Burned dvd's

Ahkuma

I'm curious about the video quality of movies that have been burned onto dvd media. From what I gather, these movies have to be compressed to various degrees to fit on a disc. Does this hurt the video quality enough where its a distraction?

Demiurge

Excellent question. I've got the best burner on the market honed down, but I haven't pulled the trigger on it because I need to know if it will transfer the DTS tracks, ect at an acceptable quality.

My knowledge of HT is so limited that I don't even know if I'm asking the damn question right. I wish my HT knowledge was as good as my computer knowledge.

scottvamp

Video will be compressed and that matters for people interested in quality. The other big thing is that thier is no Dolby Digital (5.1).
Deal breaker at the least. If they burned flawless exact copys the burners would be flying off the shelves. Have movies at the price of a rental.
That is why no one RENTS cds.

P.S. Some people enjoy buring movies off the internet , not even close to acceptable for HT buffs.

GuitarheadCA

Some people enjoy buring movies off the internet , not even close to acceptable for HT buffs.

No Kidding! Being on a college campus, all I hear about is the latest movie that so-and-so downloaded and put on a VCD/DVD. I CAN'T STAND WATCHING THEM. The worst part is, my friends don't understand - at all. I'm like, I'd rather wait a whopping month for it to come out on a real format. I've gotten a reputation for being anal with movies up here. "Peter, why do you want the lights off" grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. "Peter, it doesn't have to be so loud" grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Yes it does.

Sorry had to vent, lol - back to burners. I just got a Sony 4x for Christmas. And to be honest, I havn't tried to copy a dvd with it. I've used it for videos I've captured and edited with a DVC, and that looks great; but of course, there's not as much detail or depth to start off with.

Just my 2 cents.

weavercr

If you have the right program for making archival copies of your original DVD disk you cannot tell the difference. I have DVDXCOPY. This program will even copy DTS audio and video with no added compression, the down side is that if it is a dual layer DVD disk it will take 2 blank disk to copy. In some cases if you get rid of the extras it will fit onto one disk. I keep all of my originals and my kids only get a copy. You will not notice a sound or video difference. I do not like any program that will degrade the quality.

wallstreet

Weavcr is correct. If you have a dvd burner, you can make a perfect backup of a dvd including digital audio. For the criminally inclined, you'll never have to buy another dvd.:cool:

PolkThug

With a program like DVDXCOPY, can you just copy certain scenes? I would like to make a single DVD with scenes from about 10 different movies.

avelanchefan

Or you can compress it to fit all of the movie on one disk. What is mainly compressed is the load screens(fbi stuff), any extras, and the main menu. they try to leave the main movie alone.

This is in reference to DVD2One program.

Billm57

DVD shrink blows DVD xcopy away and is free. it will copy whatever features you wnat. Of course the elss features the less compression on pic quality. About the only movies I burn are ones that cant be found on DVD yet. Ive record stuff on my my DIsh PVR box then to DVD.

DVD's are still too cheap for me to even think of renting and burning. Not worth the time and hassle and media is still pricey as well

wallstreet

dvdxcopy doesn't use compression. how can something that uses compression blow away something that doesn't?

Billm57

you must have the old copy of dvdxcopy that spreads it across two discs beacuse the new versions compress
I would not want a movie spread across 2 discs to begin with. My point with dvd shrink is you can just put the movie only on one disc without compression (depending on length of the movie).
Again i dont see the point in burning available dvd's when you can buy them for under 20 bucks .

weavercr

one word "KIDS"


for example the shows, Taken and Band of Brothers multible disk already. copied them for the kids. dont have to worry about mine and they are not 20 bucks.

Billm57

i meant typical movie releases..not boxed tv sets..of course there are going to be exceptions to every rule..
You mean you make copies of your original dvds's for your kids to watch? What woudl they do to them otherwise?
Anyway my kids watch my dvd's all the time. I never had a problem with them taking good care of them . Its adult friends of mine that were more careless of with my dvd's than my kids.
I dont lend them out anymore

PolkThug

Originally posted by PolkThug
With a program like DVDXCOPY, can you just copy certain scenes? I would like to make a single DVD with scenes from about 10 different movies.

Does anyone know the answer to this (that has actually done it)?

Thanks...

wallstreet

DVD media can be bought for around $1 each. DVDXcopy virutally gives away a dvd burner if you buy their software. So for a $300 investment, I can buy all the software and hardware including a 100 pack of dvd's. At the store at $20 a pop, 100 dvd's would cost $2000. That's a savings of $1700. If you rent your dvd's at the grocery store, then rentals only cost $2 each. That brings your total savings down to $1500. That's not chump change to alot of folks.

wallstreet

Originally posted by PolkThug
Does anyone know the answer to this (that has actually done it)?

Thanks...

Don't recall seeing this functionality in the software. What you need is some video editing software.

Billm57

Originally posted by PolkThug
With a program like DVDXCOPY, can you just copy certain scenes? I would like to make a single DVD with scenes from about 10 different movies.

thats why i originally mentioned DVD Shrink as I believe you can.. best bet since its free is to dl it and check it out. The only difference is you need a program like NERO to burn whatever you pull from the dvd. Thats why its free . its not burning software. Its just extracts data from DVD's. I personally find that it works great .

weavercr

My kids arn't the big problem its when their friends come over.....they all become careless then. Loaning out a backup copy is no big deal if the mess it up you are out a buck at most.


