Page 1 of backing-up DVD? DVD Region+CSS Free good?

Ok, so I`m completely new to the world of DVD creation, whenever I`ve needed a DVD burnt someone else has done it on their computer (I`ve only been burning CDs for 2 years :p ). I`ve read dvdrhelp.com and some of it went over my head.

Treat me as an idiot in this thread, because I know very little.

I`ve downloaded two programs, DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter. I "shrunk" a DVD-9 that was about 7.5GB so that it will fit on a DVD-5. It`s currently sitting in an "Image" file or something (ISO?) on my hard drive waiting to be burned (I ordered loads of different kinds of DVD-R off SVP Communications who seemed to be the cheapest place, but they haven`t arrived yet ;) ). What will the quality of the film be like? I did include all the extras just as an experiment, but in the future should I just burn the movie?
And how long does it take to re-encode a movie or compress it further? Is 20 minutes a long time or normal? (on a Athlon 64 3200+, 1Gb Ram) How long will it take to burn the DVD? (16x writer, although I`ve noticed you can only buy 8x dvd-r) Should I always burn at full speed or is that not wise?


Before you worry about copyright and all that jazz, I`m not copying anything for illegal use. I just want to know how DVD works and be able to make back-up copies. And I`ve purchased all the films I`m experimenting with anyway.

So any help and comments would be very welcome :)

This item was edited on Sunday, 27th February 2005, 17:19

I always use DVD XCopy (in XPress mode) on it`s own to copy DVDs, whole process can take from 25 mins to an hour. Don`t know about using any other proggies to do it! I assume XCopy automatically fits the image file it creates onto the disc.


#I`ve been dreaming of a time when the English are sick to death of Labour and Tories..#

To burn the iso file you have you can use DVD Decrypter that you already have. Select mode - iso - write. Select the iso file in the top half and your writer in the bottom and then the big `hard disk -> DVD` button. Job done.
For Shrink it`a all a matter of preference and a trade off between time taken and quality.
When Shrink forst does its analysis it will tell you the amounts each part (main movie, extras etc.) are being compressed by. Well, it`s the opposite really - higher is better. Here you can remove soundtracks etc. to raise the figure. I personally always use `deep analysis` and the `maximum smoothness` in the quality settings. This does increase encoding time quite a bit in some cases but where you may be getting down to around 60% ish the difference is noticable between these settings. If you`re not happy then it`s quite easy to select the re-author option and just drag the main movie across. The more compression needed in the encoding, the longer it takes. The difference between the settings can be from taking 1/2 hour or so to 2 hours.. I tend to lower the percent of extras to around 55% if possible to make the movie as good as possible. Although my Star Wars Trilogy (no extras on discs) are less than 60% and I can`t tell any difference.. :o
Great little app though.. :D
To burn the 4 1/2 GB file will take around 8 mins at 8x.

Ste

Quote:
To burn the 4 1/2 GB file will take around 8 mins at 8x.

F*cking hell!

Sorry for the language, but my old computer took longer than that to copy an audio CD :o

Another question. Is DVD Region+CSS Free a good program?

Another question. Is DVD Region+CSS Free a good program? Chewie, you dont need this program as dvdshrink takes off the macrovision and in the options before you shrink a dvd-9 you can specify what region you want the shrunk file to become. best to make it region free imo

dvdhouse ;)

Quote:
Another question. Is DVD Region+CSS Free a good program? Chewie, you dont need this program as dvdshrink takes off the macrovision and in the options before you shrink a dvd-9 you can specify what region you want the shrunk file to become. best to make it region free imo

Yeah, but my DVD-Rom and DVD-RW drives are region locked (can only change the region 3 more times now) and I couldn`t create an image with DVDShrink unless I changed the region. I didn`t want my drive locked indefinitely so I did download a trial version of `DVD Region_CSS Free` and it works brilliantly... but only for 30 days ;)

I don`t want to mess with the firmware so this does seem like a good option, just wondered if anyone else uses it?

only for 30 days huh....ummmmmm ;)

I use anydvd and Clonedvd2 for backing up dvd`s you only need these two programs and it takes about 30 mins to actually back up the full dvd.
The guide is easy to follow.
www.videohelp.com/sefy/?id=backup5.html

Hi Try this,DVD43 works a treat for bypassing your region lock on your dvd drives.
originally posted by lawton49
http://www.cdr-zone.com/software/dvd_region_free/dvd43.html
hgv