DVD burners

[2muchchalk]

I am looking to purchase a DVD burner mostly for copying movies and backupin up some data on my hard drive. Does any1 know what i should look for, avoid, save,company...etc.

Do you have to get certain software to backup up movies? ANy help would be appreciated.
thanks

 

[bsucards]

The NEC and Pioneers are typically pretty good

http://www.gogocity.com/product_details.asp?dept_id=231&pf_id=CO02CDR0274


DVD shrink is by far the best software to back up movies

 

[ScreaminPain]

I just went through this experience.

You can get DVD burners for less than $60 if you really shop. I wouldn't recommend them. I researched this and chose a PLEXTOR. It has the fastest recording speed and after talking to their tech support, think it is the most reliable. The unit cost $99. at Best Buy after rebate.

A friend has tried others and had trouble. You will get what you pay for. Same with the media. I stay away from the low priced spindles and stay with either Sony or TDK. If you can find VERBATIM media, its the best but rarely on sale. This weekend I paid $9.95 or 25 DVD+r TDK. Thats about the best price you'll find.

Movies that you rent are encoded. You'll need to decrypt them, then shrink them to fit on a DVD. DVD Decrypter (search INTERNET) works fine and DVD shrink works well with it. The movies come out good and I use dolby 5+1 surround sound. It is a little confusing to use but persistence will pay off. I have another program that works better, but it was taken off the market by a judge who ruled it illegal. It's called DVD X-copy. It decrypts and shrinks in a single process. If you can figure out how to install it, it is the best.

Since I installed the DVD burner, I joined Blockbuster on-line and have 3 movies sent, which I copy and return the next day. They send 3 more and so forth. In 2 months, you will have more movies than you can watch for about .50-.75 per movie, including the cost of the DVD and rental....then quit blockbuster.

Good Luck and have fun...

 

[Palmetto Pimp]

Im looking to buy as well
whats the deal with the plus minuses??? Which one do you buy??

 

[Palmetto Pimp]

is this the one? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6801641&type=product&id=1091099798424

 

[Palmetto Pimp]

2 are at tiger direct

whats the difference??

$99

$139

 

[The Boys]

I found this one at Costco..........now remember Costco has no time limit on returns. I repeat no time limit........I had a printer for 3 years and took it back, no questions they are amazing.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11027952&whse=&topnav=&cat=&s=1

 

[c20916]

Will any of these work with TIVO? I need to move some movies off there and don't want to move them to VHS, would prefer DVD, anyone have suggestions? I have the direct TV receiver so tivo to go won't work.

 

[Palmetto Pimp]

c20916---it depends on the outputs on your Tivo.
If you have like and S-video output on the box then you can hook it to a video capture card on your pc and transfer it to your harddrive.

This forum will help u


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=42

 

[ScreaminPain]

NJSF..
The Plextor for $139. is geared for a SATA motherboard. It is slightly faster but in my opinion not worth the extra money. I have a P4,SATA motherboard with the Plextor DVD $99. burner and it burns a disc in about 6 minutes. If you purchase the 716A ($99 after rebate) you can go to their site and download firmware that will increase the write speed 33% (12X).....thats plenty fast.

Also, some media won't allow you to write that fast, even if you have the capability....A friend told me he had to record at only 4X because some of his movies were coming out "choppy"

Either Plextor will allow you to write dual capacity (8.5) should you need to.

I think a "hundie" is a fair price for what you get, coupled with good tech support if needed and a relaible unit.

Good Luck

 

[bsucards]

You can use DVDshrink to do all that you need, DVD Decrypter doesn't do anything that dvdshrink can't do.

Plextor does make nice hardware, their cd burners were the first to have the burn proof technology.

Lite-on also make nice burners.

The link I gave above is a good deal also, I have bought from that company before.

 

[ScreaminPain]

Sorry 2MuchChalk, for hijacking your thread.

Bsucard: How can you say DVDshrink will do everything needed to burn a DVD. How can it save the copied DVD to a file and then how can it actually burn the DVD? DeCrypter will save a .ISO file which DVDshrink will encode. Then in tandem it opens decrypter automaticallly and burns the DVD.....'shrink cannot burn the DVD by itself.

If you are using Nero or another program for burning, then it's still another process....

 

[lay the wood2]

always trying to get in cahoots with someone, ehh chalk? maybe you were involved in the fantasy football all along with the chief commission cahoots............

 

[Mjolnir]

i've been using a sony for the last three years and never had a hardware problem. been using dvd shrink and intervideo to burn. works awesome.
i spent a little more and got the sony but i've heard plextor is good.

 

[bsucards]

Sorry 2MuchChalk, for hijacking your thread.

Bsucard: How can you say DVDshrink will do everything needed to burn a DVD. How can it save the copied DVD to a file and then how can it actually burn the DVD? DeCrypter will save a .ISO file which DVDshrink will encode. Then in tandem it opens decrypter automaticallly and burns the DVD.....'shrink cannot burn the DVD by itself.

If you are using Nero or another program for burning, then it's still another process....

Okay, I guess your partly right, For me dvdshrink rips the file, either to an iso or to just the raw files (audio and video folder). You need some type of software to burn the dvd whether it is roxio, sonic, or nero etc

So here are my steps exactly

1. Load DVD into drive (I have a seperate DVD drive, but the dvd burner can do it also)

2. Click open disc and select it in dvdshrink

3. It rips the files to whatever location I tell it to.

4. I can uncheck all the french/spainish versions, dvdshrink does this for me, it was an opition I configured.

5. If I had choosen in step 3 to burn it to a dvd nero kicks in and starts to burn the dvd.

That is pretty much how I do it

 

[2muchchalk]

thank you guys for all your input (except laythewood2) who never really has anything to say.

You guys helped me alot. I have a plextor cd-rw and i really like the quality of their hardware. I think i am going to go with that.

 

[2muchchalk]

i've been using a sony for the last three years and never had a hardware problem. been using dvd shrink and intervideo to burn. works awesome.
i spent a little more and got the sony but i've heard plextor is good.

so you need to get both the dvd shrink program (to shrink) and then the Intervideo to (burn). Those 2 work for you?

 

[Mjolnir]

works every time for me.

 

[2muchchalk]

thanks MJolnir, when i finally get everything i might drop you a line to see if i am doing everyting alright. thanks again.

 

[Munson]

http://www.dvdrhelp.com

All thou questions answered...

M