DVD burners

[adrian]

I'm itching to get a new component into my computer, so its either a new case or a DVD burner (I'll go case shopping tomorrow, but I'm just curious to know about DVD burners)

So, who has one? How has it worked for you? Is it really needed? (I'll just be backing up things, and having a DVD reader and a burner would be a nice combo).

And what software do you use?

[shaveice]

Re: DVD burners

hi adri,

in my case, having one dvd/cd burner and one more drive (dvd/cd player) makes it easy when i wanna make a copy of something. it's not necessary but if you can, it's convenient.

i use nero and it works fine. i personally don't think you need the latest version so you might be able to find a good price on a place like ebay for an older version.

is it necessary? in my case, absolutely. i've got tons of stuff, e.g., pics of my daughter and i must back them up and cds are too small so i use dvds all the time. you can buy a spindle of 100 from places like amazon and the price is really cheap. spend over $25 and there's no shipping from amazon.

good luck with your decision.

[adrian]

Re: DVD burners

hi adri,

in my case, having one dvd/cd burner and one more drive (dvd/cd player) makes it easy when i wanna make a copy of something. it's not necessary but if you can, it's convenient.

I just send it to the Hard Drive if I want to copy something, as I'm trying to keep my computer to as minimal components as possible (I switch between a CD burner and a DVD ROM drive to install games)

[helen]

Re: DVD burners

I picked up a Mad Dog external DVD burner from CompUSA a month ago. It came with Nero. This drive can write DVD-R and DVD+R disk. I have used it twice so far. As far as using it for data backup it seems to do the job. I never tried to make my own DVD type movie using the videos I made with my digital cameras.

[lurkah]

Re: DVD burners

I just send it to the Hard Drive if I want to copy something

When you least expect it, the day could come when your hard drive will fail, possibly to the point where any data retrieval might not be possible. That's why I back up all of the personal data and program files I have located on my computer's hard drive to an external USB hard drive. The value of your saved personal files also increases porportionately with the increasing size of your collection, so with that in mind, I also do a redundant backup by backing up the contents of my external USB hard drive to another, larger, external USB hard drive. Some may think that's overkill, but I've seen hard drives fail too many times in the line of work I do to want to risk permanently losing all of the stuff I've accumulated. Another option could be to backup your files to DVD-RWs(rewritable DVDs), but then you'd need to find an easy method of keeping track of the current and changing contents of your collection of DVD-RWs.

I think having a DVD burner is cool. Four months ago I had no clue about how to use one, but I've since managed to Googleducate (I just made that word up ) myself about how to not only copy commercial DVD movies, but even DVDs that have copyright encryption applied to them -- for personal use only, of course.

[pzarquon]

Re: DVD burners

Just remember that CDROMs and DVDs aren't forever, either. Plenty of people who previously backed up to optical media are actually now finding, and advocating, using good-ol-fashioned hard drive for archival storage. Rather than building a library of two hundred CDs, just buy an external 160GB hard drive, fill it up, then store it someplace dry and safe. Just as economical, it turns out, and possibly more far-sighted than previously thought.

[helen]

Re: DVD burners

A co-worker of mines brought up this point today as to why it's sort of kind of important why a CD or DVD burner is useful to have around. If you need to give data to somebody else it's way cheaper to give them a CD or DVD instead of giving them your thumb drive.

Bottom line, the more options you have, the better off you are in dealing with the various ways you need to backup or share data or whatever you need to deal with it.

[adrian]

Re: DVD burners

Just remember that CDROMs and DVDs aren't forever, either. Plenty of people who previously backed up to optical media are actually now finding, and advocating, using good-ol-fashioned hard drive for archival storage. Rather than building a library of two hundred CDs, just buy an external 160GB hard drive, fill it up, then store it someplace dry and safe. Just as economical, it turns out, and possibly more far-sighted than previously thought.

So many decisions!

It looks like my 120gb SATA drive is filling up, as I'm currently winraring a gb of files to put on another partiton.

