Can you stear me in the right direction

[SonKun]

Ok im planning to buy a dvd burner, but I want to ask some questions before spend that much money on somthin so. First I want to be able to burn PS2 games and movie dvds to so I need somthing that will be able to do that. Second I cind of want a external usb one because I work alot with meadia editting and things with a laptop (yes thats right I said laptop) so you know but if I cant do the things I want to do with a external drive Ill just have two get an internal and use it on my desktop alone. So if anyone can tell me what I need it would greatly be appriciated.


P.S.- I also was wondering about a vid. capture card. Can anyone tell me about that. I want one that can capture from dvd/vhs player and connects through the (im not shure what their called those little red whiet and yellow plugs)and can capture MPEG, but also as I said before I work alot on my laptop so I was wondering do those little things work that have the red white and yellow conectors that you plug into your usb port and it works like a Vid capture card exept its removable.

Well Thanks alot for your help (In advance)

[mdm]

As far as the DVD burner goes, you first have to decide if you want to go with DVD-RW/R or DVD+RW/R. The currently available "+" drives are all made by Ricoh (just branded differently) so it doesn't really matter which one you buy - make your selection based on price and included software. Ikebana sells external versions of this drive. I'm not completely sure, but I think all the available "-" drives are made by Pioneer, so again, you can really buy any of them and get the same thing. I'm not sure about the availablility of external "-" drives.

[SonKun]

witch one can I burn PS2 games with?

[mdm]

Both are also standard CD-R/RW drives, so both *should* be able to burn PS2 discs (with the right software). Some burning programs may not support them yet (for either DVD or CD burning), but that is usually just a matter of time before the support is added to the programs. I can tell you that Nero 5.5/above and Ulead producst support the DVD+RW/R drives completely, and CloneCD 3.0.9.1 supports the CD-R/RW functions of the drive. My versions of ClicknBurn, CDRWIN and Roxio EZCD do NOT recognize it as a burner. Someone who owns a DVD-RW/R drive will have to let you know what software supports the drive (I don't have one).

[pbhalerao]

Ok im planning to buy a dvd burner, but I want to ask some questions before spend that much money on somthin so. First I want to be able to burn PS2 games and movie dvds to so I need somthing that will be able to do that.

In my humble opinion, you should stay away from burning movie DVDs. I am not talking about the moral issue of "illegal" copying. However most movie DVDs are dual layered containing more than 8-9 GB of data. You might need two DVD-Rs for this purpose. The total cost of DVD-Rs and the time spent will more or less equal the cost of the movie DVD. So why bother? Secondly, even if you strip off all those extra items on the DVDs (extra soundtracks, trailers, directors talk, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, etc.), you might be able to fit the movie to one DVD-R but the fun-bits are lost.

If your intention is to create a backup of the original DVDs, then I would suggest DVD-RW drives. I have heard that, even though DVD+RW is the newer format, many existing standalone (set-top) DVD players are unable to read the DVD+R/RW disks. I have also heard that movie DVDs are the DVD-R type. However, I cannot affirmatively state these statements.

PS2 games are usually on CD so any DVD burner should do the trick.

Second I kind of want a external usb one because I work alot with meadia editting and things with a laptop (yes thats right I said laptop) so you know but if I cant do the things I want to do with a external drive Ill just have two get an internal and use it on my desktop alone. So if anyone can tell me what I need it would greatly be appriciated.

USB driven DVD drive is NOT such a good idea. You might wish to consider 1394/FireWire DVD drives instead. These will offer better speed. You will require a 1394/FireWire card for this purpose.

P.S.- I also was wondering about a vid. capture card. Can anyone tell me about that. I want one that can capture from dvd/vhs player and connects through the (im not shure what their called those little red whiet and yellow plugs)and can capture MPEG, but also as I said before I work alot on my laptop so I was wondering do those little things work that have the red white and yellow conectors that you plug into your usb port and it works like a Vid capture card exept its removable.

I would suggest you the following (assuming that you work mostly on your laptop):
a) PCMCIA 1394/Firewire card for your laptop.
b) Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. Be very careful with this product - Dazzle has almost non-existant support - search more on Google Groups with the key "Problems with Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge". However, for your purpose I do not know of a substitute. This unit retails at $399.
c) If you use a desktop PC also, you can also buy a PCI firewire card for the desktop. This card is cheap and starts at $40.
d) Please note that capturing from an original VHS tape or DVD, you will have problems with Macrovision, CSS on DVD, etc.

To answer your questions:
a) You can capture and convert any analog source such as VCR/VHS, Analog Camcorder using the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. The captured file is in AVI format. You will need tremendous hard disk space for this purpose (5 min video = 1 GB HDD or something)
b) The Yellow/White/Red connectors on most AV devices are called RCA connectors - Yellow for Video, White for Left Channel Audio, and Red for Right Channel Audio

Hope this helps. If I remember other options, I will keep you posted.

[SonKun]

Ok well heres somthing new. I have a Mintec 2110 which plays dvd+r(w) and dvd-r(some rw) but as for the PS2 thing I want to burn the dvd games not the cd. so I just want to know what would be better (and less expensive) for that + or - so whatever. and O ya I will forget about the laptop dvd thing cause 1. internal is cheeper 2. i freed up space on my desktop so now its not a problem.

And as of the capture card I freed up alot of space on my hard drive so i think ill just go with a regular capture card for my desktop that can capture in MPEG.






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