how good are dvd writers?

[c.pugwash]

i'm in two minds about getting a dvd writer, how good is the picture and sound compared to original, do you keep dol by digital 5.1 on a 1 to 1 copy?

[Faustus]

yes you can... if you rip out any audio tracks with ifoedit YOU pick which one you would like to keep.

Mine is great.... Pioneer all the way.

[pacoreguenga]

Well, if you are into ripping it doesn't hurt to know you can author an entire dvd with all the bells and whistles including multiple soundtracks and subtiltes and moving menus and ac3 or dts and burn it with a DVD-R recorder as well and have it playing at your standalone.

But a 1 to 1 copy is not what the drive was made for. Commercial DVDs are often DVD9, which mean they have more data than you can actually write to a DVD-R.

So you need to know that, if you wanna make a 1 to 1 copy of one of this discs, you will have to rip every VOB to your hard drive, demux all its a/v streams, reencode the video part to reduce its size, and author again your DVD title. (re-create it) and if you wanna keep the extra soundtracks you just have to get a profesional DVD authoring program, as LE versions don't have the ability to handle that.

It's very funny if you have the time to do it.

[EricB]

The DVD writer really comes into it's own when you are producing your own material. Finally, there is the capability to produce excellent quality disks that play on a large number of stand-alones. The menus have hot spot target areas and at the risk of repeating myself, the video is outstanding.

IMO copying commercial DVDs with all the bells and whistles is just too much work. Much nicer to just buy them.