New to the DVD RW world

I just bought an expensive notebook with a DVD burner thinking that now I was going to be able to copy my favourite DVD movies and not loose them to scratches (. But to my disappointment this copying business is highly technical and might be a threat to the computer HD from what I read. I say this because I am not a Comp shabby person and do not want any technical errors with my newly bought notebook. This is disapointing though.

Question: Is there any thing out there which is simple for a comp illiterate person and also does not harm the HDD or casue errors and stuff, if you know what I mean. Some thing simple and straightforward. Does not involve any technical interactions like ISO and IFBO and lots of others which I read in this forums. Even if they r not free, they should be worth if they can provide the peace of mind that the software is not killing your computer.

Thanks for the help.

 

I know what u mean when i first started the jargon got mr but sadly there is some lovel of technicality u have to get but i will give u the links to the guides for the 2 programs u will need to succesfully back up what u want, with no probs.

DVD Decrypter
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/small_dvd_2_dvdr.cfm

DVD Shrink
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd9_to_dvdr_with_dvd_shrink.cfm

From these guides u can also download both programs and both are fully free

I hope that helps...

 

WHATS THE DEAL ON DVD X COPY AND X COPY EXPRESS, ITS STILL AVAILABLE ON SOME WEB SITES. DOES IT WORK FULL STRENGTH AND WILL IT BE ABLE TO MAKE BACK UP OF MY DVD COLLECTION.

 

chuttko, you'll find in the opinion of many on here that DVD X Copy and all it's counter-parts are just a waste. while they are good for some things, there are free programs that can beat them for quality/simplicity, and there are programs that cost less and do a much more professional, higher quality job.

 

Well it seems the XCopy line has been updated. Still the app is overpriced. Unless they've drastically changed the app, it suffered from interference problems more than most. If you want to just have one program suite to do it all, then the popular Nero suite is good. Sonic's Roxio DVD Creator suite is another. Both have transcoding apps with burner apps also in the suite. It just takes an external decryption tool. DVD Decrypter is a good freeware choice for now. It's been abandoned, so there is no future support. AnyDVD is a good retail app and is the best as far as being updated as the need arises. Shrink is the old favorite and a good freeware app. There are a number of good recording apps. DVDCopy3 from InterVideo is fast and has good quality output. The only program I think to be superior is Rebuilder with Cinema Craft Encoder. The tradeoff with RB is the time. It takes a couple hours on average to do an encode. Shrink using the Quality Settings isn't much faster, if any.

For the beginner, here is a short post I did on recording to DVD5 media (the 4.7GB size DVD):

Info for beginners: (I'll mention a few popular programs, but there are others of these types.)
Backing up factory DVD movies has 3 basic steps and a few things to remember.
The steps are:
1)Decrypt/deCSS (they mean the same);
One could add edit, but that isn't always necessary.
2)Encode/Transcode (these are sometimes used interchangably, though technically a bit different. Consists of fitting to the

target disc, shrink when necessary);
3)Burn (record).

You can have one program that does it all, some programs do a couple of the steps and some only do one step or one step at a

time.

Decrypting can be done with driver type decrypters like AnyDVD or with apps such as DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink.

DVD Decrypter is used to decrypt and rip files to the (HD) hard drive. If DVD Decrypter is going to be used as a burner, 2

important things have to be remembered.
1)Use the ISO read mode to decrypt and
2)the file size has to be below 4.37 (GB) gigabytes.
If the file is above 4.37GB, DVD Decrypter cannot burn the ISO file to a 4.7GB disc. [Note: 4.7 is a retail designation for a

disc; the actual size of a 4.7 disc that a computer reads is 4.37GB.] File size is important to know.

DVD Shrink can be used to decrypt and rip to the HD. Normally though, Shrink is used to decrypt a disc, using a temporary

file, and transcoding the file in preparation to be burned. Nero isn't part of Shrink, but is the default app that Shrink

uses to burn automatically. Shrink can also use DVD Decrypter in ISO burn mode and CopytoDVD can also be used. I suggest

Nero, as DVD Shrink is already set to use it.

There are a number of transcoding programs, browsing the forums can get a lot of info on those. It's already been mentioned

what they do. Just remember, simply speaking, this step is to prep the file for burning.

There are a number of apps on the market now. Due to laws, most of the popular recording programs now are trancoding and

burning programs. These recording programs have to have a decrypter. With a driver type decrypter the program runs as though

it was one of the older ripper programs that did everything. With the manual type decrypters the files are ripped to the HD

and the file then has to be opened by the recording program.

Burner or recording programs are either incorporated into programs or are separate in recording suites. I mentioned Nero as

it is a favorite on many forums and a favorite of mine. There are others. I find CopyToDVD to be a good choice as well. DVD

Decrypter is a good freeware choice.

BTW, ISO is simply a folder type. It just has all the necessary files in the one folder. They can be broke down using a program like WinRar. However, you shouldn't need that bit of info. I rarely use it myself, just sort of trivia. The File mode is where you have the Video_TS folder and sometimes an Audio folder. The separate files are in the Video_TS folder. For a Video you have 3 types of files in the Video_TS folder VOB, IFO, and BUP.

And as far as the software tearing up your PC. It won't happen as long as you use it the way it's supposed to be used. I haven't heard of anyone killing their PC to date. Hard drives tend to get fragmented a bit faster, so you need to run a defrag on occasion. Just keep up the housekeeping and the PC should be fine.

As was noted it takes a bit more technical know how than recording a CD, but not a lot. Check out the glossary for the terminology and it will be a bit easier.

 

DVDFab decrypter is also a free decrypter. To date, I haven't run across a movie that it couldn't handle...

 

teflonmyk
Do you have movies on the list with Arccos, Puppetlock, structural encryption and the bad sector encryption?

[bold]2.9.2.3 (07/16/2005)
- Fix: Output files cannot be accpeted by DVD Shrink and Nero Recode,
when copying some new Sony ARccOS protected DVDs, like Anacondas.

2.9.2.2 (07/14/2005)
- New: Command Line Switches added.
- Change: Better Sony ARccOS protection removal.
- Fix: Output files cannot be accepted by DVD Shrink and Nero Recode,
when copying Sony ARccOS protected DVDs.[/bold]

Seems Fengtao has been updating for problems as late as mid July and the app was only released about mid June. So, I wonder how long the list of movies is to date. Don't get me wrong, Fengtao makes decent software, they're just late getting around to needed updates to counter newer encryption systems. That is the reason I switched from their Region Free to AnyDVD for a driver type decrypter. I guess one can't look a gift horse in the mouth though. At least they may keep it updated, if slowly. Alas, poor Decrypter was orphaned... Even though orphaned, Decrypter is still the better ripper. New encryption hasn't started to make it obsolete yet.