Why to make "back-up's" of DVD's or TV programs?

[JimboS]

Why is it , as I read the forum, so many people are interested in "capturing" TV programs or making "back-up's" of DVD's............
I guess I'm an ol' fart, but I don't understand why..
TV programs suck......
Do you play a DVD so much you need a back-up???
Please explain in ol' fart terms so I can understand this "thing"...
Thank you...

[Nitemare]

Many of us have young children. Young children are hard on DVDs. Making and using a backup of that DVD instead of allowing them to destroy the original is a sound financial decision. Another example about backups...a friend loaned me his Smallville Season 3 DVD set... discs 5 and 6 are so scratched they won't play. He paid over $50 for it and now it's junk. To replace it would be another $50. That's just crazy. If he'd had a captured, home-made DVD of season 3, it would have cost him the price of the discs... that's it.

Now, if I bought a season and a friend of mine wanted to watch THOSE and he had small kids... I'd loan him a set of backups instead of my big $$$ originals. Some people back up everything, I only make a backup as a need arises. My kids can't watch half of my movies and they have no interest in the other half. THEIR movies get backed up. LOANED movies go out as backups. Crap that only I watch? I watch the originals and take good care of them.

TV SHOWS-- A season set will be made available at a ridiculously high price after the season has aired. Making your own by capturing from week to week is cheaper (though illegal). I agree that most TV shows suck, but that's subjective. Most movies suck these days too ... although this summer has been a decent exception.

[nic2k4]

Every now and then there's a TV show that doesn't suck, might be a different show for you and me, but that must be why every shows are being sold on DVD now.

Reasons to backup a DVD:
- you might have children that play a movie over and over until the disc literally wears through or at least they scratch it so bad it won't play anymore. For ol'farts, substitute kids with cat or dog that like chewing things.

- you might want a copy for playing in the van on road trips.

- you might want to make a disc that will play only what you want to see and not what some studio exec thinks you should watch (only the movie, no 10 min. previews...).

Feel free to add to this.

[redwudz]

And JimboS, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,
Moderator redwudz

[Soopafresh]

"Please explain in ol' fart terms so I can understand this "thing"...
Thank you... "

I'm a big fan of Tony Danza, so I try to capture everything he's ever done....

I agree that few things are worth viewing multiple times, but some programs deserve a repeat viewing. "The Office" comes to mind.

[akrako1]

One new reason I've become aware of here... most of the upconverting dvd players won't upconvert copy-protected content. A backed up copy will have the copy protection removed, and will be able to be up upconverted. I recommend dual-layer backups for that purpose, as the quality lost from 'shrinking' will start to outweigh the benefits of upconverting in my opinon.

[AlanHK]

Another example about backups...a friend loaned me his Smallville Season 3 DVD set... discs 5 and 6 are so scratched they won't play. He paid over $50 for it and now it's junk. To replace it would be another $50.

Off topic perhaps... worth trying:
1) Isopuzzle
2) if that fails now, polish the discs with Brasso and try again

[theewizard]

when i was younger, i taped every episode of MASH and every episode of all the star trek Franchises/spin offs

to go buy the boxed DVD sets cost many dollars, i have them all on vhs tape and i wish I had them all at higher quality

MASH is classic, something that deserves to watched again & again

there is a lot of politcal commentary/humor and good morality hidden that show

and if you want something 'politically un-correct' watch 'capital critters' if you can find it

[NiteLite]

After searching for over a year and paying mucho dollars for a DVD from Budanti, Hong Kong...you think I would stick it in a player w/o having a backup first? Accidents do happen...rarely, but you dont want to waste that kind of time and money when a backup can easily prevent it. And all for the cost of less than a dollar. Come on.
Also these things go out of stock eventually. Accident happens then what you gonna do...
NL

[Forum Troll]

certain shows I love, and I have archived, like Night Court, The Tick, and Pimp my Ride... sometimes you just get the itch to watch it, and having it on the shelf for viewing anytime is nice.

[lordsmurf]

TV programs suck......

That's your opinion. Some of us are quite fond of television shows.

[overloaded_ide]

Anything can happen to a disk. I have had CDs get scratched beyond repair when a tray closed on it, tray was not supposed to close but did and the disk was only half in and so was my finger. My finger was fine, disk died!
Also have seen friends have a perfectly fine CD shatter in a drive while in use, ruined the drive as well as the disk.
I dropped a real DVD disk on a concrete and rock type floor in a game room and it chipped bad when it hit on edge.
Also all the other already mentioned reasons, kids and such, use in cars or campers. I was staying in a hotel for 3 days once, on second day the room was cleaned and I found somethings missing, including my DVD backups. Of course the hotel just denied it, a small place and I think family owned and family thiefs! The thief got copies, not the real disks which I still have. Of course I made new copies when I got back home.

