Common questions and answers.

[Faustus]

I'm just trying to compile some common questions we seem to get quite often. This is just off the top of my head. Also they are kinda random right now. I'm open to suggestions and additions.


The latest DVD title cannot be backed up. The software I've been using for years says it has 1500GB of data on it so it must have some new form of encryption which can never be broken
Download the latest version of DVDFab HD Decrypter!

Parts of my movie are block or look bad, is this the process I'm using or the media?
Could be either, however the usual answer given is the media so I'd start there. Try a different brand and burn the same project again. Does it look better? If not then perhaps its your encoding process or maybe your encoding to small. My suggestion is to never invest in a large ammout of media until you've tested 10 or so of them.

Everyone says NERO sucks for burning DVDr Movies. Is this true?
Many people use to report issues using NERO to burn DVDr Movies, however because NERO offers alot of settings its sometimes hard to figure out if everyone is burning correct. In 2+ years I've never had a problem with NERO. I use the different settings then most on this forum but what seems to be the mutually agreed about settings can be found here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127624

Can I burn DVD-Rs in my CD-RW drive?
In short, no. Thats why they are not called CD-RWs.

Can I get 2 DVD movies on one DVD-R?
Yes, there are several ways to do this. But the process depends on which tools your using. Try a forum search and see what works for everyone else? Remember the more video you put onto a DVDr the lower the quality.

Which DVD software/method is the best?
There is no answer to this question, each software has its up and down. Many people love DVD2ONE cause its fast, others dislike it because of its quality. Many use CCE to manually re-author but others complain about the time involved. Lurk for a while and I'll bet the perfect method for your is out there.

But I heard that ______ is the best?
Best what? Best quality? Best speed? Best compatibility? There are to many factors involved for any single piece of software to be crowned king.

Which is better DVD+RW (DVD+R) or DVD-RW (DVD-R)?
PLEASE don't ask again. Starting another thread could very well end up in starting a format/flame war, no one wants this, and very little new info comes of them. There is however a very good description of the formats that can be found in this thread: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=152616

Is there an easy way to copy episode disk? (like TV box sets)
Episode disk can get a little complicated. Some have luck using DVDXCOPY (commercial software) while some Episode disk will not work at all with it. Once again there are many answers, and no perfect one yet. Episode disk can be a little complicated, so you might want to be more familiar with standard DVDs before you try to dive in.

What's the best program for Burning DVDs?
There is lots of debate here, basically its a lock between people who use NERO Burning Rom perfectly, and those who had problems and switched to Recordnow Max DX. If you already own NERO it might be worth updating to the latest version and giving it a try. If you want a solution you know will work now then likely you should look to Recordnow Max.

Which DVD-Rom drive is the best for ripping?
Once again not exactly the right place for the question, but a quick search will reveal that Lite-on DVD-Rom drives seem to be a favorite for high DVD ripping speeds. Be aware however that just because you get and install the drive does not mean the speeds will always increase, you may need to tweak your settings and drives to get the speed you want.

My ripping speeds were great then they dropped low! What happened?
Could be a number of things, the most common however is windows XP will sometimes set your drive to PIO mode and not even tell you. If you speeds drop try going to Device manager and uninstalling/remove your IDE controllers. Reboot and let them re-detect. After its done it solves many speed issues, this is because it forces XP to reattempt DMA mode.

When will Dual Layer DVDr disk be available?
Commercial Dual layer disk area manufactured then press together inside plastic, therefore its unlikely that we will ever see a Dual layer DVDR. You never know, but don't hold your breath.

What is the best feature of this website?
Forum search.

[SaSi]

Good try.

I propose that the list is enhanced with suggestions from others while it is directly linked to the home page with a HOW-To logo bigger than the one currently there.

I think the site is slowly becoming a victim of its huge content. I feel inclined to say that the number of guides in the guides and the How To section are not the best thing a real newbie would like to see.


BTW, two common topics to add to the list:

Why is Tmpgenc so slow?
Tmpgenc has a wide range of options to set when encoding video. Some of them increase the encoding time considerably. The pre-defined templates offer a balanced set of options for encoding, offering a compromise betwen speed and quality. When encoding try to avoid using the built-in filters. They are very slow. Use VirtualDUB or AVISynth to do the same filtering. And don't select the highest quality setting in motion search precision. Normal Quality or Motion Estimate Search are fast and offer good quality.

Why am I loosing frames in capturing?
The capture process is CPU and HD intensive. The HD you capture must be fast and defragmented and the codec you use must be a fast one. Also, your CPU must be able to handle the load.

A P3/1GHz CPU is perhaps the minimum for trouble-free capturing, although if you know your way into tuning your system you may be able to succeed with less than that.

Be advised that loosing frames while capturing may cause audio go out of sync.

