for burning. You can get Nero OEM Suite 3 for $8.00 shipped. Can find links for these here on AD as well... As far as media: Taiyo Yuden is the best, followed by Verbatim. The only other media that I have reliably used besides these two is Maxell +R Made in Japan... Rima.com for ordering TY media online. Best Buy runs great sales on Verbatim every other week. Wal-Mart carries Maxell +R, but be sure to get "Made in Japan," which you can find right above barcode/UPC. Now that you have opened the floodgates, sit back and be overwhelmed and confused by all the recommendations. Your best bet is probably to post your system specs and see what works best for someone with a similar set-up...
I agree with teflonmyk. Plextor is the caddy but also costs the most. Most brand name dvdrw's will perform as well. Some good names are lite-on, benq, NEC, LG, sony, and pioneer. There are also a lot of rebadged drives out there eg. late sony's are rebadged lite-on's, late memorex's are rebadged lite-on's, late HP's can be rebadged lite-on's or benq's, phillips are rebadged benq's. It really depends what features you want eg. ability to bitset, overspeed burning, ability to scan or scanning software, fast ripping (no riplock) etc.
Thanks for the info Teflonmyk (and Mort81, too). I feel a bit more informed now and the info will help me make a decision on which drive to go with. The reason I even asked the question was I have an NU drive and lately I've run into more "coasters". I get a write error. I am pretty certain it is a H/W issue rather than S/W. If I make, say, five DVDs I will usually end up with two DVDs that I have to throw away. I updated the firmware this morning and made two DVDs without issue so I'll monitor it for a bit and see. I have a feeling it is beyond the firmware because I tried this particular firmware update in the past before the write errors started and had another issue forcing me to go back to an earlier firmware version. Thanks again!
