DVD Recorder

[jfebus]

Hi All,

I am planing to buy a DVD Recorder for my PC, maybe the Pioneer one. Will I be able to copy any DVDs? How much time can I fit in a DVD?

Regards,

Jose

[Jason A]

Alot of people have been asking about this. and the answer is no.

Production DVD's can hold up to 9.6gigs and are also double layer.

The Pioneer A03 like I have will only do one layer and 2layer burners are a long ways off.

Unless you can find a movie that is under 4.7gigs, then you can copy the MPEG2 data or the raw movie.

but you will not be able to get the titles, menus etc unless you do some fancy foot work, and in the end, it's just easier to buy the $14.95 movie!!!

Also, if you have LONG movie, you are going to have to take the MEPG2 data and squeeze it down or recompress using a lower bitrate so you can fit the movie onto a 4.7 gig disc.

For me..most movies under 2 hours seem to work well with..
8500max.
5500ave.
3500min.

Ofcourse, if the movie is drama or has little action in it, then 5550 max always does the trix, but you will have to recompress..

unless you burn onto 2 dvd-r's but then it's almost cheaper to go buy it as you won't get the titles 5.1/DTS etc.

I myself, use the A03 for all my DV (digital camcorder) footage and backing up computer data!

Jason

[jfebus]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the info. I am planing to use it for my Digital Camara footage too. Can I get a full minidv in a DVD single layer?

Thanks for the info

Jose

[AntnyMD]

I think what people should be telling you is that you won't be able to make a direct copy of a DVD without doing some altering of the data on the original DVD. However, it may very well be possible to copy full DVD-quality video and audio and have the result be under 4.7gb.

First, use SmartRipper to rip the video and 1 audio track only. Forget subtitles, forget DTS audio, forget directory commentary, forget the Portguese alternate audio track.

Make SmartRipper make one or two giant files. You may run up against the 4gb barrier in Windows, so tell it to split the file when it gets to 4000 megabytes. Take that vob file SmartRipper makes and demux the MPEG2 video and the AC3 audio. You may even want to forego the 5.1 track for one of the 2.0 tracks. Rename the m2v file and the ac3 file the same (e.g., film.m2v and film.ac3, so your DVD authoring software will auto-mux them in the authoring stage).

Anyhow, I've found most movies that run under 2 hours will yield a final file under 4.7gb. Action movies make bigger files though (more movement = higher sustainted bitrate usage = bigger file size).

For all practical purposes, spending the $15 - $20 on the commercial DVD is totally worth it.

[Kdiddy]

"For all practical purposes, spending the $15 - $20 on the commercial DVD is totally worth it."

Truer have never been spoken. However, jfebus, you ca NOT make a direct copy of a DVD disk that contains CSS/Macrovision encrypted material onto another DVD-R. You have to decrypt it first. If you have time & media to waste, many ideas & formats are floating around at the link below:

http://rilanparty.com/vbb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=39

[jfebus]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the answers. I don't want to copy copyrighted material!! I just want to know If I can copy a DVD created using my own DV material. Any information about the how much time will fit in a 4.7GB DVD? Will I need an specific software or can I use Nero?

Regards,

Jose

[Kdiddy]

ok, well that you CAN do.

[Greg12]

Nero burns DVDs

[Jason A]

YES !!! you can fit a full 60 minutes of top-notch DV footage on a 4.7 gig disk.

Actually...it's only around 3...even with high movement because it's only 60 mins or 1 hour!!!

Jason

[jfebus]

Hi Jason,

Can I use DVD-R and DVD-RW with this drive? Will the DV Footage stored in a DVD-R be compatible with tabletop DVD players?

Thanks for the help

Jose

[Jason A]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-11 19:34:37, jfebus wrote:
Hi Jason,

Can I use DVD-R and DVD-RW with this drive? Will the DV Footage stored in a DVD-R be compatible with tabletop DVD players?

Thanks for the help

Jose
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

YES !!! just about every DVD player out there 96% by Pioneer's standard, have no problem playing the DVD-R's I've made.

However, as in my earlier post... DVD-RW's are not accepted very much by any players. Sure there are always ones out there, but count that out as a medium to distribute your vids by.

Anywhoo..I have three DV camcorders ranging from a Sharp MiniDV, Sony-Pro 3ccd Digital8, and the wonderful Cannon XLS-R1 DVcam.

I take the video from firewire (aka IEEE1394) and transfer it on to my HD.

Then Edit it in Premiere.

Then export it in either Ligos-LSX encoder (excellent quality, and fast)

or export it onto Tmpeg or CinemaCraft (SUPERB!! the best, but slow)

Anyways, since you are dealing with source material, the quality will be excellent no matter what encoder you use.

Just some need a higher bitrate to compensate...example..

Ligos-LSX does not have multi pass..so highest quality needs to be around 8500/sec..

where as Tmpeg or CinemaCraft can do multipass and 7000/sec looks just as good, but takes 3 times as long!

Jason

[HolgerS]

Since 1 week i have the new Ricoh DVD+RW and it works fine with my Digi-camcorder.

The bundled software My DVD allows in best quality to burn 1 hour of movie, 2 hours with very good quality up to 4 hours in lower quality.

All those DVD´s are running on my standalone player.

For copying commercial DVD´s the work and the DVD+RW media is too expensive/extensive. Of course by time the price will go down, but the timespending and work will stay ..... Has to be decides by own of everyone if this is worth the effort .....

Greetings
Holger from Germany

[SatStorm]

There are alternatives off course...
Don't think only the DVD movies...
Satellite, Cabel and Terrestial Digital transmissions, known as DVB/s DVB/c and DVB/t is like DVD video movies, but more flexible. You can rip them direct to your computer, using a happauge win dvb/s card (or other card) or (better) using a D-box 1, Nokia 9600,9200,9500 satellite/cable receiver.
Those transmissions are VBR mpeg 2, with maximum about 6000 kb/s. There are already some german transmissions with AC3 audio, and in a couple of years those transmissions will be a standard in most of Europe (at least on movie channels).
Today, sky digital (british satellite provider) announce AC3 transmissions with the movies, so and Canal Plus (france provider) for there companies around europe (CSN, CSD,C+Benelux, D+, etc...)
You can Rip a movie from the satellite (cable/terrestial)digital source, including the ac3 audio. This, most of the times, is about 3.2 Gb for a 2 hour movie. The quality is almost the same with DVD video. You de-mux the file to d2v and ac3 files, you feed your DVD authoring software and you get DVD movies!
The resolution used for those transmissions are 352X576, 480 X 576, 522 X 576, 528 X 576 and 720 X 576.

I did a trick a month ago, and worked: I rip 3 movies (all more than 90 min)from a satellite channel with ac3 audio.
With DVD2AVi I split the audio and create the dummy video file for frameserving to tmpeg.
Then I encode only the Video with tmpeg as XSVCD (352 X 576, bitrate 2800kb/s)and end up with a d2v file.
I feed my DVD authoring program with the files of those 3 movies (6 files in total) and I got a 3 movie DVD - R with perfect video and ac3 audio, playable to all DVD players compatible with DVD - R, with no problems...
I believe, the same can be done with DVD ripping...
Just imagine, the starwars trilogy on one DVD with AC3 video...
And don't say that gives lower quality. The vertical lines counts dramatically. Only on a HDTV you can see a difference with full Pal (720 X 576), but on those screens, even DVDs looks sometimes bad!
The future is digital, and we can use that our own way!