DVD to DVD-r --Please advise!!

[Tez12345]

I have made alot of VCD's but now I want to going up to the next level. Tomorrow I am buying a HP DVD200i and need someone to tell me about how long the entire process takes to make a copy of a DVD to a DVD-R. VCD's take up to 8 hours on my machine and wanted to know is buying the HP worth it. I have heard that it is as simple as ripping with smartripper and burning with nero 5.5.8.0. If that is correct that eliminates a lot a steps. Please advise!!

[SLK001]

It really is that easy (IF the entire movie - or the part that you want to keep - is less than 4.7GB)... but, I wouldn't buy the HP. Go with a Pioneer DVR-A04, instead.
REASON:
1) Media costs (compare for yourself - DVD+RW is 3-4 times the cost of DVD-RW. Don't know about DVD+R, because I haven't run across any, yet.)

2) Compatibility: about 40% for the DVD+RW's vs 80-90% for the DVD-R/W).

[AntnyMD]

Last night I put four episodes of Sex and the City on DVD-R via my brand spankin' new Pioneer 104 ... It took 47 minutes to rip the DVD in DVDExtractor. It took me about 25 minutes to organize the elements in my authoring program (Apple DVD Studio Pro) -- I was also learning how to use the scripting function for a "play all" element I wanted, plus laying out a basic menu screen in Microsoft PowerPoint) ... It took about 55 minutes for DVD Studio Pro to multiplex my project ... and it took 44 minutes to burn at 1x. All totalled, 2 hours and 51 minutes.

I personally think my ripper software is SLOW. Is there another Mac option?

[SLK001]

Slow? I've seen faster snails. I ripped a 161 minute movie last night in 15 minutes (although this isn't particularly fast).

It's time to move up to PC's, AntnyMD... after all, isn't Apple dead?

[AntnyMD]

Actually, I left PCs for my Apple and have not looked back. A slow DVD ripper is no reason to regress to PCs. If it takes 47 minutes to rip a DVD, thats 47 minutes I'll use to do other things while my iMac is busy.