Is a DVD Burner worth buying?

[BrindA17-Kevin]

Today, I was thinking about purchasing a DVD burner. Then I thought, what will this allow me to do? Basically, the 4.7 GB discs don't cut it when the movie is bigger than 90 minutes or so. Movies like Lord of the Rings will require 2 DVD-Rs, and the quality still won't be up to par with retail DVD's. What you're looking at will be a SVCD. I would want to get a DVD burner to avoid having to switch discs during a movie, but I would still have to.

If I'm totally off about this and you can do direct-DVD-copying now, please let me know. Otherwise, all it does is provide bigger discs that still don't fit complete lengthy movies. Any advice or information?

If anyone has a DVD burner and an opinion, I'd be glad to read it. Thanks.

[jimmalenko]

You are correct to a point Kev. You can "backup" any movie from a commercial DVD retaining the original quality as long as the movie is shorter than 2 hours (varies depending on type of audio stream). If you wish to make sure that everything fits on one (including extras, etc) there are programs which scan the DVD and look for the places where they don't have to take a snapshot of every pixel - ie when the screen is entirely black. The size saving here then results in the overall file size dropping, thus allowing movies to fit on one disc no matter how long they are(to a point) with no loss in quality.

I have personally convinced someone who was thinking like you and was worried about quality loss but I can assure you that you will never pick the difference in quality of output from programs like DVDShrink on a normal TV.

Take the plunge and you will not look back !

[jimmalenko]

As a footnote let me also say that I admire "purists" like yourself but as you can probably gather from the complexity of this website, many millions around the world do it and we wouldn't if it was no good !

You could do a whirlwind test on a DVD burner - buy it from somewhere that offers a 7 day returns policy, hook it up and try it. If you don't like it, take it back.

[RabidDog]

NO! steal one, its much cheaper... but the after sales service sux!

[orbital517]

The quality of a DVD movie that has been compressed down to even 70% of original picture quality will not even be noticed unless you TRIED to look for imperfections. A SVCD can't even compare to a 50% compressed DVD movie. The majority of movies (I'd say about 90% of all movies) will not have to be compressed more than 10%-20% from the original movie. Now don't forget that you can do much more than just burn movies. You can use DVDs to backup your computer. I used to backup my MP3s (about 20-25 gigs) with about 30 CDs which takes up alot of space, but it only takes 5 DVDs to back up using a DVD burner. Also home movies and digital pictures.

[Kerry56]

On the other hand, if you've got plenty of cash and a little bit of patience, the new dual-density burners and media will be out sometime this next year. You'll be able to copy a dvd movie with absolutely no compression necessary.

If you don't have a pressing need for one, you can wait for these to arrive. But don't expect the prices for the burners or media to be close to what we have now, at least not for some time to come.

[kirpen]

"Movies like Lord of the Rings will require 2 DVD-Rs, and the quality still won't be up to par with retail DVD's"

It would be the exact same quality as long as you dont mind putting another disc in.

[slimmx]

I just made a backup of LOTR Two Towers today. I backed it up on one dvd-r with all of the menus and everything that was on the original. I think I ended up with keeping 58% of the quality and when I played it in my stand alone dvd player the quality was supperb. It is not the same as the original but still is very very very good. It was my first dvd that I burned and I am very happy. As orbital517 says keeping 70%, I am sure that you won't notice any difference at all.

And not all movies are that long so most of the time you will end up keeping atleast 85% of the quality since LOTR is very long.

[jimmalenko]

You might be able to improve on 58% slimmx if you remove foreign audio tracks that you know you'll never listen to.

[slimmx]

I was not sure what to remove when I was making it, so the only thing I took out was AC3 2ch English and it only improved the rest by 2 percent.
Is that it?What else is not needed?

[BobK]

If you're that concerned about having 100% of the quality on the original DVD then don't buy a burner and don't make backups. Buy backups- just buy 2 of every DVD that you want.

[slimmx]

If you're that concerned about having 100% of the quality on the original DVD then don't buy a burner and don't make backups. Buy backups- just buy 2 of every DVD that you want.

That's a brilliant idea.

