Switching from USB 1.0 to 2.0 for DVD burning

[tjordan133]

I just received my new DVD burner and I want to speed up my laptop USB connections to 2.0. My problem is I have only one PCMCIA slot that is occupied by a wireless networking card. Is there any way to change to USB 2.0 without having to switch the networking card with a USB 2.0 port card, thus losing my internet connection?

[rsquirell]

Yeah....you can send it back to an authorized support center to install internal USB2 ports (at about the price of your laptop). I have a laptop with 2 ports...and have a card for both Sprint wireless internet and USB2. When I used the internet card exclusively for a month the bill was close to $500 ( they have a $100/mo unlimited plan, but up to that point their $40/ mo plan had served me well), and I didn't download anything....just made a few posts and checked email. Since that time I've used cable...and keep my external capture device connected to the USB2 card. When I'm traveling I'll use the wireless. Most burners come with 1394 capability...and I run an external HDD and Burner serialed off it. Another thought...burning is highly CPU intensive...you not only don't want to be on the internet while you're burning...you don't want to do ANY multitasking. Pull the wireless card (like your head) out when you burn.

[tjordan133]

Thanks rsquirell. I'm pulling my head out as I type(the only multitasking I'll be doing now). My new problem is the reMPEG decoder in DVD Ripper program hangs up @ 99% completion. It just stops after 9+ hours . No multitasking happening. Does anyone have a solution?

[rsquirell]

ripping doesn't take 9 hours with any program...unless you play the disc while you rip. You need to open the disc file in order for the ripping program to recognize and download the files...but once the program says it's ready to begin, shut the movie off before you begin ripping. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes for the ripper to download the needed files...and once ripping begins it shouldn't take more than an hour to complete. Free rippers are DVDDecrypter and SmartRipper. Again....ripping, too, is CPU intensive...you don't want any other program running during the process (and having the movie on is running a program).

[tjordan133]

Not ripping

It's not the ripping that takes nine hours, it's converting the VOB files to an .m2v file and back to shrink the total file size down to fit on a 4.7 gb disc. Is there a way to skip this step?

[rsquirell]

I'm unfamiliar with your program...and not sure what you're doing here. Have you tried the freeware DVDShrink available on this site? After you rip feed the complete VIDEO_TS file in...no demuxing necessary. In fact, demuxing, alone, won't do anything to shrink a video file....the combined .m2v video file and .ac3 audio file should be about the same size as the .vob.

[tjordan133]

I finally figured it out yesterday. I had the DVDShrink but hadn't used it. Everything is going very smoothly now. Thanks for your help.

[rsquirell]

Glad I could help. I didn't mean to sound too harsh on the initial posts...we were ALL groping in the dark when we first started out.