Newbie with DVD burning troubles

[SyrunX]

Ok, I feel kind of stupid, because I really don't know anything about burning DVDs at all, but I need some help. I have DVD Shrink and Decrypter. For my burning I use Nero Express, I think thats what it is. That doesn't seem to work though. I just downloaded Amazing CD and DVD burner, and that won't work at all. What Nero will do is it will usually burn the disk, and say completed, but when it's done the disk will be completley blank. Sorry if this question has been asked and answered a million times, but I just don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[redwudz]

Since you have DVD Decrypter, just use it to burn with. It generally does a better job than Nero anyway. In 'Edit>Preferences>File I/O' uncheck 'Enable burning with Nero'. Then when you click the 'Backup' button , you will see the selection to use DVD Decrypter, 'ISO Image File and burn with DVD Decrypter'.

If that doesn't work, you may have problems with the burner.

And welcome to our forums.

[blinky88]

DVD Shrik & DVD Devriptor is all the software you need for good results, both applications are FREE.

Firstly, check the spec's on your DVD player to confirm which format you need. Many older DVD players are more compatable with DVD-R material than they are with DVD+R ..eg.. my Yamaha does not play DVD+R, most modern DVD players play both, one format is not better than the other.
Note: If your Burner has Booktype Settings available, DVD+R blanks may be an attractive choice as the output format can be set to DVD ROM, which will play in a majority of DVD players. Open DVD Decrypter to see if booktype settings are available for your burner by clicking on the book-like graphic image to the right of the speed setting.

Choose a DVD from your collection that runs for around 2 hours, a movie of that length will require compression and compression really does need to access a special feature in DVD Shrink called Deep Analysis. Since you only need to select the preferences once only, Deep Analysis should be selected the very first time you use DVD Shrink, not all movies require deep analysing. When you re-open DVD Shrink, all choices initially made, remain unchanged.

Note: Deep Analysis makes 2 passes of the encoding process to improvethe quality of the
backup, however, this also significently increases the processing time. That said, if
you are looking for the best possible result, be patient, accept the extra time, you
will not be disappointed.

Open DVD Shrink and goto the 'Edit' menu and choose Preferences.

Preferences: Check the first 2 boxes ..and..
uncheck Run analisis and backup in low priority modeí.

Preview: Uncheck. (Do not preview the movie whilst making the backup)

Output Files: Check all boxes except
'Split VOB files into 1GB chunks' - uncheck that box.
Note: The HDD receiving the single ISO image
has to be formatted NTFS.

Stream Selections: Choose English under Audio and Subpicture,
then choose AC3 in the remaining audio field.

File I/O: Check 'Enable overlapped I/O and also check RPC2 drive
region code, uncheck the other two boxes, then click OK.

Now click the Open Disc menu, select the drive containing the DVD and then DVD Shrink will commence analysing the DVD, then press the Re-author Button and place the files thereon into the right panel.

Under Main Movie drag Title 1 from the right panel into the left panel under 'DVD Structure'. If there happens to be 2 titles under Main Movieí, one would more often than not be for 16x9 viewing and the other would be for 4x3.
Select the one that best suits your setup.

Then click the tab 'Compression Settings' and uncheck any selected item not needed. You may find 2 or 3 boxes selected under Audio, only ONE is required, select 5.1 AC3 and uncheck the rest. If the picture is in English and no Subtitles are required, uncheck all of the boxes under Subpictures.

Then click on the |> <| directly to the left of the word Video and edit the movie. Use the arrows to choose where the movie is to Start and where it is to End, always keeping in mind, what you are trying to achieve is to create the smallest ISO image possible that will satisfy your needs.

Next, click Backup, a dialog box will then appear.

Target Device: Select ISO image file (DO NOT select ISO image
and burn with DVD Decrypter), manually starting
DVD Decrypter seems to cause less problems.
Next, select the drive you are using to store the image.

DVD Region: Region Free by default, leave it that way.

Quality Settings: Check 'Perform Deep Analysis'. The other box is
AEC: Choose 'Sharp' for compression of 80 -100%.
Choose 'Smooth' for compression less than 80%.

Options: Uncheck 'Run the backup in low priority mode'.

Burn Settings: Give the file a name, the other 2 boxes should be checked.

Now click OK and a single ISO image will be created on the selected drive. When completed, open DVD Decrypter.

Under the Mode menu choose ISO Write, then click on the HDD to Disc graphic image below, then choose the file you want to burn.

I prefer to burn at x4 regardless of the speed of the media, maximum burn time =15 minutes. Although faster burns are possible, be prepared to see some coasters and the end result may not be the same quality as a 4x burn.

Whilst backing up a DVD 'DO NOT MULTITASK' wait until you have finished the backup before using the PC for other tasks. It's also a good move to turn off as many applications as possible ..ie.. applications running in the
background.

I have been using this method for around 2 years and to date have had no errors and quality that closely match the original DVD.

Have fun, hope this helps you get it right, the first time.

[Bjs]

Just a quicky :

Creat a new folder , add folder's , audio_ts and video_ts here .
Place all dvd related file's into video_ts folder .

Grab folder2iso , and run it .

You will be asked for folder , aim it at the new folder , not audio_ts or video_ts .
You now sellect iso name and where to save it (save it to another location on hd) .
Name iso again in third box , and proceed with write .

The only restriction here is is using fat32 , though image's upto 4.3 gig are safe ... beyond this is not .

This iso can be loaded into dvddecryptor , and burnt to dvd .

See how that work's .

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Imagetool's is another , just tell it where the file's for the dvd is and setup other requirement's , and burn .

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Another method that cover's project's required to go to dl , is pgcedit using dvddecryptor as the burning tool ... there is a guide here in the guide's section covering this .

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A good tool to have is dvd identifier , help's with knowing the media you are using , and compare it with online report's .

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Nero burning succesfully , but nothing showing on finished dvd's indicate's media is at fault , not the drive .

Consider another brand ... Datastream and verbatim seem reasonable for both price and quality ... as for tdk , forget them , there out sourced from another company , and are now unreliable rubbish .

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As for compatability :

Burn at 4x no matter what the media report's .
Burn only to dvd-r (+ , and rw are more associated with console's or data backup)
Burn no more than 4.3gig to dvd (many player's have issue's past this point)

These are the basic guideline's and the most compatable to suit the broad range of player's .