What threads to read to learn to burn? What discs to use etc?

[morkys]

Ok, I want to know how to burn backups of some of my precious dvd movies. One of my concerns is, how do I know how to maximize the quality of my backups? Also, how do I know what recordable dvd to use? All these formats drive me nuts. DVD + / - etc etc. What do I read? I want to know how to burn dvd's that will play on my dvd player(s) but I may get a new player in the future. Right now I have my original Panasonic DVD CV51 and my Panasonic F85 and I also have a Yamaha C750 as my ALL REGION do-it-all disc player. I am selling a Panny F87 because it duplicates what the F85 and Yamaha give me. Yes, I have 4 frickin' dvd players right now. I am comparing and hope to weed it down to 2 players.

Any suggestions? Or can you recommend what threads to read?
What are the best ripping software programs?
What are the best burner programs?
Can DL dvd's be backed up to DL dvd media yet?

I will check the stickys first

I have DVD decrypter and an LG 4163B DL dvd burner and a Seagate SATA 200 GB HD with plenty oh space to store dvd images before burning.

thanx,

[ROF]

One of my concerns is, how do I know how to maximize the quality of my backups?

if quality backups is what you are after never shrink or transcode your ripped video. Do a direct burn to a SL/DL disc using the appropriate size depending on the amount of data to be burned. Shrinking reduces quality.

Also, how do I know what recordable dvd to use? All these formats drive me nuts. DVD + / - etc etc. What do I read? I want to know how to burn dvd's that will play on my dvd player(s) but I may get a new player in the future. Right now I have my original Panasonic DVD CV51 and my Panasonic F85 and I also have a Yamaha C750 as my ALL REGION do-it-all disc player.

Format is dependent upon preference and what your players like. Even amongst the same family of players certain media is preferred by the player. I suggest trying a few different ones and seeing what works best.

What are the best ripping software programs?

DVD Fab Decrypter combined with AnyDVD running in the background.

What are the best burner programs?

Nero 7

Can DL dvd's be backed up to DL dvd media yet?

Yes.

[morkys]

Cool thanx. I hear many like Nero 6 over 7. I will look into Fab Decrypter and AnyDVD.

So Fab works most of the time but AnyDVD is sometimes necessary? I also noticed that Free DVD is on the FAB d-load site. That sounds useful too.

thanx,

Chris

[nugent]

i use dvdfab to put it on my hd and then vob blanker to get rid of unwanted material and to keep the picture quality higher so i can keep the menu. i find anything 60 or higher is good quality.
then i use shrink with nero 6. much better than 7.

hope this helps.

[nugent]

i meant DVD Fab Decrypter.

[morkys]

60 or higher what? Is that a setting in the burning software regarding shrinking? I am just getting into this. I would like to avoid any "shrinking". On a front 16:9 projected image of 92" diagonal, you can see quality differences pretty easily.

Can DVD shrink be used at full quality zero shrinking?

[nugent]

yes shrink has a quality setting when compressing. you can set it to custom,automatic,or no compression.

[morkys]

Thanx. There are so many programs. I guess I have to research. Some people say just rip with this program and burn with that program. Others say they do it all with one program while still more people say rip with this while this is in the background and then process the files with this and burn with that program, and oh, make sure such and such is running in the background when burning. Very confusing. I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat, so its hard to find one single way to do it. Everybody has their fave suite. I will try to go through the process and when I hit a snag, I will figure out what is wrong and how to solve the problem.

One thing I would love to remove more than anything is the remote control exclusion. You know when you are trying to skip ahead past previews or other garbage and you are prevented from doing so? You know when that annoying icon showing up when you try to stop, skip forward or access the root menu? I would love to be able to remove that from dvd's!

[redwudz]

If you were to use DVD Shrink, you could just backup the main movie, then when you play the DVD, you would just have that, no menus or extras.

A more elegant solution is VOBBlanker and other methods, if you want to keep the extras, but not the 'endless' previews like on Disney DVDs.

I use DVD Fab Decrypter if needed, then Shrink at 80% or higher quality, then Nero to burn. I have a 5X8 ft projection screen and don't see much of any difference between the backup and the original.

Or you can back up the DVD directly to dual layer DVDs.

As you noticed, a lot of different ways to do the same thing and everybody has their favorite method.

If you look to the guides to the left, most of them are detailed there. <<<<<<

[morkys]

Ok, now I need a burner. Should I un-install Nero Express and buy Nero 6 online? I think I have an older version of Nero on another PC, but I imagine its best to have the latest version. Nero 6 is unanimously liked and 7 is not.

P.S. I have a trial version of Blindwrite I could try...

[redwudz]

Opinions on Nero vary. I use it only for burning, not encoding or authoring or converting or anything else. For burning, it works fine. It's when it's trying to do the other things is where it can have problems. I use the later '6' series as that's all I need. If 5.5 would work with my burners, I would still use that. The Nero Burning ROM part of it is all I use. The rest is done much better by other programs, IMO.

[morkys]

Is Nero 5 ok?

I ripped a dvd using FAB but I notice that there is an Audio Folder that is empty.