I have a IDE 120gb and a 60gb HD in my room somewhere, and I might get an external enclosure to backup everything, or just stick one of them into my computer and back them up that way.

[mel]

Re: DVD burners

Just remember that CDROMs and DVDs aren't forever, either. Plenty of people who previously backed up to optical media are actually now finding, and advocating, using good-ol-fashioned hard drive for archival storage.

I have had mixed luck with hard drives. After owning many computers, (99% of them Macs) I have found that some hard drives crash and burn after 1 or 2 years. And other hard drives, take a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. How can we trust our precious data to be stored on an unused hard drive for a long period of time?

Why is at that home burned CDs or DVDs do not have a long shelf life like a regular CD or DVD that you buy at the store? OK... I do have a few old music CDs that have flaked out on me in the years... but for the most part my music CDs have lasted now for more than 10 years. Why not data CDs that we burn to keep our own data? Or music? Or movies?

I guess the prudent thing to do is store your data on a number of different types of media. Like I have zip discs that still work nearly 10 years later. I have lots of old data on floppy discs that I have kept even though I eventually copied the floppies to large 45MB Syquest drives, and later to zip and then to CD. Still keeping the original media the files first appeared on.

My major problem: LABELING and CLUTTER!!!!!

[shaveice]

Re: DVD burners

yeah, it sure is a pain to back stuff up. i've got so many dvds and cds around. sigh... at the moment, i haven't decided to use a hard drive as a permanent way of storing stuff, though i do back up my hard drive every month with an external hard drive.

eh lurkah, old news but you heard that dvddecrypter is no more, right?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: DVD burners

Mel I think commercially produced discs use a different approach. Home DVD burners use heat from a laser to change the ink in the disk. I think it's different when it's commercially made.

[lurkah]

Re: DVD burners

eh lurkah, old news but you heard that dvddecrypter is no more, right?

Eh shaveice, every time I see one of your posts I think about earlier this month when I was back on da 'aina and took a drive to Hale'iwa on a hot and humid day to eat some shave ice. The line of people that snaked out of Matsumoto's was unbelievable! No way I was going wait in that line. But then I noticed Aoki's only had a few people in line so we went there instead and much to my surprise their shave ice was really ono too! Why is it that Matsumoto's is so much more popular? Advertising? Or is their name just easier to pronounce and remember?

Anyway, back to your question. No, I didn't know that. What did you mean when you said, dvddecrypter is no more? Did them guys get shut down or did they just cease to exist? I can still find places out there where I can download that cool freeware program.

[Konaguy]

Re: DVD burners

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23746
A "CERTAIN COMPANY" has applied the legal thumbscrews to a software developer who came up with "the ultimate DVD ripper", DVD Decrypter.

In a post to CDFreaks' news pages, our hassled hero, calling himself Lightning UK, decided the letter thrust into his sweaty palm ordering him to desist, cease and halt development and distribution of his handy little software tool was too scary to resist.

[lurkah]

Re: DVD burners

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23746

Wow, Aaron S, mahalo for the link and enlightenment! And just last month too. Guess I'll have to go ahead and uninstall/delete that program from my computer now.

[pinakboy]

Re: DVD burners

I'm itching to get a new component into my computer, so its either a new case or a DVD burner (I'll go case shopping tomorrow, but I'm just curious to know about DVD burners)

So, who has one? How has it worked for you? Is it really needed? (I'll just be backing up things, and having a DVD reader and a burner would be a nice combo).

And what software do you use?

getting a dvd burner is worth it if you need to backup lots of stuff. especially movies and mp3s...

nero and roxio are my standards for backup
alcohol 120% for cd/dvd image burning
dvddecrypter--gone but not forgotten
anydvd
dvdshrink
dvdfab
clonedvd2
etc....

if you're going to buy an enclosure for your dvd burner make sure its a firewire/ilink/IEEE1394 case. u can burn and back up at blazing speeds.

btw having a dvd burner really makes full utilization of the Blockbuster movie pass.