Can anyone help? alkohol? scuba pete? I downloaded DVDFab Express and was able to burn Da Vinci Code, MI3, and Lucky Number Slevin using it. THe next 5-6 DVDs i tried burning wouldnt work. when i put burned dvd copy in my laptop it wont recongize it, and when i put in DVD player it says that it cant play disc. i have done the same steps every time and now it wont work. Is it the DVDs i am using or what? i tried to uses alkohol's guide but there were a couple steps (pic) that couldnt be viewed and it wound up not working. PLease help... BTW i love this site as i am just getting in to computers. -LB
See my sig on media - that's the most important thing. Also, if you are using DVD+Rs to burn to, check to see if they've been bitset. Download and run DVDIdentifier. If it's a +R/+RW, it will say "Disc Type and Booktype". If booktype is not "DVD-ROM" then that may be the problem. You will either have to try to find a hacked firmware for your drive or use DVD-Rs. Of course, you still should use DVD+Rs if you are using Double Layer discs.
i will get verbatims. but any reason why DVDFab Express worked a couple times and not every time? I appreaciate your help. WHere do i look for your sig? Sorry, very new at this....
The sig is the commentary at the bottom of most people's posts. Some people have pictures - mine is just stuff written out so I don't have to repeat it every time. Here's mine, as you can see from both of my posts: "-Since half the questions here involve media problems, here ya go: Only use Verbatim or Taiyo-Yuden discs. Forget the rest, no matter what "brand" they sell under. Always burn at 4x speed regardless of the speed rating of this discs or your drive. If you have burn problems with these then you have to update your drive's firmware. For double-layer discs, only use Verbatim DVD+R DL and burn them at 2.4x speed."
Gotcha. THanks a lot. What is the advantage or reason behind using DL disks? are the just bigger? should i get those or should i stick with regular ones.
Most of the DVDs produced in the last 5 years are on DVD-9, meaning they hold about 9 Gb of information. The problem is, "regular" blank discs i.e. single-layer, DVD-5s only hold 4.7 Gb. Obviously, something's gotta give. You CAN compress video to fit, but it'll look like crap, depending on the compression percentage, the size of your TV, and the material (high-action and cartoons are affected the most by compression). Generally, 10-15% compression on an average movie won't be too noticeable except on a really big TV, and if you use one of the fast, "one-click" transcoders like DVDShrink, Recode, or CloneDVD2. You can also "re-encode" the video with a high-quality encoder like Cinema Craft Encoder. You can get away with about 10% more compression that way, though those encoders can be expensive and they take hours to do their thing. Beyond that, there is no way to compress video and have it come out good, at least to my eyes. So, you have two options left: you can split the DVD-9 among 2 DVD-5s. This works for episodic stuff like TV shows. Alternatively, you can back up you DVD-9 to a DL disc, which is the same thing. Then you don't have to do any compression, etc. But DVD+R DL discs cost several times more than regular DVD-5s, and your options of quality discs is limited to Verbatim. So, bottom line is, you have to decide between cost and quality.
Dunker, thanks! I think its very cool that you took time to explain all of this to me. like i said earlier i am very new to this but i like how people take time to help nebies via this website. very cool! thanks again, bro. -LB ps- anyother pertinent info you have and are willing to share, i am willing to listen.
