Hi, I am about to purchase a new computer and was considering purchasing a second DVD drive (dvd-rom to go with the DVD+/-R/RW LS burner. Does DVD XCopy even work with this type of setup or should I just spend the money for the DVD-rom on more drive space or RAM and just rip the DVDs to the hard drive and burn from there? Thanks so much!
A DVD Rom is a good investment and you can get them cheap about 30.00USD I recommend the Lite-on 167T it really rips. If you use Xcopy it will work fine. I like using my DVD-R because it places less stress on my burner and it is faster. with Xcopy all you have to do is put the movie in your reader and the blank in your writer and click.
Why not just buy a second burner, you can get a burner for about $50, the price difference is now negligable and you'll always have a spare burner in case of problems. Then bin Xcopy and use Decrypter and Shrink which are free, you can then copy on the fly or back up and burn from/to 2 disks at a time if needed. Everyone I know who had previously bought and used XCopy, and then tried these, have subsequently binned the XCopy I would also suggest an NEC burner, you wont be dissapointed.
The Lite-on ROM reads at x16 speed, most burners only read at x12. So if you copy on the fly the dvd rom is more reliable. However. Burners are better at reading dodgy discs.
I've actuall found the opposite to be true where a dvd-rom reads "dodgy" discs better. I have 2 NEC burners in my pc but on the rare occasion when they have trouble reading a disc I just use the dvd rom from my laptop and rip them to an external hdd that I share with both. There are also firmware hacks available for most dvd drives that remove the read speed limit(riplock).
I too think DVD roms read dodgy disks better, I prefer the rom have an internal burner but also run external burners. I do not get as many CRC errors with my rom as I do with my burner.
You guys kick ass. What media do you prefer to burn to +/-R/RW? I was only able to burn like 2 things before my computer died. XCopy and Nero were what I used. Not real plased with it, though running on a 2.0 is probably why it was never impressive. The software you're talking about seems great if it can rip movies that are copyrighted. I'll have 250gb hard drive and 1gb RAB. I am trying to decide between Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 3200, but that's it.
Buy name brands, the best are Verbatim, Sony, Maxell, or Taiyo Yuden. DVD+R is a better format and can be booktyped to -R which is more compatible with older standalone DVD players. You can use the free programs of DVDShrink and DVDDecrypter, also other pay programs such as AnyDVD and excellent investment and CloneDVD2 work very well. You should have no problem with the specs you have stated in burning. As for Xcopy I own this but rarely use it anymore as it cannot be updated to handle newer encryptions, and there is no control over burn speed. You really do not want to burn at too high of a speed, I usually stick to 4x, but have done 6 and 8x with no problems, any higher you will get errors on playback.
go here: www.nomorecoasters.com and read up on media types so you can decide what brands you should look for when purchasing blanks.
You need a dvd ROM, as stated previously, they rip a lot quicker than burners, I use +RW media. I get a 100% hit rate. My X-copy loves the set up. Lie back & let the PC do the rest!! Pulsar
