PC DVD recorder info/help needed

hi guys

i am thinking of adding a dvd drive/recorder on my pc. i have a few question before i decide to buy. any experts please reply.

my questions are

a) is it easy to copy dvds or is there some protection on them

b) how long does it usually take to copy one cd

c) and how much does a blank dvd cost

d) which would be the best dvd recorder drive to buy

e) finally - any cheaps places that sell the above - in uk

thanks

dave
 
In my opinion its a bitch ,why you might ask dvd 5 , dvd 7 and so on ! all you can do is go out a but a 4.7 gig blank dvd ,but all the movies are on other dvd formats 7.84 gig and higher ,it seems we cant buy this higher capcity blank dvds yet and you can never do a 1 to 1 back up ! i have pioneer a04 firewire ! and it I am still waiting for programs to pick up the pace. One of the best programs is ifo edit , seems now that it does not work fully with windows xp whats its been out for a while and then the author derrow all of a sudden states not windows xp compatiable ,what gives!
 
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elpresidente

Guest
a: sometimes it is easy (if u get a DVD 5 ) there is a protection ..but it´s very easy to defeat it ... the problem is to fit a DVD9 on a DVD5 ;)

b: sorry mate ..there is no average time ... it depends on your machine ...and on the DVD(size) u r trying to copy

c: 1,4 USD / Blank (DVD-R)

d: I would recommend Pioneer A04 right now ...

e: somebody posted a place to buy (not to sell ;) ) these parts ... don´t know where the post is ;)

üsse
 
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elpresidente

Guest
@ mikron
u can "never" do a 1:1 is wrong mate ... e.g. most porn DVDs r DVD 5 also some "normal" movies r DVD5 but most r DVD9... DVD 5 can be copied 1:1 !!

btw. there r also DVD9 movies ...but u should take a look at the tutorial section ..there is the info which is needed to copy DVD movies ...
btw. Ifo Edit is not one of the best appz ... it is the best ... maybe cause there is nothing else ... ;)

hmm..Winxp .. the problem with WinXp and IfoEdit is ... Winxp is the greatest s**t out there ...

I´ve never had probs with Ifo Edit and Win2k

üsse
 
I use ifo edit 0.9 in win xp pro, never had a problem yet. In fact never had a problem with win xp at all.

Elpresidente is right, there are lots of dvd5 movies out there, I have at least 10 myself.Also, a lot of dvd9's are easy to copy the FILM only.Once the extra rubbish is removed (extra sound-tracks,useless so called bonus material etc.) the films usually fit on a dvd-r.

Check out the tutorials, and don't be daunted, it looks more complicated than it is.


Good luck :D
 
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elpresidente

Guest
as dogznob said ... --> most DVD9 r easy to copy ..cause the main movie is about 5 gb.... + some languages .. ;) just remove them... voila ...

üsse
 
For hardware my vote goes with the Pioneer DVR-104. It is an excellend drive and can now be found for under £300 in the UK

For DVD-R media if you live near Manchester I suggest you get yourself over to Bowlers computer Fair on a Saturday.

DVD-R media from as little as 55p per DVD-R disc if you only want to play it on your PC

Quality media which will play flawlessly on a standalone DVD player can be bought for between £1 and £2 a disc. I've tried a few brands which work okay with occasional minor glitches but Traxdata DVD-Rs can be bought for £1.55 (and prices are dropping each week) and play flawlessly :D

For tutorials on ripping DVDs you might want to try

h@@p://www.doom9.org/
for loads of info and PD software...
(Its not a warez site so look elsewhere for software such as DVDMaestro or CCE.)
cdrsoft might be a good place to find some commercial applications if you choose to author your own DVDs
After re-encoding I can often get 2 films on a DVD-R with menus and no noticable loss of quality :D

Times vary greatly depending on what you are doing.
Actually burning to DVD-R usually takes an hour unless you find 2X media at a price you can afford...
 
Well,
Hello..
Most DVD's are DVD-9's, these can be copied to DVD-5, but it must be decrypted and stripped before it can be copied.
Sometimes a DVD-9 will still not fit on a DVD-5, even after stripping. Then you will have 2 choices:
1) Re-mpeg the main movie
2) Split the DVD-9 over 2 DVD-5's

If you choose 1) then it can take up about 13 hours of encoding time (depending on the speed of your PC)
I still use rempeg to do that job, because it's easy and the audio will still be in sync.

@ elpresidente:
The encryption method is not macrovision, it's CSS.
Thanks to the norwegian guy who is still in jail for writing the code for deCSS we can now copy DVD's. All he wanted to do is to play DVD's under Linux... :( and he went to jail for that.
[edit]
But you are right about macrovision, it's a copy-protection for VHS, but not DVD
[/edit]

And YES! ifoEdit is the best program, and YES! there isn't anything else !
Backed up about 40 DVD's without problems under WinXP !
 
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Pioneer A04 isn't the fastest for ripping DVD's, as stated previously, once you remove languages and bonuses, typically if the movie is about 2 hours long.. it'll fit on a 4.7gb :) but it isn't that easy to do without having a good read online, cdrsoft forums isn't a bad place to start.. :D

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