Hey Guys, me and my pops are looking into getting one of these. any suggestions? what are the differences between the cheap ones and the good ones? What are your experiences? Thanks in advance, JBII
I'm thinking about it, too. One option I'm looking at is those USB hard drive cases. Some of them take DVD/CD players. That way one could use the same drive in multiple places. edit:took out irrelevant data with this setup, one could switch a hard drive with the burner relatively easily and have a cheap total data hard drive backup.
Whatever you do, before you buy one, check http://www.cnet.com for any reviews and http://www.epinions.com for any personal opinions. Make sure your system can handle it, some require P4 with a certain type of processor, some require USB 2.0 or Firewire, make sure your system can handle the drive you buy. Good luck and let us know what you get!
well rh, here is what I got. went with a brand called LiteOn. Bought this at circuit city. http://www.liteonit.com/ODD/english/e_product/e_sohw812sx.asp with the software it came with, I cannot find where to make back-up dvds however. any suggestions for dvd copying software?
I just d/loaded it, but have no idea how to use it. Is it burning software, or just there to import the dvd footage into the computer? Disclaimer: It's possible I may not know what I am talking about.
its both, its VERY easy to use I found this site, it might help you http://www.dvdshrink.info/guides.php
Ok. I figured out how to copy a dvd to a dvd blank, but apparantly that takes 2 hours to complete. How do I trim the time down. and how does DVDShrink help? I'm lost
The time is probably not due to the actual buring of the DVD, but due to the decoding/encoding and compression process taken care of by DVD Shrink. A "Hollywood DVD" is the size DVD+R9 which is a double layer disc giving it twice the storage capabilities. So the movie must be taken from the MPEG-2 Quality down to I believe MPEG-4 (compression). Double Layer writers are availible and cost less than $100 for an internal writer, but at $10 a DL DVD not really that big of a deal. I would also guess that some time is coming from the fact that you are using an external device connected via a USB port. The port could be just USB 1.1 thus capable of 10 mbps or it could be USB 2.0 and capable of 480 mbps, and hose are both both max numbers ... I've haven't doen the math but I believe that USB 1.1 would cause a bottleneck increasing your time. I do believe the DVD speed is measured at how many times it can read 1.3 MBps ( 2X = 2.6), notice Bytes vs bits. 1 Byte = 8 bits. I downloaded DVD Shrink the other day and backed-up a few DVD's onto my hard drive each taking 45 min (I haven't bought a DVD burner yet).
