After trying to run a search, I couldn't figure if this message was asked in recent memory. I'm getting ready to purchase a DVD burner and wondering what the best option is for backing up my (fairly extensive) DVD collection. XCopy: Whether the package I can get in the store can decrypt still is a big question mark. I'm under the assumption that DVD43 works well with it and this is the easiest-to-use solution. Freeware (Shrink/Decryptor): I've looked through the guides and they don't look too complicated. I've looked through the forum, and things look a little more complicated. So are the problems that people occasionally have the exception or the rule? I can appreciate that there might be a learning curve, but how much of a learning curve is the question. I'm also wondering about what burning software works with these disk images... I see a lot of talk of Nero. I'm pretty sure the drive I'm looking at doesn't come with Nero... so that would be something I'd have to buy if it was essential. ....just as a note, the drive I'm considering is the Liteon451S. Anyhow, any help would be appreciated. If these issues have been addressed directly, a link would be excellent as well. -Sick
sick231: Hello there and welcome aboard... thanks for taking the time to write a very clear and easy to read question. Being a newbie like yourself... :O) I'd recommend that you begin by using DVD Decrypter www.dvddecrypter.com to rip your DVD files to your hard drive and then use DVD Shrink www.dvdshrink.info to do the compression if needed. These 2 programs are very easy to use so don't worry about the "learning curve" as these 2 are very user friendly and free to top it off. As far as a burning software goes, I'd highly recommend Nero. In my personal experience I haven't had any major problems at all when using it and even though in the beginning it looks difficult to use, it is not so. PS: If you like these free programs, make sure to donate a couple of bucks to the guys who take the time to read about or "wants" and then take the time to write a program for us. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]"Burn, baby, BURN!"[/small]
I'd like to ad my ditto to all that adonis has said. that is all the software i use and i just dont seem to have the hassles that some guys do. if it helps at all sick321 then i have a liton 411s dvd r/w and like i say dont have any problems at all (so far 20 plus hassle free back ups) BTW adonis i'd love to donate a couple of quid to the guys who look after us so well.......how do i go about doing it? cheers guys viper
Hello there viper6699 Well the guy that brings us DVD Shrink doesn't have an option on his webpage to donate, so... For the guy that did DVD Decrypter you can go to his website www.dvddecrypter.com and click on donate... that's it. It will then take you to Paypal so that you may use a credit card.
sick231, The reason that there are so many programs is that people have different tastes - Buy your burner - Try the free stuff first - Why ? Because it's Free !! Almost all of the $$$$ programs that are out have a trial version that you can use for 20 or 30-days. It does your no good to try the $$$$ first - you need to know how to backup before you can choose the program that's easiest for you ! Anyway, Welcome to the Club ) Pete
Thanks for the great replies. I guess it does make great sense to use the free software first and see how that goes. So I guess that'll be the plan of attack. Hopefully I'll be set up by next week. Nice to know there's a good community here that will no doubt be able to help out if I encounter problems. I've got other questions, but I'm going to try to get the basics down before I start worrying about those... -Sick
Every newbie should check out Mr Bass' webpage www.mrbass.org/dvdnewbie/ _X_X_X_X_X_[small]"Burn, baby, BURN!"[/small]
sick231, I’m glad you understand, we just don’t want to inundate you with tons of information that might overwhelm you, especially since you haven’t had any exposure to it at all. When you get a grasp, or get stuck, that’s when you should pop back on and pick our brains We’ll be awaiting your updates - Pete
*For those who don't want to read it all, I do have some questions at the bottom * I just wanted to bump to thank everyone for the help. A little later than expected, I picked up my burner -- an LG drive rather than the LiteOn... and after totally tearing down and rebuilding my PC and installing XP, I burned my first DVD tonight. And it worked. After I found all the software and figured out what the heck an ASPI layer was Just to test it out I ripped and burned a DVD (Seven Samurai -- I figured 3 hours-plus of movie would give me a good idea about compression issues) using DVD Shrink to rip and then Decrypter to burn (yay, no Nero needed!) I'm also happy to say that my old Toshiba DVD player reads the disc no problems -- which was a significant concern for me. So I thought I'd come back here and say thanks. Guess there's no need for XCopy here. So I re-read the thread and now instead of one question, I've got two: 1) I'd like to make backups of the movies I've got with unskippable crap up front. Is there a way I can kill these annoying, obtrusive trailers on the backup? Can I remove these elements in Shrink, and if so can I do it without screwing up the disc? (Unfortunately for my test case, such annoyances don't exist on Seven Samurai, thanks to the fine folks at Criterion -- so maybe the answer will become clear in the future either way. Thought I'd ask though.) 2) More importantly, 1Adonis suggested using Decrypter to rip DVDs and then Shrink to compress. Is there a reason why I'd want to do this rather than using Shrink alone for everything prior to burning?
use shrink as first program every time, then as you've found can burn with decrypter. veryy occasionally you may find a film that shrink will struggle to break the encryption.....in this case that is when you would run it through decrypter first (mode set to file). then use shrink in the normal way but point it to the file ceated on hd drive by decrypter instead of the disc.
Answers: # 1. Yes ! It's very, very easy to rid yourelf of all those extras and trailers. You'll want to use DVD Shrink re-Author - Here's a guide for what you wish to do http://www.chrismccann.co.uk/DVD_Shrink_Re_Author.htm # 2. What my friend Viper said. Using Decrypter first and then Shrink could cause problems (anything adding an unnessary step leaves room for additional errors to happen). It's so much easier to open and work with DVD Shrink and let Decrypter burn automatically. Keep doing what you have been - you're on the right road ) Pete
sick231 Hey there, glad to hear you are up and running with DVD burning... Yes, I mentioned doing that... well, you don't need to use DVD Decrypter to rip to HD if using DVD Shrink, I really don't use DVD Shrink that much so in my mind that always comes first. To get rid of all the extra stuff and if you only want to do a movie-only backup then the easiest thing to do is to use DVD Shrink in "Movie Only" mode... Good luck and let us know how it goes...
