Possible problems making backup DVDs

[clodomiro]

Hi, I'm considering buying a DVD burner for movie backups.

(1) If I were to use DVD2one, is there any problem in burning the result I get with any DVD-R or DVD+r burner? I know the answer should be simple but I see so many people in the divx forums (me included) that I'm wondering why people still bother to encode DVDs to mpeg4. Is it just because the price of the burner?

(2) and also, from what I read there's no difference in compatibility between DVD-R and DVD+R, but DVD+r media is more expensive right? I would like to play the backup in any standalone DVD player.

Thanks in advance.

A.Lanza

[coona]

The answer is not so simple :).

(1) DVD2ONE (and all other one click button solution) is not so perfect as it can looks. That is why there are still a lot of people using "manual" aproach to DVD backuping (using CCE or TMPEGenc and authoring tools). And it is cheaper to burn 2 or 3 CDs than 1 DVDR.

(2) The most important thing is to check what media does your standalone play. So check the compatibility of your standalone and then you can choose the right burner (DVD-R or DVD+R) for you. If you want to be 99% sure (1% for players that don´t read DVDR media at all :( ) try DVD+/-R burner like SONY :).

[clodomiro]

All right, thanks a lot.

1 Are you telling me that I can back up a dvd movie in 2 or 3 cd's that play in any stand alone dvd player with better quality than a 1 DVD made with DVD2one? As I understand it, CCE and such would give me better quality if using a DVDr, and I plan to use them eventually, but also I would really like to be able to backup a movie in 3 hours or less (including burning time) the first day I get it, just to shake off the fever.
2. I ran across a copied DVD that seems to be very compatible, is there any way for me to tell what kind of media it is on? It was blue/purplish.

Thanks again.

[coona]

Hi clodomiro,

(1) I´m not an expert on DVD2ONE and such programs. I tried it some time ago and I wasn´t satisfied with the result. There was no possibility to backup whole DVD structure with menus and extras. I don´t know if it is possible know. But back to quality - DVD2ONE is transcoder (that means that each single frame is reduced) and therefore quality is not so good like when you use encoders like CCE or TMPGEnc.

As I red some discussion about this "one click button DVD backup solution" I can recommend you Instant Copy from Pinacle. This is both encoder and transcoder if I understand it right ;).

(2) I don´t know where are you from so it is hard to tell what kind of media you can use. As I own DVD+R burner and I´m from Europe I don´t know good or bad media form US or so :(.

[atreides93]

Well if you want my advice, I suggest you get a pioneer A05 dvd-r/rw drive. get Ritek DVD-R's. make sure you have a fairly new DVD standalone player (like 2001 and later).

There are multiple ways of backing up DVD's and even if you go the DIVX route, you can store tons of divx movies on a DVD-R that is more convenient than keeping movies on 2 or 3 cd's.

I don't know why people are still backing up movies to DIVX...must be cause they think dvd-r's are too expensive or something...it doesn't make sense to me.