Tell me about DVD Burners...

[Keebler Elf]

I have a large collection of old VHS movies that I'd like to convert to DVD (I really want to clean out the space). I've been considering purchasing a DVD burner as the prices have come down, but now I'm hearing rumours that future DVD players won't be backwards compatible.

Can someone shed some light on the situation? And what's a DVD burner cost these days?

p.s. I don't need the latest-greatest model; just something to do the job.

 

[Esco!]

DVD burners are cheap (I've got one on my brandnew DELL) so if it does become outdated you can just switch and pay for the next cheap generation of burners. I'd go ahead and just buy one and not worry about it

 

[Gentle Ben]

DVD burners are around $100, Future Shop & Staples advertise PVR(personal Video Recorders) for computers for around $149 that will enable you to copy the video to your PC hard drive

A buddy of mine does burning proffesionaly, claims minus format is the format to use, as all or most players are minus compatible

The format is due to change within 2 yrs to a higher definition format, old players will not play the new format, new players will, but then I heard that gradually the compatibility will be phased out, so that old DVDs won't play on the new format machines

I know there are others on here that have tons more information & experience on this topic, I am just starting to research myself

 

[Berlin]

p.s. I don't need the latest-greatest model; just something to do the job.

As said, the price of DVD burners ( internal ) is around 100 loon plus/minus 20 bucks. See the latest ad at futureshop's site.

If you are cumputer savy and your PC is up to par, processor/ram/HD-wise, you will need a video capture card/external USB video capture interface to get your video feed from your VCR into your pc, and the software as well ( which usually comes with the card or external interface )

The best no brainer route root is to get a stand alone DVD recording machine ,

see this

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/su...995BFF9729608DD2497CDA0F9B6D91F6D&catid=22226

Prices from 300 and up.

You just need to plug your VCR into the recorder via composite input ( the regular rca type video/audio i/o )
press a few buttons and you'll be all set.

DVD-R seems to be more common.

Don't worry about format updating, all of us have to reinvest in computers and media players once every 3,4 years anyway, since modern consumer technologies self obsolete around the same length of time anyway, or even shorter in future LOL

As long as you have your video content stored on DVD-R's, be they + or - , W/Ram, there will always be computers to rip it and transfer the content to other medium.

I am currently using a Sony VAIO desk top for archiving video's on DVD. With the price of stand alone DVD recorder dropping, I will most likely get one of those for the " set and forget " type of video transfer, or to replace my VCR.

 

[canucklehead]

Well Winston as you know on a mac it almost is that simple LOL

 

[Berlin]

Well Winston as you know on a mac it almost is that simple LOL

LOL ... ditto

Winston, why didn't you share with us your video digitizing experince , or why don't you ?

 

[Mack Bolan]

Converting "old" porn to DVD

Ke

The Pioneer DVR-108 DVD writer supports 16x write speeds on both DVD-R/+R along with the option to write at 4x speed on Double Layer media. I got mine at GreyTech for $98. You'll need a software program that captures video/audio. You'll need a capture card.
HAUPPAUGE: WinTV-PVR-350 puts TV watching under your control! Watch what you want, when you want. Watch TV on your PC screen, in a window or full screen, digitally record your TV shows to your PCs hard disk, or pause live TV and create your own instant replay. You can even burn your home videos or TV shows onto a CD-ROM or DVD. hardware MPEG decoder takes no system resources while playing videos, so your computer continues to run at full speed.

Regards

Mack

 

[zzap]

DVD burners are around $100, Future Shop & Staples advertise PVR(personal Video Recorders) for computers for around $149 that will enable you to copy the video to your PC hard drive

A buddy of mine does burning proffesionaly, claims minus format is the format to use, as all or most players are minus compatible

The format is due to change within 2 yrs to a higher definition format, old players will not play the new format, new players will, but then I heard that gradually the compatibility will be phased out, so that old DVDs won't play on the new format machines

I know there are others on here that have tons more information & experience on this topic, I am just starting to research myself

So your saying all the DVD's people have bought will be junk in 5 years?????

 

[Gentle Ben]

So your saying all the DVD's people have bought will be junk in 5 years?????

kinda like sort of


That was my understanding of the report I heard

 

[xarir]

There are 2 new DVD formats on the horizon. Neither is compatible with each other so be prepared for a format war. DVD HD has the backing of the majority of the Hollywood studios although no one has set any dates for releasing in that format. Late 2005 is a decent guess at this point, but nothing is carved in store. Blu-Ray is a format developed primarily by Sony but there are many heavyweights in the Blu-Ray consortium. Sony also owns Columbia Pictures so expect to see those releases on Blu-Ray.

As for converting old videos to DVD, you need several things:

- a DVD burner obviously
- a vcr you can hook up to your computer
- a breakout box
- editing software
- burning software

The breakout box is essentially a DA converter. This is a device that converts the analogue output of a vcr to a digital source that a computer can take in. Breakout boxes range from cheap ($300ish + taxes) to astronomical. Personally I use the Hollywood Dazzle which cost me just over $300 at the time. It's a decent box, but even at the time I bought it I wished I could have gotten something better. Higher end boxes will allow you to adjust some aspects of the analogue input before they get converted to a digital signal. The more control a box gives you, the more expensive it gets.