I do not know if you can pull out certain scenes from about 10 different movies, and make a single DVD. I have not tried. Billm57 program my be able to do that. I dont believe dvdxcopy 1.5.2 will do that.

scottvamp

Originally posted by wallstreet
DVD media can be bought for around $1 each. DVDXcopy virutally gives away a dvd burner if you buy their software. So for a $300 investment, I can buy all the software and hardware including a 100 pack of dvd's. At the store at $20 a pop, 100 dvd's would cost $2000. That's a savings of $1700. If you rent your dvd's at the grocery store, then rentals only cost $2 each. That brings your total savings down to $1500. That's not chump change to alot of folks.

The quality and sound still not enought for me - too much comprimise for an HT buff like me. If you claiming exact copies, then EVERYBODY (renting and copying) would be doing it. I also thought thier was pretty good copy guards on them.

wallstreet

Originally posted by scottvamp
The quality and sound still not enought for me - too much comprimise for an HT buff like me. If you claiming exact copies, then EVERYBODY (renting and copying) would be doing it. I also thought thier was pretty good copy guards on them.

Welcome to the new generation. The quality is a perfect copy. No degradation (unless you choose to do so). They had pretty good encryption on the DVD's until a 15 year old Norwegian kid cracked the encryption. If you check out the code (called de-css) it's quite amazing. The whole program is only about 10 lines long. It's still illegal to copy rented DVD's. You can only legally copy media that own. DVD burners are still fairly new in the market place. CD burners, otoh, are quite ubiquitous. It is only a matter of time before DVD burners replace the CD burner. And notice how much CD copying is going on. This will be the same for DVD's.

scottvamp

Hey Wallstreet please post a link where I can read the specs and
buy this DVD burner that makes exact burns and also copies 5/6.1 DTS and DD. And the DVD-R's that will be capiable of this. Because the space of the DVD-R will have to be triple than what I have seen on the market.
So I can get my burn.;)

wallstreet

Here's a link to the software. Most any DVD burner should work. If you want the entire DVD, you'll have to burn to 2 DVD's as today's burners don't do dual layer. So the specs would have to be double, not triple.
http://www.dvdxcopy.com/platinum.asp

Features to note:

Copies Full Multi-Channel Audio (Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS)
Make perfect quality backups on multiple DVDs

Demiurge

Originally posted by scottvamp
Hey Wallstreet please post a link where I can read the specs and
buy this DVD burner that makes exact burns and also copies 5/6.1 DTS and DD. And the DVD-R's that will be capiable of this. Because the space of the DVD-R will have to be triple than what I have seen on the market.
So I can get my burn.;)

I'm buying a Plextor PX-708A

It's a Maximum PC Kick **** Product and a 'Gear Of The Year' winner as well.

Plextor makes the best burners HANDS DOWN. CD burners as well. I don't know a lot about HT still, but computers are my specialty.

Here are the specs:

Average Data Transfer: DVD - 9.3 CD - 4.2

Random/Full Stroke Seek (ms): DVD - 116/208 CD - 87/161

Audio Extraction (min:sec): DVD - N/A CD - 8:08

Data DVD/CD Burn (min:sec): DVD - 8:11 CD - 3:31



They used a FULL 700MB CD for the CD benchmarks.

FULL DVD's burn in under 9 mins...That's effin' INSANE!

Here is a side note I got on it from Maximum PC Magazine:

"Plextor cuts the ribbon on 8x DVD Burning so now you can piss off the Motion Picture Associaton Of America in less than nine minutes!"

You will NOT go wrong with this burner guys. The only think I had questions about was the quality and whether or not it could do DTS, ect. Sounds like they can and this is the best burner! LETS BURN!!!!

weavercr

I have the Sony 510a, does the +R, -R, +RW, -RW formats.

I have found that most movies less then 105 min will copy on one dvd disk, - the extras.


I have not found A DVD movie that I cannot copy yet.

there is slated for March time frame for a release of a dual layer DVD burner.

Billm57

Originally posted by Demiurge
I'm buying a Plextor PX-708A

It's a Maximum PC Kick **** Product and a 'Gear Of The Year' winner as well.

Plextor makes the best burners HANDS DOWN. CD burners as well. I don't know a lot about HT still, but computers are my specialty.

Here are the specs:

Average Data Transfer: DVD - 9.3 CD - 4.2

Random/Full Stroke Seek (ms): DVD - 116/208 CD - 87/161

Audio Extraction (min:sec): DVD - N/A CD - 8:08

Data DVD/CD Burn (min:sec): DVD - 8:11 CD - 3:31



They used a FULL 700MB CD for the CD benchmarks.

FULL DVD's burn in under 9 mins...That's effin' INSANE!

