Looking for help in completing this setup (pls)

[The best Militant]

Hi there,

I just purchased a NEC 1300A today and it should be here early next week. I plan on flashing the bios when I get it installed. Here are my questions:

1. Should i set it as the master or slave device? Will it make a difference?
(It will not be on same controller as HD)

2. I plan on copying my eposodic DVD's. Is DVDXCOPY my only choice for this? I am prepared to purchase DVDXCOPY gold, but waiting on what I see here.

3. I really want to make 1:1 copies of my DVDs but understand that will not always happen (I have a understanding of DVD5 and DVD9). What is the best way for me to make 1:1 copies WITHOUT sacrificing video quality? ( I am prepared to sacrifice audio quality, I have a kickass video system).

4. Are there any other tips suggestions I should do when I get this drive?

Thank you for your help folks, I hope that I can return the favor someday after I get going with this.

[bottle-necked]

The best Militant

It's a good practice to not put any drive device on the same 'ribbon cable' with a hard drive except another hard drive of the same type (ATA mode). I think you should put your DVD drive on 'secondary ide controller' with your DVD-ROM (you have now) as slave. You just need to repin those 2 drives so. Directions are on the back of the drives.

I've looked at several DVDs and most of their space is used up with 'Extras' and junk. The main movie is sometimes larger than a normal DVD blank, so you will find that 'most/some' DVD backup operations will involve compression. This is not a bad thing since the original DVD is of such high quality that adding a little compression isn't going to really hurt the visuals that much (if done properly that is).

There are so many ways of doing this simple function that it's getting very hard to write about it, but..... if you can think - how you want it - then it's more than likely possible today. Figuring out how you actually want to do the project is the hard part, the rest is just some research.

You don't need to buy any software if you don't want to, that's up to you. I don't like to buy software I couldn't at least 'try out' first anyway. There is so much of it now days that I don't like.

Good luck.

[redwudz]

Be careful flashing your NEC. A mistake can disable the drive. I prefer to set a DVD burner to be a master, and not on the same channel as a HD. There are quite a few programs to backup your DVD's. Read the guides to the left side of this website. You can't always make a backup copy of a DVD 1:1 because they are commercially produced. Most of the time you will have to reduce the size to fit on a burned DVD. If you always want 1:1, you may need 2 DVD's and that's not really 1:1.

[bottle-necked]

The only reason I put them as slave is in hopes they won't be used as an everyday drive. You know, "The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long". In other words, wear out your cheaper drive playing stuff and use your burner only to burn. ie put your cheap drive on top and on the first available drive letter. It'll get used more...

lol

[redwudz]

I suppose with most MB's having the faster controllers for IDE133 capability that it's not so important whether you set a burner as slave or master. With W98 I had a few problems that seemed to be cured by switching the burner to master instead of slave. I'm using the much more stable XP now, so I haven't really got around to switching all my drives to the newer setup of CS(Cable Select) to see if that makes it any simpler. Most MB FAQ's do tell you to keep burners on a seperate channel from your boot drive. I have my DVD burner as master and my CDR as slave on the same channel and never had any problems.

[The best Militant]

Outstanding thoughts guys, I do appreciate them

I am using XP, so i dont think i will have any OS issues to deal with.

I am thinking I will continue to read the guides and go with dvddecryptor and other programs. Is there a way for me to copy my episodic dvd's correctly WITHOUT DVDXCOPY?

[jdizzy40]

Yes one word, or 2 "DVD Shrink".

[mickle]

Be careful if it is an OEM version of the drive as updating the firmware can screw it up!

Mike

[The best Militant]

I understand it is an OEM drive.

If the only difference is supposed to be between OEM and retail is the lack of mounting hardware and software, why such the concern? Are several people flashing thier drives and screwing them up? Any time you flash anything you run that risk.

Anyone out there that has flashed a ND-1300A help me with this one?

Thanks!