Once you have your signal converted to a digital source, you need to store it somehow on your hard drive. This means you need editing software. Most people just grab raw video and don't do a whole lot to it. Others (like me) want full control over everything and spend thousands on software.

Lastly, once you have your source stored safely on your hard drive, you need to burn it to a DVD. Again, you'll need software to do this.

Other TERBites can fill in names of programs that work in the Windows world. Like Winston, I'm a Mac-head. The entry-level (free!) software on Macs is iMovie for the video capture & editing, and iDVD for burning. At the higher end there's Final Cut Pro HD for capture & editing and DVD Studio Pro for burning. The entry-level software on Macs is not surprisingly, intuitive and easy to use. The Pro stuff is exactly that - professional and thus comes with a pretty steep learning curve along with the steep pricetag.

 

[Esco!]

Excellent insight, xarir
But do tell us how the heck they plan on stopping all this file-sharing, because in my opinion there really is no way you can ever stop it unless you have some wicked encryption program!!
At least thats my opinion.

 

[xarir]

Personally I think encryption is a waste of time. In the old days (late 1980s / early 1990s) software came on floppy discs and was copy protected. Immediately a host of "crack" programs came out that allowed you to decrypt and thus copy software. Today, computer software is not copy-protected. In North America software copying is not much of a problem anymore as the number of people who pay for software generally outnumbers those who don't. This is not to say that people don't illicitly copy software; it's just that it's not some huge, gigantic problem here. In Asia though, it's a different story as for better or for worse, it seems somewhat ingrained in Asian culture to copy stuff illegally. This attitude will likely change but will take time.

Any encrytion program that's practical for use on DVDs can and will be hacked. That's just the way things are. As soon as a company / consortium comes up with an encryption code, someone / some group will post a decryption key. Ultimately encryption is a very technical thing so it follows that technical means can also be used to bypass.

I think that in time, DVD companies will come to more or less the same conclusion that software companies did a long time ago and will remove copy-protection on DVDs. If they don't someone will just post a freeware program that will bypass encryption anyway.

As the new DVD standards are defined, I'm hoping (against hope?) that the studios will do away with this silly region code thing on DVDs. Maybe this will be the first step to removing DVD encryption.

 

[RogerRabbit]

www.bestbuy.ca - They are also selling dvd-r's for $50 [100 spindle]

It is NOT as simple as hooking the two machines together.

I heard there is "macrovision" [or something like that] anti piracy on most VHS movies, so you can't copy direct to DVD. Is this true?

I saw a DVR/ VHS combo at www.BestBuy.ca:

www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a...0210&logon=&langid=EN&dept=20005&WLBS=FSWEB62

www.dvdrecorderworld.com/news/47

They are also selling dvd-r's for $50 [100 spindle]

 

[Tyler1]

Re: www.bestbuy.ca - They are also selling dvd-r's for $50 [100 spindle]

I heard there is "macrovision" [or something like that] anti piracy on most VHS movies, so you can't copy direct to DVD. Is this true?

A video stabalizer with fix this. Futureshop used to sell these but I think they're harder to find now.

 

[Sheet Warrior]

I just bought an LG DVD burner at Best Buy for $100 and it came with a $30 mail in rebate. I couldn't believe how cheap it was. The guy there told me that "minus" is the preferred format, which somebody else has mentioned in this thread. It also is double layer compatible, so it supports 8.5GB disks.

After buying your burner, the next questions you will have are, "what disks do I buy?" and what the heck is the "master and slave" reference in the installation guide.

There are multiple disk formats out there, but I was told that the -R ones are the most popular. As for the master/slave reference, it refers to how you connect it internally in association with other IDE drives you may have installed. I am replacing an existing DVD drive (which doesn't burn) so I will use the same settings otherwise I would be asking for my own help here. I am planning to try it out this weekend. Consider yourself forewarned if I hook it up incorrectly and knock out the Ontario power grid.

 

[WalterMitty]

I bought a recordable DVD player with the same intentions, converting my commercial VHS tapes to DVD. Also bought a video stablilizer from an online retailer (they are increasingly harder to find) but it didn't work. Would allow DVD to VHS transfer but not the other way....DVD player stopped recording once the VHS tape was started, telling me what I was doing was illegal. Actually it is not, as you are allowed to make copies for your own personal use, but Macrovision doesn't care.

So good luck..it is harder than you think.

Walter

 

[RogerRabbit]

Re: Re: www.bestbuy.ca - They are also selling dvd-r's for $50 [100 spindle]

A video stabalizer with fix this. Futureshop used to sell these but I think they're harder to find now.

thanks for the advice!

 

[lewd]

Re: Converting "old" porn to DVD

Ke

The Pioneer DVR-108 DVD writer supports 16x write speeds on both DVD-R/+R along with the option to write at 4x speed on Double Layer media. I got mine at GreyTech for $98. You'll need a software program that captures video/audio. You'll need a capture card.

Apparently, this is the same "SuperDrive" that Apple uses in it's computers. So if you want to use a program like iDVD, it will work.

 

[Galahad]

DVD+ formats the disc on the fly while burning.

DVD- formats the disc first before burning and will take longer to burn a disc.

DVD Ram is compatible with very few DVD players. It's functions more or less like a removable hard drive.

You could check out this site for more info.: http://www.videohelp.com/

 

[kricket]

buy centrios dcd recorder. you can burn all your vhs as well record tv shows.