I will keep reading and learning what I am supposed to do.

thanx for the feedback,

[nugent]

here is how i do it.
i first rip it to my hd with dvdfabecrypter. then open the file in vobblanker,to get rid of previews,extras, or any unwanted stuff. have vob replace the old video ts with the new one. then open it in shrink ,and use full disc back-up. here i also take out any foriegn language and then hit back-up. after shrink is done,it opens nero and starts burning on its own. using this method i have never burnt a coaster. i use tdk dvd+r 4.7 8x discs.
i can not tell you anything about nero 5, i have only used 6 and i love it.
hope this helps you, good luck.

[morkys]

So you "hit backup" in vobblanker?

thanx



P.S. Why are my AUDIO folders empty?

[morkys]

Ok, I guess I need to read more. I don't know how to use vobblanker. Am I skipping things? Processing them?

With DVD Shrink, I need a separate burner program?... but for now I may un-install Nero Express and try Nero 5. Perhaps grab Nero 6 eventually.

I will read now...

[redwudz]

The DVD audio folder is usually there for compatibility. They are normally empty. The audio is encoded with the VOBs. The folders take up almost no space, so most programs add them, though at present, they aren't used for anything.

Shrink can use NERO to burn, or many prefer the freeware DVD Decrypter to burn with. Both can be used almost automatically by Shrink. They just have to be selected.

[nugent]

with vobblanker you can view what each vob is for in the title set section. if you do not want that vob then select "blank" in the space it says "keep".
when you are done,you replace the videots in the output folder section. then hit the process button.

[morkys]

Blank? It says process or skip? I ran vobblanker without anything selected. It changed the size, but maybe didn't do anything. I then used shrink. I am burning to a DVD +RW to try in my sisters Panasonic dvd S35.

What do you mean "replace the videots in the output folder section"? I just created a new folder for the output.

I will try burning with power producer or dvd decrypter for now. I will pick up either of Nero 6.6 or Ashampoo Burning Studio 6.

thanx again

[nugent]

when in vobblanker,when you highlight a title in the titleset section,it shows the pgcs below in the pgc's in selected titleset section. now you highlight those and right click to select keep or blank or whatever. you have to go through each titleset's pgcs individually. the pgcs will show you what it is i.e...previews,extras, and whatnot.

i select the same folder for my output as my input. thats just the way others told me to do it. i am sure either way works. the reason i do this is because i don't need the original folder anymore. i changed it how i wanted it.

i was a little confused by all this before also. just take your time and it becomes very simple. i am sorry that i am not the best at describing everything to you. if you have anymore questions i will be happy to help you if i can.

[morkys]

Cool. I did my first backup today. Works in my Yamaha C750 and my Panny F85 but not in my Panny CV51. I suspect it should also work in my sisters Panny S35.

DVD +RW....I wonder if I did a -RW it may have worked in the CV51? I don't know the difference between + and - ...

Oh well, I guess I will just keep chipping away at this. Should be fun. I think a 16:9 digital video camera is a good idea too

thanx,

[morkys]

I am trying Ashampoo with a Fuji DVD+R and it won't get past "please wait". No problem with the Fuji DVD+RW I used.

Ashampoo just sits there saying Please Wait...

EDIT. I re-inserted a DVD+RW and it recognized that. I then restarted the program and tried again with a DVD+R and it worked.

[whitejremiah]

+r media is slightly less compatable with some players, -r tends to be a little more compatable, but with some dvd burning software, there's a setting called booktype, if you set it to dvdrom when you are using a +r, that will increase the compatability some.....personally, i've got no problem with nero as a cd/dvd burning program, but all the extra junk they have been throwing into the last few versions is starting to irritate me.....ashampoo....well, there's better programs around then that...not to knock them, but there just is...maybe you should try prassi ones instead.....

[morkys]

Just trying the Ashampoo trial for now. It works ok. I can't seem to find "booktype" setting yet. I will look for it. Is there any reason to try -r and -rw?

What is the difference between the media itself? Is the - media not as high quality as the + media?

thanx

[morkys]

Well that worked ok for the DVD +R

So what exactly am I doing if I load a decrypted dvd into vobblanker and I just hit process. What is it doing if I don't eliminate anything? Am I wasting my time? I suspect it may be eliminating the code that prevents you from skipping ahead.

One problem with Ashampoo Burning Studio is that I see no setting anywhere for booktype setting, as in booktype = dvd rom. Maybe I didn't look in the right part of the program.

[morkys]

When ripping with dvdfabdecryptor etc, is it safe to surf? My PC is fairly decent, AMD64 3000+ with a GB of ram and I am capturing to a second HD not the one with the OS on it. So is it safe to surf while dvdfab is working? Or am I risking a bad rip?

Once I have run dvdfab decryptor and I have a folder with the dvd contents, can I play the folder contents within my PC using a software dvd player? How? I want to know if my dvdfabdecrypting went went before buring.

thanx

[redwudz]

You shouldn't have any problems ripping and surfing at the same time with your setup. It can be more of a problem with running CPU intensive/hard drive intensive tasks at the same time, like encoding. As long as you aren't stressing the HD or CPU, go for it. You can always check 'Task Manager' to see how much CPU/Storage you are using at the time.

You can play the VOB files with Power DVD or Video Lan Player, or probably Windows Media Classic. Just select the VOB and see if it will play it as a MPEG.

[morkys]

How do I know which file to run so I get the menu?