Instant Copy: quality worth the wait? + other misc questions

[qaidskey]

is the quality you get out of instant copy worth the wait?

if i compress a dvd so i can burn it, but after compressing and before burning i edit the menus/get rid of some unwanted footage, will it effect the "total product"/burn? or is there a better way to do so first?

if i burn something to a +R disc but later want a copy (for w/e reason) on a -R disc, is there a problem? or can it just be a straight copy?

thanx to anyone for help!

[northcat_8]

if i compress a dvd so i can burn it, but after compressing and before burning i edit the menus/get rid of some unwanted footage, will it effect the "total product"/burn? or is there a better way to do so first?

If you are using Instant Copy, you can strip out all those extras before encoding...saves time and head ache and you can use the extra space to increase the quality of the main video...but can be done after compression.

I have not tried Instant Copy 8 yet. I use Instant Copy 7.0.1.114 with the hidden settings editor (forget version #'s) but anyway, I have very good luck with IC7. It works very well for me and I have done several DVD's using it. As a matter of fact on my 57" HD television I cannot tell the difference between the original and backed up Matrix Reloaded both are clear and sharp throughout the movie. So in my opinion yes it is worth the wait. I mean come on, you are compressing over 4.7 GB of DVD down to something smaller than 4.7 GB...it takes time, it's never going to happen in seconds I don't care what programs you use and how fast your computer is. The matrix reloaded too IC7 about 2 hours to compress.

As far as the +R and -R I don't know the answer to that. I would not do a direct copy of it in any event. I would use Decrypter to write an ISO and burn from there, I don't see why that wouldn't work. A quick search on the exact difference between -R and +R maybe in your future.

[MysticE]

I use and like InstantCopy 8. If it plays nice with your system, it's a great program with some of the best compressed video out there. As was noted many things can be pulled and there are no 'stills' to deal with. It is slow and occaisionally it under shoots your disc size, but it's very easy to produce really nice looking backups with a minimum of fuss. Combined with AnyDVD it's almost a one click solution.

[Gurm]

And yes, provided your burner writes both +R and -R there is no problem just doing a straight copy later, although -R holds a SLIGHT bit more data than +R so going the other way would be a problem if the disc is CHOCK FULL, but otherwise there's no issue.

- Gurm