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INTERNET DOWNLOADS: Too complicated for me. Have to read disk directory, drag and drop files to another window, choose compression ratios, chapter order, features, etc...
I finally got it done, but after several tries and ruining several blank dvds.
I know some people do just fine with this stuff, but I'm not into doing all this work before copying the movie. Plus, I wasn't sure which files to drag and drop, so I dropped all of them into the copy window. However, I still lost all the special features, subtitles, and some of the menu items. Took me about 12 hours, 6 ruined blank dvd's, and 2 pots of coffee. 2 of the dvd's I thought were successful didn't play on my dvd player or on my computer, or on my family's dvd player. ARRRRRH!
If you absolutely don't want to pay for dvd copy software, can handle mixed results, and don't mind wasting 1 or 2 blank dvd's for every movie you make, then good luck to you. cdfreaks.com is a good resource and has a tutorial. Even so, I still had trouble. Any sane adult will just buy the other software.
PINNACLE: the software that came with my DVD recorder, took about 7 hours to copy the movie! Easy to use, but being without a computer for 7 hours was painful. On the plus side: I could tell no difference in video quality. Just a slight pixelating like the others.
Conclusion: I have no confidence in free software and don't want to waste another blank dvd. Even with my new p4 computer, it took 6 hours to copy a dvd with pinnacle.
If your like me, hard working tax payer with a job and no spare time, you won't waste your time trying to get 2 or 3 different free software packages to work together that still takes hours to make a copy.
NOTE: Many companies are just repackaging free internet software together and selling it to you at 100% profit. The two software packages I'm recommending to the right are not one of these scams. |
Oh my GOD! This is the best thing since sliced bread! I just put the movie in, and the selected the drive the movie was in. The title of the movie came up and then I just pressed "COPY".
It took about 50 minutes to compress the movie down to 4.7gb, then about another 30 minutes to burn it to the blank dvd!
And guess what, all the special features, menu selections, and english subtitles (or whatever language is available) worked perfectly.
On my 20" table top tv, I could not tell any difference in the quality of the picture. On my 45" projection TV, just a slight pixelizing on fast moving objects. Honestly, if you were not looking for it, you would never know.
Best of all, the movies played on all my dvd players and my family's dvd players.
UPDATE: I bought some generic blank dvd's and they do not play on older dvd players. They work just fine on my new dvd player at home, but my family has an older model (about 2 years) and none of the movies worked. Good news: FUJI seems to make good blank dvd's. They always play on mine and my family's dvd players.
UPDATE: I bought a new computer, P4 2.6g with 512 ddr and 120meg 5200 rpm hard drive, same dvdr recorder. The entire process for 8gig movies only takes 45 minutes! 4gig movies only take 20 minutes since there is no compression!
NOTE: You need to use decoder to remove the copy protection on some dvds. I've tried a free one and one I paid for. The free software copies the dvd to your hard drive first, then you just copy it to the dvd from the hard drive to the blank dvd. The add's about 30 minutes to the entire process.
The SlySoft.com software I paid $39 for decodes the copy protection on the fly, so it doesn't need to copy to the hard drive first. It works great with the Intervideo software! 45 minutes start to finish!
CONCLUSION: You need these two software titles that work perfectly together...no guesswork!
Slysoft.com Anydvd
and
BONUS: Intervideo will copy DVD's to a single regular CD in DIVx format or onto multiple CD's in standard dvd format. |
