Please Clarify once and for all

[cyber9]

This is my first post and should be the only question I ask. I haven't viewed this board for about 4 years when I used to rip dvds to divx, but i recently acquired a sony dru-500a burner. For my 5 trial days I have been searching the board non stop trying to find out exactly how to burn with nero. I have come across many ways, however nothing is straight forward and I really don't want to waste dvdr's at this time because when not buying in bulk as I am doing until I figure out how to burn, they seem to cost a lot. Anyway I know people have talked about creating an image with imgtools or burning with a bunch of assorted programs, however I would really like to just use nero because I use it for everything else, and also I do not want to add another 15 minutes to create and image or use a different program that only will let me burn at 1X. So can some one please tell me the exact steps using nero. Right now I have DVD-R disc's not +R and I will be using a Apex AD-1200 and Apex AD-600a to view the dvds I burn. THe first dvd I plan to burn is a dvd I ripped of catch me if you can. It came from a dvd+r and I ripped with dvd decryptor all the files. Its already exactly the correct size to fit on one disc, and doesn't require any editing of any sort. (It doesn't matter where I got it. Its not a bootleg rip!) But anyway could someone who has the same setup or knows the answer to what I need to know please help me out. I have read to use DVD-Video mode, DVD UDF mode, DVD UDF ISO, and I have I really have no idea whats right or even if there is a correct way to burn because I have heard so many different things, and the guides on doom9 are outdated a bit when it comes to using nero and are not straight forward. I know that I need to uncheck joliet, uncheck multisession, use 2.0, click ISO 9660. DO i need to use iso level 1 or 2. ALso what should be checked under relaxed iso restrictions? I am using Nero version 5.5.10.15. Lastly Nero is saying the max speed it will burn at is 3.1X/ I updated my DRU-500a's firmware to version F which says it can burn DVD+R and DVD-R at 4X and also read DVDs at faster speeds. Why is nero telling me otherwise. Has anyone found 4X DVD-R or DVD+R discs yet? I have done extensive searchiong reading posts and haven't unfortunately found a straight forward answer. Thankyou in advance.

[gampt]

I don't think anybody can give you straight forward answers. There is too many variables involved in copying dvd. Every person may have completely different results using same method. Of course there is some basic rules to follow but to figure out what works best for your system you'll need to burn few coasters first.
As for dvd file system it must be UDF v 1.02, ISO 9660 level 1, no Joliet, no relaxed iso, VIDEO_TS folder in capital letters.
I mainly use Prassi PrimoDVD because it does file checking before burning and also burns in disc at once.

[cyber9]

I am sure somebody is using dvd-r media (memorex) with an apex ad-1200 or apex ad-600a and burning with sony DRU-500a and using nero's newest release, so maybe that person will speak up and help me out so I don't waste these discs.

[MickeyNBK]

I've used the Memorex media and I don't care for it. They don't make their own, they actually purchase and resale media from various manufactures. For 4x media I've been using Ritek 4x media. I purchased it through rima.com for $171 for a spindle of 100. You can get them for around $3 each individually. Other than that I use Maxell 2x media at $4 a pop.

Personally I prefer to use ImageTools 1.00.3 (which requires Nero) to burn discs. You do not need to create an image with this tool, Just point it to the directory either containing your VIDEO_TS folder or with your DVD files and it will create the folder for you. Very easy and straightforward. Plus it's free.