I just got a burner and I need to know what I need to do after I download a movie to burn it to a dvd to play on my tv/dvd player. Do I need software to convert it and if so is there anything free i can use thank you
Info for beginners: (I'll mention a few popular programs, but there are others of these types.)
Backing up factory DVD movies has 3 basic steps and a few things to remember. The steps are 1)Decrypt/deCSS; 2)Encode/Transcode (Fit to the target disc, shrink when necessary); and 3)Burn.
You can have one program that does it all, some programs do a couple of the steps and some only do one step or one step at a time.
Decrypting can be done with driver type decrypters like AnyDVD or with apps such as DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink.
DVD Decrypter is used to decrypt and rip files to the (HD) hard drive. If DVD Decrypter is going to be used as a burner, 2 important things have to be remembered.
1)Use the ISO read mode to decrypt and
2)the file size has to be below 4.37 (GB) gigabytes.
If the file is above 4.37GB, DVD Decrypter cannot burn the ISO file to a 4.7GB disc. [Note: 4.7 is a retail designation for a disc; the actual size of a 4.7 disc that a computer reads is 4.37GB.] File size is important to know.
DVD Shrink can be used to decrypt and rip to the HD. Normally though, Shrink is used to decrypt a disc, using a temporary file, and transcoding the file in preparation to be burned. Nero isn't part of Shrink, but is the default app that Shrink uses to burn automatically. Shrink can also use DVD Decrypter in ISO burn mode and CopytoDVD can also be used. I suggest Nero, as DVD Shrink is already set to use it.
There are a number of transcoding programs, browsing the forums can get a lot of info on those. It's already been mentioned what they do. Just remember, simply speaking, this step is to prep the file for burning.
There are a number of apps on the market now. Due to laws, most of the popular recording programs now are trancoding and burning programs. These recording programs have to have a decrypter. With a driver type decrypter the program runs as though it was one of the older ripper programs that did everything. With the manual type decrypters the files are ripped to the HD and the file then has to be opened by the recording program.
Burner or recording programs are either incorporated into programs or are separate in recording suites. I mentioned Nero as it is a favorite on many forums and a favorite of mine. There are others.
You can get a virtual tour of DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter at http://www.dvdshrink.info . Nero is the default burner for Shrink and only needs to be loaded on the PC to work. I notes that somewhere in the guides. There are plenty of guides for Shrink and Decrypter here at AD and at doom9.org as well as those at DVDShrink.info.
