Can someone help a newbie summarize?

[urstwile]

Hello everyone. I have some questions, and although I've been bopping around amongst the different topics, I'm not sure I'm gleaning all of the information correctly, so I hope you'll bear with me, as I'm very new to this.

Main goal: I'd like to backup some of my owned DVD's, so that if they get scratched or otherwise fried, I'll still have them to watch.

My questions are as follows:

1. Best media brand to use?

2. DVD-R or DVD+R?

3. I have a burner capable of burning to dual layer discs. Is it worth using this for video, or should I simply use the extra capacity for computer backups and stick to the smaller DVD size for video?

4. What burn speed should I use from Toast? I'd always been under the impression that the faster the speed you burn at, the higher the compression, and also loss of quality. Is this the case? Or is it, from what I've recently read, more to do with compatibility with different standalone players?

5. My external burner drive specs are as follows (it's a La Cie drive):

_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A:

Firmware Revision: 1.04
Interconnect: FireWire
Burn Support: Yes (Vendor Supported)
Profile Path: VendorSupport.drprofile
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media:
Media Type: DVD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No

I'm on an iMac G5 (fairly recently purchased, within the past couple of months, although not from the current crop), OS X Tiger, with a gigabyte of RAM, and a fairly generous amount of hard drive space. The iMac also has an internal burner (got the external before I got the iMac, thus the two drives). Specs for the internal are as follows:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845:

Firmware Revision: DBN9
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Media Type: CD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No

I've been experimenting with Mac the Ripper, then going to DVDOneX, then burning through Toast (okay, maybe experimenting is not the word, I've done one successful burn, that plays in my standalone DVD player, then ran out of media, so am waiting to order more, pending your advice).

Thanks for all of your help. The amount of information on this forum is amazing, and I'm a little overwhelmed by all of it, so I'm hoping someone can help me answer my (hopefully) basic questions. Links to answers to my questions will work also.

[lumis]

as far as media, you cant go wrong with taiyo yuden dvd-r's..

[urstwile]

thanks lumis.

[lordsmurf]

Read this:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=271418

[macuser25]

1. Best media brand to use?

Stick with name brands for DVD... CD media... generics work fine for me. Here's a good resource... www.nomorecoasters.com or the media forums here. https://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia

2. DVD-R or DVD+R?

Depends on what your burner and your player prefer... some players only like one or the other. You may have to try both first to see.

3. I have a burner capable of burning to dual layer discs. Is it worth using this for video, or should I simply use the extra capacity for computer backups and stick to the smaller DVD size for video?

If you are backing up DVDs and don't want to do any compression, then you can use DL discs... but the compression tools in Toast 7, Popcorn and DVD2One are very good... and you probably won't notice any quality loss in burning these to single layer... so... like everything else it's a personal preference, but I'd save the $ and stick to using DL for data.

4. What burn speed should I use?

This does not affect compression... some people believe you get a better burn at slower speeds and avoid errors... but with Buffer Underrrun turned on the speed should not cause errors. Most errors are based on people using poor quality media or drives with old firmware or failing equipment or people moving files on their hard drive during burn process.

I've been experimenting with MTR, then going to DVDOneX

Toast 7 has compression in it - so you could save a step if you have that.

[urstwile]

Macuser 25,

You rock! You answered all of my questions all in one spot, which is exactly what I needed.

And thanks to everyone else who contributed. I'll definitely send a link to this site to anyone else I know who has questions. Nice to find a site that addresses Mac users...so hard to find many times because the software is different.

Once again, you all are great. Thanks!

Nicole