Its Time For NEW Forum Thread: "DVD to DVD-DL" or "1:1 DVD C

OK, first things first, yes I'm a newbie for posts, but wait, I have been reading, enjoying, and learning for from this forum for the last few years. Lets' face it we need a new thread, this one "DVD to DVDR" is rapidly becoming obsolete. Today, I can buy (and have) a DVD DL burner for under $35.00 with burning speeds approaching that of the fastest DVDR drive. Add to that, DVD-DL media has finally begun to become affordable and 8x media is commonplace.

DVDR media will soon go the way of CD-R along with all the DVD to SVCD guides. Its time we put our emphasis on DVD-DL before it is too late, as it too is an endangered species with the coming Blue Ray and HD DVD. For the first time we can make 1:1 copies of DVD with out the degradation of video quality with "transcoding" or the hours lost with encoders like CCE.

Browsing through this site, there are numerous ways to accomplish these conversions, but we seem to have gotten lost in the stories of unsuccessful burns or are told that only the "pay"programs, like "DVDeasy", will accomplish the flawless copy of your DVD

NOT TRUE

Perfect backup requires only FREE software, PERIOD

1) DVD Decrypter: ISO read works nearly everytime even though not updated. Try it first. If it works, burn image to DVD-DL with IMGBurn

-by the way if original disk is single layer, as identified in DVD decrypter, then don't waste a more costly DVD-DL disk use DVD-R and save

2) Rarely, and I mean very rarely DVD Decrypter will have problems, if it does then use DVD Fab decrypter to copy in file mode to hardrive, then make ISO using DVD Shrink 3.2 with the IMG Burn "add on" in full disk mode to burn DVD-L

-also if you only want the movie, use the "Re-athor" mode in shrink, edit to delete credits at end of movie, and remove extra sound tracks. Often the whole thing will fit on DVD-R without transcoding, hence 1:1 perfect copy, and save


3) Cheap burners work fine if you have up to date firmware installed

4) Cheap media is not worth it, Verbatim works flawlessly for me with no coasters to date. Most posts in this forum that report burning problems can be eliminated with quality media

Bottom Line: The Programs are FREE, they will ALWAYS work, and you get a PERFECT copy

I'm afraid there is still room for the 'old' single layer discs and programs like DVDShrink. Some of our members, because of costs, still use CDs for video storage. Even the VCD format is used heavily in some parts of the world.

DL is nice, but so far, only Verbatim seems to produce discs that give fairly consistent results when burning. And it's unlikely that DL speeds will reach anything like 16X any time soon as the media and hardware is pushed enough by the DL format.

BluRay or similar is probably a format that will take over in the future, but for now, we still have some options. BluRay may also be required for the next generation of commercial DVDs that use high definition formats, unless a program similar to Shrink comes out.

I agree, the freeware programs do well, and I use them when I can.

Just my opinion. .

I agree that DVDShrink and DVD-R still plays a role, as I mentioned above, I still use single layer DVD-R disks whenever I can fit the movie from my disk without "transcoding" as the cost savings remain significant over DL media. However, for high action, longer films that will not fit, I go to DVD-DL to retain full 1:1 quality. If you think about it, only a year ago we were paying close to a dollar for DVDR media, and at slower speeds!. Today I can get 16x DVD+R at about $0.20. The cost I save by using DVDR when I can (about 1/3 to 1/2 the time) pays for the more expensive DVD-DL media (now around $2.00).

As far as speed goes, the gap is narrowing quickly. I have an 8x DVD-DL burner and the faster media is becoming rapidly more available. I recently bought QUALITY Verbatim 8x DVD+DL media for ~$2.00 each. Also with 10x burners soon to be released, I expect 12x and maybe 16x available by the end of this year.

Forget about CD-R, why pay 10-15cents for 700MB when you can have 4.7GB for the same price (albeit at 4-8x). I've taken my old video CD disks and copied 5-6 of them onto a single DVD-R saving me space with fewer disks. In addition, most CD authoring software is no longer supported or updated

QUALITY does make a difference. Today we are buying larger TV's then ever, HDTV, and movies have become more demanding on encoders. The result is the quality loss seen with "transcoders" has gone from a small "bug" on the screen to quite very distracting pulsating boxes seen on larger HDTV screens.

HD and Blue Ray will be coming on soon and this will further drive down the cost of DVD-DL media. I question the need for these tecnologies anyway. I think they are being driven by the movie corps who see it as a way to develop new copy protection schemes to prevent piracy. The truth is we really don't need more space on DVD's to get HD. Already, MPEG4 compression schemes can put around 100+ minutes of film in 1080p on a single DL disk (sorry not on DVD-R).

I say stop the loss of quality, get over being cheap, and start buying DVD-DL. You will thank me when you buy your next big screen TV.

Oooops,

Correction to previous post on DVD-DL speeds. DVD-DL 10x burners are available now, not soon to be released, the Plextor PX-760A (~$90.00). I supose I should have said 16x by this summer, not the end of the year. Anyway, proves my point that DL speeds will continue to catch up to DVD-R.