[jimmalenko]

Yep, That's it !!

Sometimes you have to be careful with the extras because some of them can be 6 channel and some 2 but when you just have the extras folder selected it will show both. You can't go wrong with the main movie though, because it is only 1 title.

You did good !

[slimmx]

That makes me very happy, i couldn't bare going through the process again since even though I have 4x burner I used 1x blanks, even though I also have 4x media. I just think that my 1x are better quality then 4x. And I want the best for preserving such masterpieces as LOTR.

But if it would have meant that I could get better quality, I would have redid it

[BrindA17-Kevin]

First off, thanks to all of those who responded. jimmalenko, is DVDShrink a "one-shot deal"? Basically, can I pop in a DVD, tweak some settings with DVDShrink, then burn the output with burning software without editing anything?

If so, I think I'll give this DVD Burner a whirl.

[jimmalenko]

Yep Kev that's it !

Put a DVD in your DVD-ROM/burner, open DVDShrink, tweak a few settings and it will do the rest. You will end up with IFO, BUP and VOB files which you can then burn using your software of choice.

[Treebeard]

Yes its soooo easy to do it now with all the transcoding software. You can have a backup don in less than 90 minutes.

go for it, make sure you buy good quality blank dvd's. like riteks.

[noki]

BrindA17-Kevin

Basically, the 4.7 GB discs don't cut it when the movie is bigger than 90 minutes or so. Movies like Lord of the Rings will require 2 DVD-Rs, and the quality still won't be up to par with retail DVD's. What you're looking at will be a SVCD.

how do you know this have you even seen a compressed/transcoded dvdr movie? you are certainly quick to assume, my man
really, if the quality "don't cut it" or even SVCD-quality as a result of the transcode this forum and its user would NOT exist. and you've been a member for almost a YEAR. have you been away from a computer for awhile? haven't been reading stuff here lately, have you i know, i know...devil's advocate
naw, don't buy a dvd burner...nothing but trouble. besides, the quality won't cut it

[phonomas]

then there's the fact that you can even burn data on these blessed things! hmmm, i can put 4.3Gb on a dvd as opposed to 800Mb on a CD.... ?? unless, of course you're one of those freaks into tape drives.

[jimmalenko]

Good call phonomas....

[BrindA17-Kevin]

BrindA17-Kevin

Basically, the 4.7 GB discs don't cut it when the movie is bigger than 90 minutes or so. Movies like Lord of the Rings will require 2 DVD-Rs, and the quality still won't be up to par with retail DVD's. What you're looking at will be a SVCD.

how do you know this have you even seen a compressed/transcoded dvdr movie? you are certainly quick to assume, my man
really, if the quality "don't cut it" or even SVCD-quality as a result of the transcode this forum and its user would NOT exist. and you've been a member for almost a YEAR. have you been away from a computer for awhile? haven't been reading stuff here lately, have you i know, i know...devil's advocate
naw, don't buy a dvd burner...nothing but trouble. besides, the quality won't cut it

It's amazing how you think your little smiley faces make your comments less biting and insulting. Have I seen a compressed/transcoded DVD-R movie? No, I haven't. As far as I knew, you still had to encode DVD's and burn the MPEG-2s. I believe I also said this: "If I'm totally off about this and you can do direct-DVD-copying now, please let me know." This implies that I'm aware of my own ignorance and will gladly be enlightened.

I've been registered for a year, but I don't come here often at all. I have a life that doesn't revolve around this forum. Until I read your reply, I thought the quality of this forum to be quite good, but now I know that "trash" does indeed lurk.

[jimmalenko]

Settle Kev. Some forum members are wankers and not worth arguing with.

[BrindA17-Kevin]

Settle Kev. Some forum members are wankers and not worth arguing with.

I'd say I bit my tung with that reply. You don't want to read what I was really thinking, and the admins would remove it anyway .

[jimmalenko]

Can I assume that you will give DVD burners a go ? Honestly, all you need is a a ripper like Smartripper of DVD Decrypter, DVDShrink and some burning software and you are on your way.

