New Here.. Need some advice before making investment

[structure]

I am about to invest a major amount of Time/money in backing up my personal DVD collection. I am looking for the most efficient way to do this.

With the new technology about to come out(blue-ray), I am wondering if it would be worthwile to wait a little longer (how long??)? And purchase a new blue-ray burner and blank blue-ray DVD's...?

I currently have a DVD-burner with DL support, which has worked well for me in the past.

First question is what software should I be looking into?
I have previously used freeware (dvd shrink/decrypter), but would be willing to spend $50-$150 on retail software if it will cut down on my time, increase quality, ect.. Where can I find a reviews of the top software, or should I just stick with freeware??

Second question is about hardware. I have not seen DL(dual layer) discs in any retail stores, but im sure I have seen at them at online stores. 50 pack DL discs are running at about $80 while that same 50 pack of regular discs is $30. Which should I be looking to get? (money is really not an issue, but price/quality ratio is.. if I can get slightly lower quality for MUCH lower pice, or Much Higher quality for slightly higher price, ect..)

And finally, this may sound silly but what is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R. Which discs should I be purchasing, which do you generally get?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Zarxrax]

Blue-Ray, both the drives and the media will probably be VERY expensive for a few years still. Also, there is no guarantee that the format will stick around, so you may end up burning a lot of movies to the disc, then 10 years from now you wont be able to find a player to play them on (well, its unlikely that the discs would last for 10 years, anyways).

For commercial vs free software, the free software available is most likely as good or better as any commercial software out there. I don't do a lot of DVD-to-DVD backups though, so I'm not an expert on that though.

As for Dual-Layer vs regular discs... well thats a tough call. Some movies can fit on a regular disc no problem. If they don't fit though, you have a couple options... you can split it over two discs... or you can cut out some of the extra features if you dont want them... or you can reduce the quality until it fits on a regular disc.
For most movies, I honestly don't care that much about the quality, so I would be willing to lower it to fit on a regular disc. For some movies though, quality is very important to me. Maybe you would agree.

DVD-R vs DVD+R... they are just competing standards. I think maybe DVD+R is a LITTLE BIT better... maybe... Just make sure you buy media that works on your drive. If you have a dual format drive, then either one is fine really... I would buy whichever I could get cheaper.

It's also worth noting that you need to make sure and buy good quality media and store it properly. Poor media can start going corrupt within a year. I'm very paranoid about this, and in fact stopped burning things, for the most part, because my discs just kept going bad.
Needless to say, when you backup your movies, from that point you should use the backups as your primary viewing source, and store the originals in a safe place. I know the burned copy is the "back-up", but really, it needs to be the other way around, because the originals have a much much better chance of lasting the test of time. Also, by using your backup disc as the primary viewing source, if it does happen to go bad, then you will know right away and be able to make a new copy. Think about if it happens the other way though--your main disc gets scratched or something, then you go pull out your backup disc, only to find that the disc has gone bad! :D

[johnhamler1]

hi,

if i was you, my main concern would be ,how do i watch my movies, on a regular tv or high def projector?. if you use a tv , you can use dvd shrink.

if you watch your movies in a dedicated home theater at 35'000$ with 7:1 sound and you want be close as possible of a cinema theater, in this case, backup on a DL disc.

dvd rebuilder with HC is good too, but can take a whole night to backup one movie...when dvd shrink, take only 1 hour per movie, burning included...

consider the worktime ...after 10-20 movies you will be tired of this backingup!
(sorry 4 my bad english!!)

[foxyshadis]

DVD-RB gives you low quality options when you don't need the best possible quality. I think the pro version is the best deal around of all the payware DVD copiers, and the free is also quite nice.

DVD+R is more similar to DVD-ROM so if bitset correctly it should have the widest compatibility and slightly better error correction, while DVD-R has more overburning headroom. In practice it usually doesn't make a difference either way.

Otherwise what they said.

[smok3]

i do data backups on DL Verbatims, so far so good.