I Am Getting A DVD Burner And Have Some Questions! Experts Look In!

[ThreeD]

OK, I am getting ready to buy a DVD Burner, but wanted to know a few things. I have a Dell Dimension 8200 and would like to find one to color-match it. I believe that Pioneer makes a Black DVD Burner. Is this Burner good? Basically, I just want to find a cheap and reliable DVD Burner (Black, if possible). I am very new to this, so ANY help would be great! Now to the copying/burning question: Does it take as long to rip an Original DVD to DVD-R as it does to rip an Original DVD to VCD? Also, after I rip the Original to DVD-R, can I just copy the copy I ripped, or do I have to rip it each time? For example: It takes around 3 - 4 hours to rip an Original DVD to VCD. But, once you rip it, it only takes like 3 - 5 minutes to make extra copies. Does this work with ripping to DVD-R as well? Does anyone know what I mean? lol Don't know how to put it into words. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks! :t_up:

[Jesterrace]

Lots of questions here and I will try to answer them. First of all let me congratulate you for not being suckered into buying one of Dell's overpriced DVD Burners. I can't believe those jerks charge $150-$200 for a 4x + format ONLY burner. The Pioneer is an EXCELLENT choice. Very flexible with media and it works like a treat with Ritek DVD-R (one of the most recommended media out there) as well as a number of other types. You are correct in that the Pioneer 107 comes in black as well as the regular color. In regaurds to ripping times that is all dependant on your PC. Also it depends on whether or not your source disc is DVD9 (dual-layered) in which case you will need to rip out extras, compress, ect. I have a P4 2.4GHZ, 800MHZ FSB and 256MB DDR RAM and it takes me on average about 30 minutes to rip the movie to DVD-R with DVD Shrink (a nice little freeware program that many recommend) burning at 4x it will take you an additional 15-16 minutes to burn the actual disc. You will need to decrypt each movie DVD as just about all of them have commercial copy protection, fortunately DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink will both take care of this for you and they are both legal freeware. Once you get a movie to DVD-R it is just a straight copy since it is already decrypted and or compressed, ect. I hope this helps clear some things up for ya. OH BTW you can get the Black Pioneer 107 from www.newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com) for $115 shipped right now.

[jase1]

OK here goes...

1) The Pioneer series of writers are *very* good. I would say the best in fact. You should have no problem with a 106, or 107. So good choice there.

2) Depending on your PC, it should take around 15 minutes to 3 hours to rip a DVD to DVDR (plus the time it takes to write the DVDR). To give you a rough guide a Duron 1300 takes typically about 45 minutes to 1 hr 15 minutes depending on how much bitrate needs to be "ripped" out.

3) Once you've copied a DVD to DVDR, you can copy the DVDR direct to another one using any copying program no problem. Takes about 15 minutes on a 4x DVDR.

Recommended software (for a beginner anyway, you might find some other tools do the job better later on):

Nero 6 (latest release): most of the Freeware apps use this software to burn DVDRs so this is a must really. Also good for quick copies of DVDRs and CDs (and PS2 DVDs and ISO/BINs as well).

DVD Shrink: An easy to use freeware app that rips the protection (RCE, region protection, Macrovision) and shrinks (transcodes) the DVD to fit a DVDR.

ImgTool: Not really necessary anymore but it takes the hassle out of burning the files DVD Shrink creates to DVDR.

DVD Decrypter: Good for original DVDs DVD Shrink chokes on (rare but it does happen), and also for copying discs from standalone recorders which might not comply with the DVD standards properly.

[jase1]

Looks like great minds think alike Jesterrace ;)

[Jesterrace]

We agree on something??? :eek: THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END FOLKS!!!!!!!!!! :laugh: J/K Jase1. ;)

[PhilEnfield]

Blimey !! ... I find myself agreeing with both of you :laugh:

Just one thing though ...... Nero 6 is no good for copying DVDR's on-the-fly.
I and many others hit snags with this and had to revert to v.5.5.10.56
Bit of a nuisance really, because I liked Nero 6.

[ThreeD]

Thanks guys for all the information! Very helpful!

[jase1]

Blimey !! ... I find myself agreeing with both of you :laugh:

Just one thing though ...... Nero 6 is no good for copying DVDR's on-the-fly.
I and many others hit snags with this and had to revert to v.5.5.10.56
Bit of a nuisance really, because I liked Nero 6.
Only problem with that is that the latest 8x drives aren't compatible with 5, at least not on my rig :(

[Jesterrace]

Won't recordnow Max work with the latest PX update? I know a couple of people on here have been able to get it to work.

[PhilEnfield]

Only problem with that is that the latest 8x drives aren't compatible with 5, at least not on my rig :(Yeah I know ...... it's not a problem for me, at present, as my 106 works fine with 5.5.10.56, but I guess when I upgrade, I will have to make the decision.
Maybe by then, Ahead will have it sorted out.