burner

[uncooked]

hey im buying a dvd burner soon for my computer. i was wondering if they all burn the disk in 5.1, or if i will need something else like a program to keep the 5.1 soundtrack on the disk.

[This Guy]

Yeah most of the software copy the 5.1 soundtrack.

[hershon]

Make sure you download DVD shrink for free as you won't be able to burn commercial DVD's for the most part without it as they're encypted.

[N. Abstentia]

You'll also need DVDShrink because you can't fit a 9 gig DVD on a 4.3 gig DVD-R. You'll lose quality, but it'll work.

[uncooked]

but once i have everything done and downloaded it will work good? when you say you'll lose quality what do you mean how much? my tv is HD or progressive its a 61 inch sony RPTV. so its not that big of a deal if its just a bit, i probably wouldnt even notice. im more concerned if the sountrack will still be good. if im saving 15 bucks a dvd then i can live with a bit of lost quality.

[hershon]

Uncooked first you have to learn to say thank you!!!! Those two words are not difficult to say if you're not Carlos Boozer. People on this board have been very helpful to me and the least I can do is thank them for their advice. You sound like an ungreatful NBA player! Anyway, here are the basics for DVD burning that I've picked up in the past month that I'm sure someone can expound on: 1. Do not buy a stand alone dual system DVD copier as apparently they won't record in 5.1 surround sound. They also are pretty expensive. 2. You can either get an external burner- 8X to 12 X which you can get a good price new on EBAY (for $90 -120 or so before shipping) with Nero software for and hook up to ypour computer by USB or get a DVD recorder drive which will probably cost you another $50 just to have someone else install. External burners and computer burners record 5.1 sound and you can set the region of recording. 3. Make sure you get Nero software full version. 4. Download for free off the internet DVD Shrink which will decrypt commercial DVD's. 5. There is not much difference in quality between cheap DVD+R discs and expensive discs, so brand doesn't matter- you can get a bundle of 25 at 4X speed for under $1 apiece. Also get yourself a couple of DVDRW's for practice/backup. Do not get DVD-R. 6. You can get blank DVD cases with plastic inserts cheap on EBAY - about 30 cents each for 100 of them. 7. If you buy DVDR's at 8X or higher they are much more expensive and don't seem to have many of in stores. These discs will burn at 1/2 the time 4X discs do (1X4 are essentually 4X discs). 8. If your DVD is under 2 hours you do not have to compress and essentually get perfect copies. If they are over 2 hours you can compress and they still come out very good. If you do not want to compress, just copy the movie if it is 2 hours or less and don't copy the menu and extras.I'd make a copy of this as it will save you alot of time and agravation.

[N. Abstentia]

Just a couple of things...an external burner is not the best choice because of speed and data accuracy. An internal IDE burner is the best way to go, and they are going for around $75-$80 for the latest models now.

DVD-R is actually the preferred format, not +R. Probably due more to price since -R is cheaper but they both work the same and -R is just a tad bit more compatable with standalone DVD players. But if you have a good modern DVD player it won't matter which format you use.

When using DVD Shrink, it does not compress the audio tracks so they will be perfect.

It does not matter if the disc is '2 hours', it more depends on the bitrate and the extras on the disc. 30 minutes of high bitrate footage can take up just as much space as 2 hours of low bitrate footage.