DVD shrink and DVD burners - new user

[nyns]

Hello all,
I am in the process of buying a DVD burner for the first time and I thought would do some research on the burners and appropriate software before I commited to certain products. This forum has been great at answering a lot of my questions. As I understand this, DVD Shrink is a software that will allow me to bypass the copyright info and re author my DVD so it fits onto a blank DVD which is a single layer and therefore smaller. Then I would need a burning software to copy those files onto the blank DVD.

After reading these forums and doing other research, I am leaning towards using DVD shrink rather than DVD X copy which seems to have too many issues. I am also leaning towards using NERO as my burning software. The DVD drive I am thinking about buying is the SONY DRU-510A drive which supports many formats. My questions to you guys are the following:

1) Does anyone on this forum own this drive and use DVD SHRINK and NERO and if so, how has you experience been backing up DVDs?
2) Is their anyone who uses this drive and has had consistently been able to backup DVDs using a combination of other software?
3) Can anyone recommend any other drives?

Thank in advance

[setarip]

Good choices all around...

[emac0002]

That is what i use...but i am having problems getting it to work. I have a laptop with a DVD-RW in it and have no problems at all but when i use the desktop with that DVD-RW it doesnt play in my standalone player. I dont know what the problem is all versions are the same....same media....same movie.....???

[admin]

I think your choices are sound as well. Since DVD Shrink is free, there's no harm in trying it out before you try out some of the commercial solutions.

As for DVD recorders, just a note that 8x DVD±R writers are just around the corner (some are already here, but the Pioneer A07 will be available in January). It might be worth waiting until then, even if you still plan to get the DRU-510, since prices will be dropping due to competition from the 8x drives. Note that 8x media will still be rare and expensive, so getting the 510 is still a good idea at the present.

[mjnelson99]

The NEC ND1300 +- drive can be had for just over $100 now on the web. Check out avlogic.com (California) for the NEC. The Sony is much higher. I have been very happy with my drive. Watch out for warranties. Most OEM drives only have something like 30 days. Make sure your seller gives you 1 year like I received.

[recca421]

Originally posted by mjnelson99
The NEC ND1300 +- drive can be had for just over $100 now on the web. Check out avlogic.com (California) for the NEC. The Sony is much higher. I have been very happy with my drive. Watch out for warranties. Most OEM drives only have something like 30 days. Make sure your seller gives you 1 year like I received.

I use Nero6 and DVDshrink 3 beta 5 for all my backups, even non-protected and non-dvd9 titles, and it works pimp every time.

Please see my notes on the ND-1300a below.

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I found that the ND-1300a black faceplate version was shipping with a 1.06 firmware, which is universally despised by burning software. Traded my drive (after about 2 weeks of hell) for a beige one MFR'ed a month before the black one, which had a 1.08 firmware, and the drive now rox my boxxerz!

From my experience buying OEM, most problems you'll have will be immediately clear, and 30 days should be sufficient as long as you live close to your retailer (for exchange purposes).

[RECCA421]

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[mjnelson99]

Admin,
I thought about waiting for an 8x drive. My system
is too old to support such speed. I have to slow
down my Samsung 48x cdrw/dvd drive to 24x or 30x
when burning.
Something to consider when purchasing a burner is what
is its slowest speed just in case it needs to be lowered.