My method of choice:
1. Rip DVD to HD using Smartripper.
2. Encode using DVDShrink.
3. Burn using Nero.

My justification for doing it this way is that I do not want to load into DVDShrink directly from the original disc because I don't want the DVD-ROM or burner to be working for the period of times some Deep analyses can take (anywhere up to 2 hours). I think having the source on the HD probably interfaces quicker anyway because of the better transfer rate.

[BrindA17-Kevin]

Can I assume that you will give DVD burners a go ? Honestly, all you need is a a ripper like Smartripper of DVD Decrypter, DVDShrink and some burning software and you are on your way.

My method of choice:
1. Rip DVD to HD using Smartripper.
2. Encode using DVDShrink.
3. Burn using Nero.

My justification for doing it this way is that I do not want to load into DVDShrink directly from the original disc because I don't want the DVD-ROM or burner to be working for the period of times some Deep analyses can take (anywhere up to 2 hours). I think having the source on the HD probably interfaces quicker anyway because of the better transfer rate.

Yea, i'm gonna give a burner a shot. I have the ripper and nero already and will get DVDShrink right now. I have a huge HD, so I'll go with the ripping method if it's better. Thanks for all of your help, I really appreciate it.

[jimmalenko]

Make sure you get DVDShrink 3.0 Beta 5. It adjusts compession levels automatically. Good Luck !

[overloaded_ide]

Actually reading Noki post I don't think it was so insulting!
He said you haven't been here much in that year, and you agree!
Duh....

You and him also see Eye to Eye on the fact you have not been reading the stuff on this site! Have you read alot of other posts and the guides to see what you can find on the subject??

As for his last sarcasticly put, Naw not worth it, well it is alot of reading and trouble to learn how to do it right. You said "I have a life that doesn't revolve around this forum. Until I read your reply, I thought the quality of this forum to be quite good, but now I know that "trash" does indeed lurk."

Well unless you expect someone to hold your hand and show you what exactly to do step by step, or are willing to give up part of the other life and revolve around here some and try to learn something, He is correct, it won't be worth it to YOU.

As for the Trash part, well this is the web you know. Name one site with a forum that does not have a couple stinkers on it and I'll show you a site with only 2 members!!! This is the real world and unfortunatly it's not perfect so just learn to not be so touchy about minor things and be happy.

As for the question about DVD-r quality itself. It totally depends what you are doing. If you are making a backup copy of a DVD, then a DVD5 fits perfect, and DVD9 may have to be compressed to fit one disk or you split to 2 disks or you cut out stuff you don't want. I did Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, both fit on their own disk and look extremely good.
The average person comming to my home does not know they are watching a backup compressed copy of a 3 hour DVD!

As a matter of fact, my daughter had friends over, they watched Two Towers and commented how much BETTER it looked on our TV than thiers. They own the same disk, different TV and DVD player and they thought my BACKUP on ONE disk looked better than thier store bought disk! They didn't know it was a copy, my daughter put it in the player and they never saw the disk itself.

Now what that proves is if you know what you are doing, take a little time to do it right, have good equipment to watch it on, then it should be fine. Maybe even BETTER than the COMERCAIL copy played on crap TV/player that most people have!

Course it was not my "copy" that was better, it was my tv was better than thiers, but still it was better anyway than what they watched at home with the real disk
And I just have a good cheap flat screen TV and Norcent dvd player!
I just added a $50 surround sound audio system to it too, and now it blows you away even with DVD9 disks compressed to fit a DVD-r.

And if you want perfect, split to 2 disks and use a 3 disk changer if you don't want to swap disks manually.

I have done at least 3 movies of about 3 hours, Fellowship, Two Towers, TiTanic. Titanic was a VHS capture from 2 tapes converted to DVD and looks as good as the tapes themselfs!

Myself I prefer to capture my VHS tapes and convert to DVD. I do backups but not alot of what I do, just a small part.

If you get a burner I think most people will say about the same thing, toss the software that comes with it and get GOODSTUFF. If your only interested in backups, get DVDshrink Decrypter etc..

[BrindA17-Kevin]

Can I get an explanation on the difference between DVD-RW and DVD+RW?