DVD 9

I recently purchased an HP LightScribe DVD burner but have no knowledge of burning DVD's. When I tried to make a copy of a movie with the software provided, it told me I needed a DVD 9. What is a DVD 9 and what else do I need to get or do???

 

A dvd-9 is a dual layer dvd that can hold around 8GB. A normal blank dvd is a dvd-5. It can hold about 4.37GB. In order to make most movies fit they must be compressed. Try DVD Shrink, it's free and easy to use. Here's a guide
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd9_to_dvdr_with_dvd_shrink.cfm

 

I go with Ppower on the need for DVD Shrink, and also recommend the other freebie DVD Decrypter which will rip those disks that Shrink cannot do. Here is a guide on using the programs

http://home.comcast.net/~bbmayo/backup with Decrypter&Shrink.pdf

You can find DVD Decrypter at http://www.filepedia.com

just look under rippers.

 

What was the other software that came with it?

 

Thanks. The software that came with the drive are: ArcSoft Showbiz 2, Sonic Record Now! and muvee autoProducer. None of which I have found very helpful to a newbie like myself.

 

I have the lightscribe 640c and it came with the same software. I have used the Sonic to burn a movie file but it must be an iso. You can use Shrink to create the iso and save it to your hard drive and then use Sonic. Other than that the programs that come with the drive are really kind of sad.

 

I thought maybe they slapped an oem version of nero with it. It's a very good burn engine and works well with dvd shrink- my preferred combination.

My 640c came all bundled up in my pc. I tried sonics copy disc feature and it took 20 mins to rip 4360 mbs and burn at 4x. The nero 6.0.0.21b does it in 15 minutes and 100% success rate on over 300+ backups. I've also been messing around with anydvd and doing those original dvd-5s on the fly and I have been impressed.I'm thinking of nero recode2 here in the future.

 

For the most part I prefer Recode2 it is much faster than Shrink and the quality is excellent. The only thing I don't like is that in Shrink you get to choose your quality enhancements, you can do it in Recode but you need to go into your regedit and do it from there. Don't know why they do it this way unless they do not want you to mess with it.

 

Okay, I have Nero Express v.5.5 that came with a drive. Will that suffice to burn with or should I get Nero 6 or just use Sonic Record Now! or do you guys recommend something else???

 

Thanks. I breifly saw that there might be some problems with Recode 2? With the updates or another version???

 

Usually nero6.0 and higher is recommended. Not sure about versions below that.

I've got nero 6.0.0.21b and 6.3.?.? on my backup pc. Both are set up with dvd shrink to auto-burn after files are ripped to hard drive.

I use the dvd decrypter on the tougher,more scratched up backups.It's also faster on the smaller dvd-5 movies that need no compression. Simple Mode iso read and Mode Iso write.

All 3 programs are handy to have.Many different options on how you want to burn.Also having 2 burn engines comes in handy for trouble shooting issues.

 

Okay. Since I have the Sonic Record Now!, I am going to give it a shot and see how it turns out. Thanks,