I got a new dvd writer drive...

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2004 12:42 am

It's external, made by BenQ and it is listed in My Computer, and it can play commercial DVDs.
However, some of the software that I already had on my computer can't recognize the drive (Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator, Easy CD Creator 5 Basic) The program that came with the drive is InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2, although it is a little confusing to me.

My goal for my first project is to take as many files as I can(they are on my HD and are about 215MB, 22min) and put them on a DVD disc which can subsequently be played in a standalone DVD player.

Also, on the box and on web sites about the drive it mentions that it has dual-layer capability... how do I use it?

Martin · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:02 am

I didn't know that they sold DVD burners with dual layer burning capabilities. I would imagine that it would be automatic.

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:39 am

well when I put in a disc and clicked the 'disc info' button I got something like:

DVD+R, 4438MB Free

I don't have to use a certain kind of disc to get up to 8.5 GB do I?

Andy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:48 am

yes u do.. dual layer disks has a thin membrane seperating the first layer from the second, the burner/reader is capable of using a strong laser which can penetrate the membrane and a laser which cant, to read the first side, the burner/reader simply uses the weaker laser and to play the second side, use the stronger. most of the movies now days are dual layers since they include extra featuer. a blank dual layer disk costs around 2 dollars each. you may have to reinstall some of the software so it can recognize your burner

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:20 pm

I had to format a while back and when i got this thing I noticed I never reinstalled that software so i just installed it the other day, after i had installed the drive.

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:17 am

where would I get discs like that? I've checked a couple electronics stores and they don't seem to have any.

Andy · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:48 am

www.tigerdirect.ca

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 1:16 pm

i checked there actually and the only thing that I fould was a single disc for $14. I was hoping that they would be a bit cheaper than that.

josh · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 2:17 pm

eventually they will get cheeper but right now, like with any new tech, it is expensive.

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:08 pm

ok then, that makes two questions.

1. does anyone know of software that allows backup copies of dvds to be made? I know that most don't because they are illegal in the states.

2. Does any of this software make it easy to compress a dual layer disc down to the size of a single layer one?

Andy · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:14 pm

dvd shrink

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:59 pm

dodge_tomahawk wrote:

dvd shrink

the website's down. I hope that it did not get shut down peremenantly by THe Man.

However I looked up the program and I got the idea that it has the ability to bypass the encryption, but then i saw people talking about "copy protection errors"

does it, or does it not have the ability to deal with protected dvds?

Andy · **Posted:** Sat Jan 01, 2005 9:49 pm

works perfectly fine for me.. and the website works fine for me Confused

josh · **Posted:** Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:05 am

the site did not work for me before, but it is working now.

SuperGenius · **Posted:** Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:11 pm

pretty neat software. and free!

EDIT:

does anyone know of a tool which can isolate the main movie of a disc and convert it into one .avi file or something of that sort?

RE-EDIT:

When I'm trying to make a dvd the setting which allows the most time per disc is "DVD-2 hours"
does this mean that the max is 2 hours or am I allowed to put more than 2h on a disc if the filesizes are small enough?

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