[Baldrick]

sasi: capturing??? this is the dvd to dvdr common questions.

[JasonK]

I do a lot of video capture. I think he means "losing" , not "loosing." Although the correct terminology is "dropping" frames. There are actually many causes of dropping frames, and defragged hard drive is not necessary with today's modern drives. If you format your video drive between projects, it's not going to become fragmented enough to cause a problem. As far as the codec for capture, if you use a DV cam, NO codec is used during capture at all. It's simply a COPY of the video data. It is NOT CPU intensive and it is NOT disk intensive (only about 3.6MB/sec.)

It's off topic, but hate to see misleading info posted.

If you're concerned about possible causes of dropped frame whether during capture or output to tape, check out:
Tweaks for Better Capture and Output to Tape (from Pinnacle webboard.)

[Baldrick]

Please stick to the topic. ONLY DVD TO DVD HERE!!! PLEASE!

[SoCalMK]

Why is it that your Nero burning methods differ from the forum entry in the "Author" section, located here:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127624

This post says to use DVD-ROM (UDF) mode and not UDF/ISO. Is ther a huge difference in these two methods and why should one be preferred over another? I would appreciate any info you could offer.

[Faustus]

I'm going to be quite honest here and say I'm not 100% why my method is better. But it was how I was taught to do it, and its never failed me. UDF/ISO has worked great, I've taught it to 2 real life friends and only one of them has ever had a problem, and I'm pretty sure its system related and not NERO.

[SoCalMK]

Just to let everyone know, I tried the method outlined here with Nero and it worked with mixed results. I tried it on my Sony DVP-NS315B and the discs worked but would sometimes crash in between titles or if I tried to acess different menu options. Also, discs burned with this method did not work at all in my PS2. I am assuming that the cause is the UDF/ISO mode because I have done the exact same movies with the same media and they all worked fine in these machines when I burned under UDF mode. Just my two cents.

[Faustus]

I've never had a problem with it, but I never realized there was such a detailed guide in the other forum. I'll just post to it. I also never tried dvd movies on my PS2 even though I have one, because honestly the DVD player built in is pretty crummy IMHO.

[SoCalMK]

I wrote in another post how I have had great success burning with Nero in UDF mode and not UDF/ISO, except for two standalone players. Both players were progressive scan and I wondered if there was something to this or if it was just a coincidence. Well, it turns out that the few discs that I did burn in UDF/ISO mode will play in the two progressive scan players that previously did not work. I can't even begin to guess as to why this is the case, but I figure better to know these things than not.

[YO1USER]

I have aSONY DRU 500A Drive. It does both +-R and RW. I successfully used DVDecrypter to copy a DVD to the hard drive. I then burned to a DVD-R using the DVDCOPY. I was able to play the movie on the Sony drive, but when I put it in my brand new Toshba DVD player (which claims that it can read DVD-R disks) I got disk error. Is there something else that I need to do in order to get this to work? I was thinking of returning the Toshiba and getting one that claims to read DVD RW drives so that I would be able to correct mistakes while I am still going through the learning process. I would appreciate any help that I could get with this as I am brand new to the process.

[rkr1958]

Need more information. I've had very good luck playing both DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs in my Toshiba SD2800. I too have a Sony DRU-500a writer and I use RecordNow to burn the discs. I've played both home movie DVDs and backups of commerical DVDs.

[YO1USER]

Thanks for the info. I was using the model 2900 and could not get it to work. I returned it and got a magnavox which reads +R and +RW and am able to work with no problem.

Does anyone know of a freeware program that will do the same thing as DVD2ONE does? I need the compression feature in order to get double DVD movies down to one DVD.

[rkr1958]

Does anyone know of a freeware program that will do the same thing as DVD2ONE does? I need the compression feature in order to get double DVD movies down to one DVD.

You might try checking out the "Guides" and "Tools" sections to the left. One Freeware tool that comes to mind, which I have not tried, is DVDshrink (http://www.dvdshrink.org).

[djjase]

You can let out your breath now Dual Layer discs are coming!!!

http://www.dvd-recordable.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=929&mo...rder=0&thold=0

[Sandman1]

Please don't hijack topics /Baldrick

[Doramius]

