Which Burner to buy?

[Oriphus]

i got lotr tt at 64% - get rid of the credits

[TheMonkeyBoyz]

I just purchased a Pioneer DVR-A06U drive and am learning how to use it.

I did this mainly because I wanted to add a THIRD Western Digital 120 gig SE drive to my system and I needed to buy some kind of Combo drive to meet the 4 IDE device limit that is standard (without adding another IDE controller via PCI, that is).

So, instead of just getting a CD-RW with DVD-ROM reading support, I caved in and bought the whole thing.

I have found that for copying DVD's that will fit on one DVD disk (DVD-5 - single layer) DVD Decrypter 3.1.6.0 works great. As long as the content is less than 4.37 gig, it seems to do a perfect 1:1 copy.

But for the DVD-9 types - the dual layered disks - it will not work. So, I discovered DVD Shrink. 2.3 would not work on my machine, but the 3.0 Beta 5 does.

I have been using Full Disk, and so far it seems pretty cool. I pretty much turn all the menus to STILL, deselect the other languages, deselect all but the standard STEREO sound channel ( I only watch 'em on normal TV's ) and that way I try to maximize the video quality.

I have been experimenting with different settings and using DVD-RW or DVD+RW disks to "test" how they play and work, then when I get it finalized, I plan to burn it to like a DVD+R or DVD-R. I use my Nero 5.5 with the guide at http://www.dvdshrink.info/nero-video.php, and that seems to work nicely.

Well, perhaps that is a ramble - but I'm trying to learn what up. I think I made a good choice on the drive, and I'm grateful to be able to find the software around that does the job.

So, questions remain - is there any reason NOT to use FULL DISK? I like the DVD's to remain fully functional - I just like to make backups in case kids or others scratch things up pretty horribly.

Thanks for any helpful comments.