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DVD recording question

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LAN_403

Dr. Slack

Sat Oct 07 2006, 07:34PM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

Can I ask a really n00b question here - how do you record files onto DVD?

I have an NEC 3550A, with the not the latest 1.06, but a still fairly recent 1.05 firmware, under XP home. There do not seem to be any drivers on the NEC site for it, and the FM says they should all go on automatically with XP. With my previous CD-only writer, and this one when using CD, I simply copy the files to the drive, it would offer to burn them to CD, and I'd say yes. If I put a blank DVD-R in the drive, it still tells me it's a CD, and if I try to copy files onto the drive, it throws an error, which I suppose is good as it knows it doesn't really have a CD in there.

I would have expected basic files-onto-DVD for backup to have been supported under XP, but I guess not. Do I have to find a seperate DVD burning application? If so, what free ones would people recommend. If not, what hidden check box needs checking?

Thanks

Steve Conner

Sat Oct 07 2006, 08:43PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Google says that XP doesn't have a built-in DVD burning capability:

AFAIK, making a video DVD is just a case of using video authoring software to generate the appropriate files and burning them onto a DVD with something like Nero.

I tried it on my computer, and on inserting a DVD-R, XP recognized it as a "Blank CD". When I ran my usual burning software (Nero Express) it recognised it as a DVD-R with 4 odd gigabytes.

Part Scavenger

Sun Oct 08 2006, 02:29AM

Registered Member #79 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 11:35AM
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 673

Alcohol 120% used to be free, and is now 30-day trial then it's $30 to buy. It's my favorite program for down and dirty burning, and definitely worth 30 bucks.

Nero is usually free OEM with almost any burner, but I guess it didn't come with yours.

If you want to do video, I would suggest Ulead Video Studio. I have tried all the free ones I could find, as well as Nero 7 (with the video tools) and Pinnacle Studio 10 (also Adobe Premier, but not recently). You can sample the free version of Ulead Video Studio at their website for like 40days IIRC. Nero takes forever to render, other than that it is pretty nice. Sometimes it is querky on my system, and shuts down in the midst of stuff (not often). Pinnacle Studio 10 has been junk on every computer I've used it on. The biggest problem is that audio gets out of sync. They make you upgrade EVERYTHING too, which I hate. $5 for for surround sound, $9.95 for chromakey + widescreen.

Studio 9 actually works, and crashes less often. Ulead's interface is great, you have ALL the options, and it renders faster than either Nero or Pinnacle. I've never had a problem with sound, and it does formats that neither Nero or Pinnacle support. If you want advanced stuff, it's there, but it's geared toward the average user. So, you might have to hunt a bit. My favorite thing about it is that it has a "Render same as input" option that cuts rendering down to like 30sec, whereas Nero and Pinnacle insist on re-rendering everyting in their own special size and take like 4hrs for the same thing. It's not free, though, after the trial it's like $50 bucks. I should also note that it runs great on my laptop which doesn't even meet minimum requirements! Go figure.

For high-end DVD creating, DVDLab is the ticket. It's $100 though. It is VERY powerful, but it takes some learning.

If you want an all around generally good (but not perfect) that will do everything, I suggest Nero7 Ultra. I got mine free after MIRebate. They still run it if you watch the papers. Oh, and you can get a trial download at Nero.com if you want to check it out first.

Alex

Sun Oct 08 2006, 04:31AM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

Steve Conner wrote ...

Google says that XP doesn't have a built-in DVD burning capability

Yeah, when I had XP installed on one of my machines, I had to use a 3rd party application to even play DVDs. It tried to convince me that I should buy the codec for wmp. That's just outrageous.

I ended up using alcohol 120%, which is a pretty nice program. Shame about the nonfree. When that ran out, I used daemon tools. I'm not sure how useful they are in this application though, maybe someone else could provide a little more input (I'm not running Windows anymore, I quickly grew tired of such sillyness).

Bjørn

Sun Oct 08 2006, 03:03PM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

Playing DVDs requires you to pay a license for the algorithms, so no company would give it away for free. Daemon tools emulates a CD/DVD drive so it is not much use for recording.

Every Â£20 DVD recorder I see comes with a copy of Nero and PowerDVD or similar software so there is little use for free software, I have a stack of those CDs.

The few times I have needed to download recording software I have used CDRWIN It is limited to 1X and 30 days but I think it continues to work forever, at least it did last time I used it.

Carbon_Rod

Mon Oct 09 2006, 12:10AM

Registered Member #65 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155

VLC can play the DVD (uses DeCSS like code to break it.) -- and its free..

Nero comes free with some cheap OEM DVDR/W drives, burns menus etc., and has a great API too (DVDshrink etc.)

A note about the 120% code -- it may break some systems with the VR SCSI driver it installs.

Cheers,

Bjørn

Mon Oct 09 2006, 01:55AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

VLC can play the DVD (uses DeCSS like code to break it.) -- and its free..

It is good at playing files but the user interface is a disaster area. For watching movies where you only have to start it and maximize it, it works very well.

It is not really free, you still have to pay all the licences before you can legally play DVDs and certain MPEG files. You have to contact these guys for obtaining the licenses http://www.mpegla.com

Carbon_Rod

Mon Oct 09 2006, 03:27AM

Registered Member #65 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155

Yet HP often gives WinDVD away with it's laptops for free.

Encoders can cost, but Nero comes with Sony DVD Cams for free.

$2.50 is too much if you live in a place ruled by the DMCA.

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