Slowly, but soon, I'm sure we're going to see DVD-9 style discs that can burn at home and be played on any DVD Player(right now DVD+R is in process of this method and DVD-R willprobably follow soon after). Until that point we're stuck with what we got. What we got now is a lot better than using an Apple II computer from the early 80's, so don't be too impatient. Some Players are picky about the media you put in it, if you use the same media with mixed results, make sure you're using the same software, running at the same speeds, with the same updates. People are constantly changing things in their system, and this may cause some of your inconsistencies.(I would almost bet this is a primary factor)
--
Once you have your specific method down that you are used to and are comfortable with the quality, speed performance, reliability, media type, and the players the media plays on, STICK WITH IT.
--
If you're getting 100% on all of the categories with a specific drive, software, media and it plays on every DVD Player at a very low cost and effort, TELL US ABOUT IT. You're either very lucky or a master genius.
--
Right now since all this technology is very new to the world (YES, anything with less than 10 years experience is still fairly new{ask anyone who was alive when/before Carter and/or Ford were president.}) nobody is going to have the perfect burn method for everyone. You and another person may have the same DVD burner, but different DVD Players. That's what this whole site is for. As time goes by, we'll all find the best players & burners are going to be the ones that loom around for many years. (Why do you think nobody has BETA anymore{if some of you are old enough to know what BETA is})
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-In General (but not 100%):
*DVD-R works on most DVD Players.
*Software and/or media types can be a huge factor in what will or will not play in a DVD Player.
*Some Players and Burners are very sensitive to different settings. (find the one that works the best FOR YOU)
*These are supposed to be back-ups of your media to protect the originals if something happens (IE: your 18 month old thinks the disc is a waffle)
*The burner you bought/have may not be compatible at all with anything you downloaded or bought for it.
*Just because it's not working the way YOU want it to, does not mean the items you used are trash.(read the previous notes)

[perempe20]

I have a problem with Pinnacle InstantCopy 8.0. After encoding I get PDI files, I can make an MDF file with DVD Decrypter. How can I burn it the easiest way? (If I burn the image it is unable to play on a standalone player, because it is written in mode1. DVD copy on the fly with Nero is the same. If I move the files from the emulated drive to a DVD-compilation in Nero, it copies the files to the HDD first.) I can only copy the files to my disc, but it takes a lot of time.

Help me, please!

[thor300]

Just a comment on sasis post, in my opinion tmpgenc is slow because it stinks, there is not even one good reason to use it if you use vdub or avisynth, the only good reason to use tmpgenc is to avoid using any frameserver at all in the first place. tmpgenc sucks, thats all, and its not my fault it does

[Doramius]

I'd uninstal Pinacle. It usually creates more problems than you can find help for if trying to burn DVD video. Some burners are sensitive to it, but the odd thing is its often bundled with those same burners.

[bugster]

Just a comment on sasis post, in my opinion tmpgenc is slow because it stinks,

Of course you are entitled to your opinion but that is rather a sweeping comment which I think you will find MANY disagree with. For the quality of its output and its Value for Money TmpGenc is hard to beat. If you don't like something about it or have a problem with its speed then fine, feel free to say so, but try to be more specific in your criticisms. Sweeping generalizations such as 'it stinks' help no-one.

Oh, and its not really a major weapon in your arsenal for DVD to DVDr conversions these day, for most people anyway.

[jimmalenko]

Just a comment on sasis post, in my opinion tmpgenc is slow because it stinks, there is not even one good reason to use it if you use vdub or avisynth, the only good reason to use tmpgenc is to avoid using any frameserver at all in the first place. tmpgenc sucks, thats all, and its not my fault it does

it's slow because it stinks - wow, must have racked the brain to formulate that one


I use AVISynth scripts in conjunction with VDub and TMPGEnc for a lot of my encodings/captures. I'm happy with my results

[shun]

When will Dual Layer DVDr disk be available?
Commercial Dual layer disk area manufactured then press together inside plastic, therefore its unlikely that we will ever see a Dual layer DVDR. You never know, but don't hold your breath.

Update: dual Layers disks and burners are now available.

[Z06Cam]

Edit: Oops! What the guy above me just said...

[SnoopyDad]

I've seen some posts mentioning that ripping with a DVD burner shortens the laser life. Is this true?

[Hyper Shinchan]

I have a general question, but I don't want to open a topic about it (if I should, please tell me).
In order to keep the highest quality, but without reathoring the DVD what is the best program?
Actualy I use DVD Shrinker, but perhaps Nero Recode it's better.
P.S.:I don't care about the fast, I want only the best quality, but I don't have a lot of free time to use my PC actually, so if anyone can help me...

[bob911c4]

I have searched this website for info on DUAL LAYER burning, however I find very little info, so i am turning to the forums.

What is the best program for burning 1:1 DVD's using a DL burner? And is there a guide for this? Any other website recomendations for this as well?

AJ

Also, turns out DL discs have come out, so admins you might want to change that part of the Frequently asked Questions

[yoda313]

dvddecrypter can burn 1:1. Rip in iso mode, burn in iso mode.

By the way you'd be better off starting a new topic than bumping an old thread.

[bob911c4]

very true about the thread

Know where I could find DVD Decrypter seeing how it is no longer freeware?

[fritzi93]

Get the last version of DVDDecrypter here:

http://www.mrbass.org/

Still freeware, but no longer updated.