DVDR reality check... please take a look...

[dc91gt]

I'm about to bite the bullet and get a DVD recorder - seems that new sony 500 is the best of breed right now.

1) how is the player compatibility for burned DVDR's (dvd-rips)? Assuming say a pioneer, which is real good with most media.

2) What is the best tool for creating the DVD structure? i assume sticking with tmpgenc for encoding... I've got spruce, uleads, dvdit, etc, all of them seem fair to poor for retail software, which is the best?

3) What are the cheapest DVDR's that aren't junk? $5 for the good ones seems stiff and kinda defeats the purpose.. anything under $2 a disk any good?

What say you all that are already into it? right now, I'm doing 2-3 disk SVCD's - which anit bad, especially since i got a 5 disc pioneer - great for the lazy, but perhaps it's time to step up.

-d

[Faustus]

Right now I'm using esbuy gold disk, they are only 1x but are fairly compatable. I'm also working on testing the Ritek G03/Primedisk from shop4tech.com and I will put my results up this weekend when I have time to test them.... the esbuy are about $2.40 each in spindels and the shop for tech vary greatly depending on how many you order... I'm ordering 300 if they work for $.99 each. But remember the cheap ones I personally have heard good things about but have NOT tested yet myself.

[rsuave5]

1- well im not into ripping but i can say that ive made a couple hundred dvd-r and to this date all players have played it. old dvd players, comp. dvd -rom (now common)

2-i experiment with a few and i would say most bang for the buck is premiere as it can do so much from editing , mixing audio, chapters , compositing and on and on. but it is an involved program and cumbersome if your looking for ease of use - capture-edit-chapter-burn. so for some short films i enjoy dvdit or ulead moviefactory.

3-if cheap is your concern with dvd-r youll have to find what works for you. i had less than ideal results and, i tested memorex and they worked fine so ive been with them for over a year a pay around 3-4 bux a piece but i get no errors ever and the greatest amount of compatability.



hope i helped

[IamCaleb]

I've been making dvd backups (dvd-r) for a coupld of months now.

1. DVD-R seems to be pretty compatible now days on most dvd players. My really old toshiba can't play them but the thing almost 5 years old. I've heard that the DVD+R isn't as compatible as DVD-R.

2. Although Premiere is a great program for creating your own DVDs from camera footage, I wouldn't recomend it for doing backups. I have found the best combination to be using DVD decrypter -> DVD2AVI -> CCE (about 4 times faster thatn TMPEG) -> DVD Maestro -> IFOUpdate -> Nero
The DVD9 to DVD5 guide on www.doom9.org is great and is what I use!

3. I use ritek media off of online stores in the $1 to $2 range and I haven't had problems burning or playing using the Ritek

GOOD LUCK!!!

[thxkid]

I use the Primedisc by Ritek at $57 for a 50 pack used about 100 of them and so far all have played in DVD players thats suppose to play DVD-R's, also keep in mind I use the ones that are General purpose not the ones for authoring. I have even put glossy labels on them and have not ran into any problems with that either.
what do I use, well I am really lazy, I just spent the extra bucks and got the Panasonic DVD Set top Recorder, very simple dubbing DVD's, 8mm, VHS, SVHS, Cable, Satellite and DVD Ram from my other DVD recorder by panasonic.
I have used the more exspensive TDK DVD-R's and see no difference in picture quality and playback between them and Primedisc.