DVD recorder Finding Dolby 5.1 sound?

I'm trying to find on EBAY a DVD recorder that will record in Dolby 5.1 sound for under $300. A bunch of the ones I saw said dolby 5.1 passthrough. Is this the same as recording in dolby surround 5.1 sound. Are there any DVD recorders (Brand name and model please) that record in true dolby 5.1 surround sound? Any help appreciated. If you have a recorder for sale in very good condition let me know.

If you're attempting to record Dish or DirecTV Dolby Digital 5.1 broadcasts with a stand-alone DVD recorder forget it. They only record in DD 2.0 format. If you're attempting to copy DVDs, again, forget it. You'll need something like the Sima SCC to get past the Macrovision and you'll still only get DD 2.0.

I'm assuming the 5.1 pass through means if you're inputting a 5.1 signal it'll send it to the recorder's digital output unchanged but still will only record it as 2.0.

A PC DVD burner will record DD or DTS 5.1 and will cost a lot less than a stand-alone (I recently paid a mere $130 for a Pioneer DVR-A07 and cheaper brands can be had for under $100). And, it'll record both audio and video entirely in digital domain, unlike a stand-alone that only accepts analog video inputs (not including IEEE 1394 from camcorders). The software necessary for backing up DVDs is free (DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter). If you're going to be recording sat./digital cable broadcasts you'll need a pretty good video card as well.

I found on this board (also ordered) a device called DVD red that will allow one to copy DVD movie releases to DVD or VCR's and getting a normal picture by eliminating the decrypting agent Macrovision. Slosh, with this device can I copy DVD's in their dolby 5.1 surround sound on another dvd recorder?

In regards to DVD burner's here are some questions for you:

1. Is there any software that will allow you to copy straight to your CDR burner (Icurrently don't have a DVD burner) and make a VCD that also have built in CSS decyption that allows you to copy commercial DVD's? I couldn't find any that would do this without a DVD burner. Maybe you know of one.

2. In regards to DVD burners with CSS descyption software what would you recommend.
I saw a program called DVD cloner II that looks good. Are there any external dvd burners you'd recommend that will play on Windows 98 as all the ones I see on Ebay say Windows 98SE? My problem with a DVD burner is that I'd have to pay someone $55 to install as I can't do that.

Thanks for your input.

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Originally Posted by hershon

I found on this board (also ordered) a device called DVD red that will allow one to copy DVD movie releases to DVD or VCR's and getting a normal picture by eliminating the decrypting agent Macrovision. Slosh, with this device can I copy DVD's in their dolby 5.1 surround sound on another dvd recorder?

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As far as I know stand-alones only record In DD 2.0 format. You would be able to copy the video now, though. I got the Sima SCC in '99 so I could record DVD to S-VHS using the S-Video input. The best price I ever found for S-VHS tapes was $4.00 a pop. Without even looking for a good deal I got a spindle of Verbatim DVD-Rs for eighty cents each and that price is sure to drop in the near future.

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Originally Posted by hershon

1. Is there any software that will allow you to copy straight to your CDR burner (Icurrently don't have a DVD burner) and make a VCD that also have built in CSS decyption that allows you to copy commercial DVD's? I couldn't find any that would do this without a DVD burner. Maybe you know of one.

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I've never even tried to make a VCD but I do know DVD Shrink does eliminate Macrovision and the regional coding and works with other burning software so maybe you would be able to take the image file and convert it to VCD with Nero, etc.? Of course, you would also have to convert the audio to 44.1 kHz PCM.

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Originally Posted by hershon

2. In regards to DVD burners with CSS descyption software what would you recommend.
I saw a program called DVD cloner II that looks good. Are there any external dvd burners you'd recommend. My problem with a DVD burner is that I'd have to pay someone $55 to install as I can't do that.

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I've only had my Pioneer for a couple of weeks now and have only used DVD Shrink to edit and compress and DVD Decrypter to burn and both work great! My friend paid $100 for DVD X Copy before they were forced to take the full version off the market and prefers DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter. Enough said? ;) Oh, and both are small files so download quickly even on a dial-up.

I went with Pioneer because both of my DVD players are Pioneers and have never given me any problems. I had two different Panasonic DVD players in the past. One skips, the other flat out died.

Installing a burner is easy. It's just four screws to mount it in the slot, the power supply cable, and the IDE cable. Done!

Is there an external DVD burner with 5.1 sound you'd recommend that will work on Windows 98 (when they say windows 98Se does that mean they'll also work on Windows 98?), You saved me alot of money and problems as I was going to but a stand alone one but then I wouldn't get 5.1 sound.

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Originally Posted by hershon

Is there an external DVD burner with 5.1 sound you'd recommend that will work on Windows 98 (when they say windows 98Se does that mean they'll also work on Windows 98?), You saved me alot of money and problems as I was going to but a stand alone one but then I wouldn't get 5.1 sound.

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All computer burners will record 5.1 (including DTS). I'm running XP Pro. I just looked at my Pioneer's box and it lists 98SE. I don't know if that's the same thing as 98. It also says you should have at least a PIII @ 800 MHz. I have a RAID array and I'm running a P4 @ 1.7GHz with no problem. An external drive will run you more $ but still far less than a stand-alone, although it may slow down the rip/burn speed due to the USB2's transfer rate (I'm just speculating here).

