I have learned a lot over the past couple of years to perfect my DVD burning and here is what I have come up with. I encourage people to respond with things they agree with, disagreements you might have, things I may have forgotten or might not be aware of, or just anything to help facilitate a good discussion.
Tips
1) use component, S-Video, or HDMI and not composite
2) if you have troubles with playback purchase a Phillips DVD player
3) Plextor is what I suggest for burning DVDs
4) use Taiyo Yuden media only
DVD Burning Step By Step
1. Clean DVDs using window cleaner and a soft cloth and rub only from the center out.
2. Using DVDFab Platinum do the following:
a. Click the drop down box and set to your target folder
b. Select movie mode
i. For regular movies choose main movie mode, usually you will select the top option as it lists from longest to shortest and the longest is usually the main movie you want. You might want to view part of it to make sure it is the one you want. If there are multiple angles, usually you want to choose the first angle but again make sure to preview first. The angle # is in the parenthesis. In this mode also check all English and unknown subtitles, as well as best audio option which is usually 5.1 (DTS takes up too much space so don?t use that one).
ii. For episodic discs choose the full disc option.
c. Drop down box on bottom change to DVD9 d. Check ?remove annoying PGCs? if that is an option to check
e. Rip DVD
f. After rip, make sure to click finish before adding a new disc
g. If the name of the folder the movie was burned to is not clearly labeled, create a new folder with an accurate name and drag the movie folder inside it. This is especially common for episodic discs which state the season but not the specific disc number.
3. If you ripped a multi-angle movie now use PGCEdit a. Open movie with PGCEdit b. Click on movie to the left
c. Click on the bottom; delete angles button
d. Check only the one angle you want to keep (check this in DVDFab if unsure which one to keep)
4. Run all discs with FixVTS a. Settings; have all 3 checked
b. In FixVTS open one of the VOB files for the movie
c. Next click on Full DVD
5. Check size of movie folder, if small enough to fit on DVD then go to step 7, if too large go to step 6. The Discs I use can hold up to 4.38 GB 6. DVD Rebuilder
a. Source Path ? Video_TS folder of movie you ripped
b. Working Path ? Example: C\Users\Joe\Desktop\Rebuilt\Scream 1\Working
c. Output Path ? Example: C\Users\Joe\Desktop\Rebuilt\Scream 1
d. On the menu click on File/save project and name each movie you are rebuilding
e. After all movies are saved, go to file/batch processing
f. Add all movies on bottom of screen (remember to not rebuild movies that are already small enough to burn onto a single layer disc), then press start
7. IMGBurn a. Write files/folders to disk
b. Click ?browse for a folder? icon and open the video_TS folder for the movie you are burning (under the DVDFILES folder and not in the working folder) Also you do not need the audio_TS folder
c. Under the labels tab you will need to put in the name of the movie in 2 spots; ISO9660 and UDF.
d. On main Information tab, click on bottom button to burn the disc
8. The labels I like to use for DVDs are Avery 18195
Avery 18195 labels do not appear on either the U.S. or U.K. web sites, but one person's description on a different site suggested they were neither round nor designed for DVDs. Avery 8962 is the only label that should be applied to DVDs because it is a polyester film label that will not expand and contract with changes in humidity the way paper labels do. The mechanical changes cause tilt problems in DVDs that will render them useless sooner or later.
Most Afterdawn members recommend no labels whatsoever on discs, but paper labels designed for CD-Rs and polyester labels designed for DVDs will not likely damage discs. All others will.