Here is a side note I got on it from Maximum PC Magazine:

"Plextor cuts the ribbon on 8x DVD Burning so now you can piss off the Motion Picture Associaton Of America in less than nine minutes!"
I ahve that same drive. I had to send it in for replacement a few weeks after I got it..the dvd portion of it stopped working...wuold not read or wrote dvd's..the cd functions were all fine.. I do like Plextor as my first cd burner was a plextor but im wondering if thier quality is slipping
You will NOT go wrong with this burner guys. The only think I had questions about was the quality and whether or not it could do DTS, ect. Sounds like they can and this is the best burner! LETS BURN!!!!

Ahkuma

I was browsing the FutureMark forums yesterday and found a post regarding burners. According to a poster on that forum dual layer DVD burners are expected to be hitting store shelves as early as march. Now if this true I think it's certainly something worth waiting for. Anyone else have a little more insight on this?

weavercr

March is what I heard from a Sony computer REP.

Kpt_Krunch

Originally posted by scottvamp
The quality and sound still not enought for me - too much comprimise for an HT buff like me. If you claiming exact copies, then EVERYBODY (renting and copying) would be doing it. I also thought thier was pretty good copy guards on them.

Hi Scotty - me again - I think you already have the answer to your ? from Wallstreet and others, I just want to add my 2 cents.

First off, I own DVD Xcopy Gold, which consist of two software programs, DVD Xcopy and DVD Xcopy Express.

DVD Xcopy:
DVD X-COPY makes EXACT duplicates of a movie across two disks. DVD's can only hold so much data, whether or not it is prerecorded or blank, so '3' dvd's is not required. It is an 'Exact' duplicate in every sense. I.E. LOTR & Underworld play just as loud and looks exactly the same as the original, you cannot tell the difference.

DVD Xcopy Xpress:
DVD Xcopy Xpress will burn the movie on one DVD, but it will compress. Xpress will also burn the default audio track - if that is 5.1 Dolby Digital, which as far as I know most are, that is what you will get. However, some older movies default to Dolby Pro logic, and then Express burns that. As well, only the 'largest' file is burned, which is the Movie itself, no extras. As for quality, I would find you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a compressed movie vs. the uncompressed movie. DVD Xcopy does a very good job compressing the video/audio.

If you have a DVD with both DD5.1 & DTS 5.1, and you want the DTS sound track, you have to use the main program - DVD Xcopy.

As for you comment about everyone using it, well, most computer savvy people are. 321 Studios are making a killing on this software. After "Behind Enemy Lines" (the worst action movie ever IMO) and the endless re-release of various movies in 'improved' video audio (See Scarface, Alien quadrilogy, just to name two) not to mention LOTR EE's, it makes it a lot cheaper to rent/burn them then to buy them outright. You save a ton of cash - up to $15 per movie depending on the title.

You can get a DVD burner real cheap today, and with DVD Xcopy the whole setup would cost you less than a low end used Polk Speaker - it pays for itself in no time!

Shizelbs

Originally posted by Kpt_Krunch

As for quality, I would find you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a compressed movie vs. the uncompressed movie. DVD Xcopy does a very good job compressing the video/audio.

You save a ton of cash - up to $15 per movie depending on the title.

You can get a DVD burner real cheap today, and with DVD Xcopy the whole setup would cost you less than a low end used Polk Speaker - it pays for itself in no time!

I would venture to disagree here. Lets say that a quality DVD burner will cost you $150. And lets say that a modest rental fee of $2.50 + the average or so cost of a blank DVD is $1.50. It will be cheaper if you buy in bulk, but thats another story. So that makes the total $4 per rental with the intent to burn. Then, you throw in the cost of DVD X Copy gold ($70). Now, its late, but my math tells me that you would have to spend $300 and rent and burn 20 DVD's just to break even (assuming that a new DVD costs, on average $15).

I would also disagree with the comment that there is no sacrifice in picture quality. For some there will be very little. For others I have noticed a very significant reduction in quality. Granted, the movie is still as enjoyable, but, the original copy is clearly "better" here. I have seen DVDs burned off my roommates computer. He does not use DVD X Copy, but lets assume that the compression capabilities are similar.

So, with the effort of buying and installing the drive, renting the movie, and the hours invested burning the DVD and occupying the majority of your computer's processing power, you would have to rent and burn 20 DVD's for the costs to "pay themselves off in no time."

Now, I think DVD burners are great, but until they and their respective blank media get cheaper, I will be holding out and continue to purchase new DVDs.

warviper

Burned copys are not as good. It is not possible to move that much info in pure code from disks to hd then hd back to disc and not lose some of the code. You will notice it if you have proscan player and hdtv combo. even if you could burn disc strait to disc you would still lose information.

Steve@3dai

Originally posted by warviper
Burned copys are not as good. It is not possible to move that much info in pure code from disks to hd then hd back to disc and not lose some of the code. You will notice it if you have proscan player and hdtv combo. even if you could burn disc strait to disc you would still lose information.

This is not true. Everything goes through a CRC check to make sure it's a bit exact copy to your HD and to your burner. I can take a .wav audio file, copy to my HD then copy it over a network to another HD, copy it back, and it will be bit exact.

Just to re-iterate. You can burn BIT-FOR-BIT copies of movies.