Hi,

Thanks to you Slosh I've just got on EBAY for $119 new EXTERNAL USB2.0 + ARTEC 12x DVD±R/RW Drive + FREE NERO SOFTWARE and will be ordering for another $60 DVD Cloner II which has built in css decryption software. All I need to do now is sell my red pro which disables the macro thing on DVD's so you can copy movies, Anyone want please ask.

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Originally Posted by hershon

Hi,

Thanks to you Slosh I've just got on EBAY for $119 new EXTERNAL USB2.0 + ARTEC 12x DVD±R/RW Drive + FREE NERO SOFTWARE and will be ordering for another $60 DVD Cloner II which has built in css decryption software. All I need to do now is sell my red pro which disables the macro thing on DVD's so you can copy movies, Anyone want please ask.

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Why are you buying software? DVD Shrink (edit and compress and removes Macrovision) and DVD Decrypter (burn) are FREE and do everything you want. I also have Nero (which was bundled with my CD burner) and Ulead DVD Studio (which was bundled with my DVD burner) but I find DVD Decrypter much easier to use. DVD Shrink will work with any burning software and was specifically designed to work with Nero (which has some bugs, apparently).

Well anyway, congrats and good luck :)

Looks like I blew it and wasted $60 on excess software. How did you find this free software as when I did a google search for software that would let me copy movies, I just wound up with sites that sold stuff commercially. What is the secret so I can avoid this in the future. The worst of it is, I downloaded the stuff I paid for- didn't even get a CD Rom to resell!

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Originally Posted by hershon

Looks like I blew it and wasted $60 on excess software. How did you find this free software as when I did a google search for software that would let me copy movies, I just wound up with sites that sold stuff commercially. What is the secret so I can avoid this in the future. The worst of it is, I downloaded the stuff I paid for- didn't even get a CD Rom to resell!

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http://www.dvdshrink.org

From there you can find the link to DVD Decrypter.

Thanks for the links which I did find on google after hearing about this from you. What I'd like to know so I don't waste more money n the future, how did you find these sites in the first place? Thanks

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Originally Posted by hershon

how did you find these sites in the first place? Thanks

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Um, same as you. When I heard the full version DVD X Copy was to be taken off the market (before I had a burner) I Googled to see what else was out there. No secret :)

Slosh I got my 12X DVD burner brand Model PM-525 (not quite sure what the brand was which is weird) new and assembled with Nero software on EBAY for $145 including shipping& if it wasn't for you I would have lost my mind as that software I got for burning commercial movies never worked. Finally I used DVD shrink and it worked perfectly. A few more questions for you if you don't mind- you're my guro! What is the average time it takes to burn a CD from scratch on DVD shrink as mine took 1 hour and 40 minutes. I'm not sure I had my burners speed set at maximum and dvd burner said it was writing at 6X. How long on the average for a 2 hour movie should it take? There are no speed prefernces on DVD Shrink are there? What will DVD decrypter do that DVD Shrink won't- all I'm primarily interested in is burning commercial DVD's. What does Ulead DVD studio do?
Now all I have to do is figure how to record vhs onto dvd and vice versa. hanks again for all your help

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Originally Posted by hershon

Slosh I got my 12X DVD burner brand Model PM-525 (not quite sure what the brand was which is weird) new and assembled with Nero software on EBAY for $145 including shipping& if it wasn't for you I would have lost my mind as that software I got for burning commercial movies never worked. Finally I used DVD shrink and it worked perfectly. A few more questions for you if you don't mind- you're my guro! What is the average time it takes to burn a CD from scratch on DVD shrink as mine took 1 hour and 40 minutes. I'm not sure I had my burners speed set at maximum and dvd burner said it was writing at 6X. How long on the average for a 2 hour movie should it take? There are no speed prefernces on DVD Shrink are there? What will DVD decrypter do that DVD Shrink won't- all I'm primarily interested in is burning commercial DVD's. What does Ulead DVD studio do?
Now all I have to do is figure how to record vhs onto dvd and vice versa. hanks again for all your help

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Sorry, I've been away all week.

DVD Shrink just takes the info from the DVD and turns it into an image file (without Macrovision or the regional coding). The actual burning requires a software package such as Nero. DVD Encrypter is just a free burning program but I like it better because it is much more streamlined since its main use is for making back-ups -- Nero, Ulead, DVDcreator, etc. are really made for video editting of your home movies, creating slide shows, business presentations, etc.

Rip and burn speed will depend on the rest of your system. On mine it takes about 5 minutes to analyze a two hour DVD, 45 minutes to rip, and 5 minutes to burn (the 4X Verbatim DVD-Rs I have are actually burning at 8X speed -- and about 10 minutes for a DVD-RW disc). I only burn the movie itself with the best soundtrack available. I do this mainly to keep the compression as low as possible but also because I don't care about the special features. If I did I'd burn the film the same way and put the special features on a separate disc.

You can use your burned DVDs to copy to VHS since they no longer have any copy protection. VHS to DVD will require a videocard with a composite video input (or s-video if you have an s-vhs VCR) and enough free hard drive space. I have no need to copy VHS to DVD so have no experience to relate.