The n00b and his DVD backup experience

[Danny5]

Hi folks,

Now, after having 1 week of DVD backing up under my belt, I thought I would share my experiences sofar. I realize this post is pretty limited, as my knowledge and skills are somewhat lacking.

Having been wanting to get a DVD burner for a while now, I finally got a Pioneer DVR-106D. My old Plextor CDRW was starting to make noise and vibrate, so it was getting time to upgrade.

I immediately flashed the firmware to 1.07 region free. Then I went to www.supermediastore.com and bought 2 of their -R sample packs. My DVD player is a Panasonic RV-30, a notorious player that is known to be fussy about media, so I wanted to know what would work before I bought a cake of DVD media. I also bought 5 Fuji +RW for data backup.

I was able to get a used copy of DVDxcopy Platinum r3.2.1 for cheap. I read here that people have been having problems with Express, but it works perfectly for me.

Off to the burning I went. Right off, the RV-30 will not use +RW media. Now, the surprising part, every -R works from the sample packs. Only the RIdata 4x disks skipped a little.

I ended up ordering 100 Sonix 4x media for .64/ea. They seemed to work well, and are CHEAP.

I want to look into other burning methods in the future. One thing I dont like about the process is that you dont know what is being burned. I would like to know which audio is being used, be it 5.1, or DTS.

Sofar, that is all I have discovered.

[FineDragon]

DVDXCopy will not let you select or deselect your audio choices. DVD Shrink will.

[Danny5]

Noted, and will look into DVD Shrink.

You know, I read a ton about DVD ripping and burning, to the point where it confused me as to what route to take. I do need to find the best system possible. I want the audio and video to be the best it can be. But, it is a learning curve.

[SLICK RICK]

Danny5,

Try to stay away from some of the really cheap media because you will probably have playback problems in the near future (ex. skipping and pausing). Try Ritek 4x DVD-R.

Alot of people seem to like DVDShrink, I have it but dont use it much because I mainly do movie only backups. I use DVDDecrypter, DVD2One, and either Nero of RecordNow Max to burn to dvd.

SLICK RICK

[Danny5]

Good point SR,

You do get what you paid for generally. I had a bad experience with some PNY CDR's, after a couple of years they would not play anymore. I suspect that air got between the layers of plastic and oxidized the dye. Now, for anything important, I only use certified media, and use the cheap stuff for things I dont care about.

I was aware of this when I got the Sonix, but it says "100 year life" http://supermediastore.com/sonix-4x-dvd-r-media.html , and being a noob, I will probably be making mistakes, and doing some tests.

The bad part of this is that it may take years to find out if these, or any media will stand the test of time. Kind of a crap shoot really, but usually brand names are of quality.

Can you use DVDdecrypter and go directly to Nero, if no compression is needed? Does DVD2one versatile and explain well what is going on?

[SLICK RICK]

If you have a DVD-5, you can rip the entire contents of the disc and go straight to Nero and burn. But if you rip the movie only and it needs no compression you will have to run it through IFO Edit. DVD2One is a shrinking program that is really fast and put out great quality video ready to be burned with the program of your choice. It takes my system about 7mins. to run through DVD2One. One other tip, try to avoid burning to the full capicity of the dvdr. Try to stay a little below, I go with 4350MB when using DVD2One. Some people report playback problems near the end of the disc when burning the full capicity.

SLICK RICK

[Danny5]

Good info, thanks. I will be back looking at this thread again in the future.