Many of the movies I like are a one shot deal, get them when I can cause they won't be there later.
I admit I like some stupid movies as well as the great ones. I have most of the Ernest movies! Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Scared Stiff, etc... Not something I would pay $20 each for, but since I found them in the $5 bin at Wally World one day I grabbed them. Only a few of them there that day and never saw them again, so I burned copies of $5 DVDs! I watch them at times but they are not movies I would go to allot of trouble or expense to replace if ruined or stolen. Maybe I could find new copies for $10 each somewhere but I won't pay out $60 or more to replace them all.

I like Tremors and own all 4, I still like to watch them at times also, but I watched them so many times now I would not buy them again if these were lost for some reason.

Sometimes it is just plain fun to edit the movie itself the way I want it!
I have a couple movies that had stupid sex scenes just to have naked people or show lots of boobs, but it makes no sence to the story and is not needed. Great movie to watch with kids and they love the movies, but the sex is not apropriate for a 6-10 year old or even a 15 year old perhaps. So I now have the same movies but without the sex and I can watch these with kids just fine.
Sure the naked woman were pretty but it has nothing to do with the story!

I also have the only FULL movie of several movies, unless others have also made there own like mine
Ever watch the deleted scenes and think that was an important part of the movie, WHY did they cut that scene???
Well I edit the movie and put that scene back in! Not so easy to do sometimes, but I can do it and I do do it!
About 5 moives off hand I can think of where part of the movie does not really make much sense, then found a deleted scene which explains why that part of the movie occured, then it makes sense.
Why are they so stupid to cut movies like that in the first place"??

Leave in useless naked people that have nothing to do with a movie, cut the scene that explains why the guy got shot and is important to the movie!

Although I hate watching comercails, I really HATE being forced to wait through 10-20 mintutes of them, most for movies I aready own, DISNEY is about the worst for this! So I make my backups and cut the comercails, I bought movies and have the right to watch them, I did not buy comercails and they do not have any right to force me to watch them! Some you can skip through or just jump over, many lock the DVD controls and you must just wait till they're over. I remove them!

At one time I was making fancy menues for my DVDs, the orginal homemade stuff and VHS captures (conversions) but most recently I've just been making the DVDs so when the tray closes the movie just starts playing and when movie is over the tv just goes blank or a DVD player logo runs. I like this much better now, I hate falling asleep durring a movie and them being woke up by those loud annoying menus that just repeat over and over endlessly forever or until your wide awke enough to find the remote and shut it off.
So now I pop in a DVD and walk away, maybe stand in kitchen making a messy sandwich or buttering the popcorn, the movie just starts playing, no need to clean my hands and go fumbling with the remote, nor stand around waiting to get to a menu while goofey junk plays first just so I can press play eventually. And like I said, if I fall asleep theres nothing to wake me back up or ruin my sleep when the movie is over, just a silent glow from the tv being on is all.

Well, that's a few reasons why many of us make backups, several things others may not mention or perhaps most don't do themselfs but some of us do them.

Some of the old movies on DVD cheap were made by shody or incompenant companies. I have a bunch of those $2-$5 DVD's of old stuff, moslty public domain I beleave. Good movies but DVD quality is crap. Making my own backup of these is a pain to do, but I can in some ways make the movies better by using filters or adjusting settings. I can lighten or darken video a little which make veiwing better and I can also adjust Audio some adding base or such.
I just watched an old movie called THE FAT SPY with Phyliss Diller and Jane Mansfield tonight and the band Wild Ones.
CHEAP CRAP company made that DVD or back when hardware was not very good, AUDIO is crap!
I can make it better making my own copy later if I want to bother with it and I probably will.

As far as TV shows, I don't watch TV anymore and have not for years now unless at someone elses house. But many of us like me would love to have some old stuff never released on DVD or VHS from back in the old days. Stuff you don't see on TV anymore. The Jack Benny, Bob Hope specails for example, used to be every year some of those old greats had a Christmas specail or such.
Maybe someday all the Dean Martain shows will be out on DVD but I dought it. Stuff like that is classic TV that made TV what it WAS when it WAS good.
I never saw a boxed set for any season of Donny and Marie yet anywhere, though I would probably not buy it anyway if I did. But I'd love to have a few old VHS tapes of it to watch once and forget about just for old memories but not worth paying much for.