I have just spent about $1200 on a Japanese TV series. (Waited 40 odd years to see it again!) The disks are precious to me both in money and content and I need to back them up. They are double layer, CSS DVDs and I can't do anything with them at the moment. I do not want to shrink them or compromise the quality in any way. If possible, I just want a straight copy. I am quite prepared to buy a couple of DVD DL drives to enable me to copy the content. My questions are as follows: 1. Do I need a special DL DVD reader or will my current GDR8162B do the job? (I'm happy to buy a drive if need be.) 2. Nero will knock me back for sure. Can I use Isobuster to extract the content of a DL DVD (it sort of works now but with errors) and reburn with Nero? 3. Put simply, if I have the hardware and media to read and burn double layer disks, what software is recomended so that I do not lose video quality? I have the time and the motivation to tinker if I have to. Thank you in advance Joe M.
Ok wel for a start your drive is a DVD Rom drive so wont burn any Dvd's... you want to look at buying a Pioneer 111 Here [bold]A few words of advice...[/bold] 1- Install the latest firmware on your burner; as to avoid coasters. 2- Buy Verbatim DVD+R DL Media (optional but...) DVD-R DL are still causing issues since they are pretty new and not all drives support them, even with the latest firmware. 3- Do not burn at MAX speed. Burn at 2.4x! 4- If you are going to burn a DL .ISO(.mds) burn with DVD Decrypter(if you have it ) and/or Image Burn and load the .MDS not the .ISO The .MDS has the Layer Break information, and should help creating a smooth DL burn. 5- Don't multitask durning the burn, ensuring a smooth burn. 6- Follow the rest of the usuall burning precautions...
Using Verbatim DL media is a good idea. It is the best quality and usually the best price if you find them on sale.
Thank you for the great advice. I didn't make it clear that I also have IMWDVRW8DR as my current burner. (I would be silly if I tried to burn to a DVDROM.) I always have a read-only drive and a burner to make disk-to-disk copies. What I was asking: if I replace the burner with a DL version, is my Hitachi DVD reader good enough for the copy or should I also upgrade that to a newer version? Thanks again.
Sorry about this. (It's 3.50 in the morning so I'm a bit dopey!) The reason I asked the previous question was that I try not to use my burner for reading only for writing. So I want to capture the image with a DVD reader. Also, I always use Verbatim when I can. Seems to have longer life and more reliable burns. And I always burn at a lower speed than the max. It's great to have confirmation that I'm not just being superstitious. Joe M.
Ah ok - well as for your burner i cant find any recalection of it...what make is it? And as long as you follow those guidelines you'll be fine... BTW i'd use you writer to read the DL's and burn them... it'll be fine, as long as your writer has DL support
