|
|
|
Platinum X Copy or .....?
|
|
|
Rado03
Newbie
|
2. May 2004 @ 16:08 |
Link to this message
|
|
What is the best dvd burning software out there that is still user friendly?
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
Moderator
|
2. May 2004 @ 17:02 |
Link to this message
|
Hi,
DVD Shrink. It's freeware, very good and can utilize Nero or DVD Decrypter (free) to burn.
There are guides a plenty for them around here as well as a whole slew of users who can help you with them :)
Xcopy is underperforming and problematic in my experience and best avoided. Save your money for Nero 6.
My killer sig came courtesy of bb "El Jefe" mayo.
The Forum Rules You Agreed To! http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487
"And there we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" - Numbers 13:33 |
|
vicster
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
3. May 2004 @ 15:09 |
Link to this message
|
Drop dvd x copy, dvdxplatinum and anything else thats dvdx. As Nephilim states its very problematic. I found that I would have problems with some of my movies and others were fine. Yet when I use anydvd and CloneDVD no problems. 321studios solution 1/2 the time was for the user to uninstall this and uninstall that and delete this and disable that. I felt the software was more "beta" They continue to bring out new products without fixing their older stuff. That said I still use my dvdx platinum from time to time. Its not bad but it certainly could be better.
|
|
ellizit
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
3. May 2004 @ 19:24 |
Link to this message
|
Rado-
I would agree with Nephilim and go with Shrink, and I personally use it in conjuntion with Nero (but other burning programs such as DVD Decrypter work just as well). I know now that I recieved my rebate from 321 I don't feel as bad about buying Xcopy as I did before :)
Good Luck!
|
|
VaderK
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
4. May 2004 @ 06:10 |
Link to this message
|
Which one is best? A very good question, and the answer may sound corny, but, it's which one works best for you that you are comfortable with. I have been using XCopy since its inception. Currently I have both versions of Platinum installed. The last and short lived update that had the "ripper" and the new one that is "RF". I use DVD43 for the "RF" version and it works great. I have used shrink with Decrypter, also tried OneClick, Clone and just about everything else out there. Now I am back to just 3 programs. You can keep both versions of XCopy, just make sure they are installed in seperate folders... one for the original and one for the "RF" version. Having read a lot of X bashing throughout the forum it seems to me that most problems are really not the program. You just have to understand what all the functions do. Once I finally figured out the differences between Simple and Advanced Mode, have not had any problems In Platinum, if you want to make a backup of "just the movie" without the menus or special features then you use "Simple" mode. If you want to keep all menus, specials and (very important) if you are backing up an episodic like Band of Brothers, Sopranos, Babylon5 etc... you have to use the Advanced Mode and select everything, let it do the compression for you. If you want to split the disc into two and not have any compression, turn off compression in Advanced Mode and pick your split point. Have been using X Platinum for over a year and never had a problem (except for bad media or I forgot to turn off Live Updates...). If you have a reader and a burner, using Simple mode will auto detect blank media in burner and can auto burn, one of the few where you can truly click once to start and come back later and the whole process is done.
Have used Shrink with Nero, also currently have Nero 6 Ultra, it includes Nero Recode 2, as you will find out in many other Forum discussions, Nero Recode 2 was created by the same person that created Shrink (yes, he is an employee with Ahead software), and basically, Nero Recode 2 is Shrink on steroids! And, since it is built into Nero, it already has that burn engine going with it. You will need to install a decrypter like DVD43 (free) or AnyDVD ($49) est, to get it to read an encrypted disc. Or use Decrypter then import the files into Recode2.
All of the above work great, the main difference is time, using X Platinum, for a 2 hour movie, I can read in approx 15 minutes and burn in 12 to 14 minutes using a DVD Rom to read and Sony DRX 530 UL to burn at 4X. Start to finish under 30 minutes. Using Shrink\Nero or Nero Recode2, Read takes approx 40 to 50 minutes, then the burn, 15 - 20 minutes.
Quality of finished product, can't tell the difference. Big difference is time and how many times I have to come back to make a mouse click.
What will make a huge difference and cause problems are only some of the following...
1. Turn off screen savers (note XCopy can do that for you, only one I know that does) so if you forget to turn off screen saver like I have sometimes with Shrink or Nero, result... coasters or skips in movie...
2. Make sure you have drives set to DMA mode.
3. Disable any auto updating software like Norton, McAffee, Windows Update etc... and make sure no scheduled programs will be running like a defrag or anything else. Disable anti virus software when copy\burning also. And, do not use PC for anything else during read\write process!
4. Have to use a quality blank, have tried many and found a lot of performance issue also due to poor media. I am using Ritek G04 standard now, tried Matrix and many others got a lot of skips or bad burns. Good prices at www.shop4tech.com
5. Make sure you don't have conflicting software installed. DO NOT have Roxio and Nero installed together, will cause problems, NEVER install the "Interactive Player" you get prompted to install on many DVD's, this is junk, contains spyware and gets into the registry, can cause other issues, not just for burning but PC performance in general.
6. Make sure you keep HD free of as much space as possible, if multiple drives, set the temp folders to use the fastest drive and defrag frequently after every few burns.
OK, long winded I know, but hope this helps, good luck and remember, there is a huge learning curve and as you will read there are many things that can cause problems or conflicts (hey, we are running on a Microsoft platform after all!). The forums here can help a lot to get started and are a good source to find out what may be causing you some problems. Just remember that every program has to be learned, they all do things differently and some of them don't play nice together either, don't load too many different ones on your PC, the ones that have their own burning engines may confliuct with others, also in XP the heavy use of shared codes can cause conflicts between related programs. Only keep the ones you like and work for you.
Good luck and happy burning.
|
|
Rado03
Newbie
|
4. May 2004 @ 17:44 |
Link to this message
|
|
Thanks for being so informative. Helps out alot and makes sense. Now do you have any recommendations on a new DVD _+RW. I just learned a valuable lessen on firmware. Too bad it was after I ruined my drive.
|
|
VaderK
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
4. May 2004 @ 18:33 |
Link to this message
|
|
Personally I am very happy using my new drive, have a Sony DRX-530UL, external drive. USB 2.0 Great drive. Also, it eliminates the hassles with potential for any drive conflicts and hassles with an installation on IDE channel. Also more "portable", can use it on my other PC's at home and if I ever get a new PC, just unplug from the old and into the new and right back in business.... The internal version is also good if money is tight, it will be a lot less. The new Pioneer 07 is also good. Any of these three would be fine. Sorry to hear about the firmware upgrade hassle. I also learned that lesson a long time ago, fried a drive. I forgot to disable DMA before performing the upgrade. OOOOppppsss. Expensive lesson learned. Now, there is news about Sony's new dual layer drive, it is now available on their site, but, two things, one, I haven't seen any software company saying they support the drive yet, and also, the media isn't available yet. Even when it does come out, it will be very expensive for a while since right now Sony is the only one making a dual layer drive (you know, that whole supply and demand thing!). So, will wait on one of those for a while. If you have USB 2.0 and can afford the extra pesos, go for the Sony external DRX-530UL, Sony has a firmware upgrade for it to make DVD-R burn at 8X and DVD-RW at 4X. ( The +R is already 8X and the +RW is also already 4X on this drive "as is") (Just remember to disable DMA on all drives first before flashing upgrade, then re-enable after the upgrade). Any of those three would be good, and, if you can spring it, would recommend a 16X DVD-ROM drive to use just for reading, save a lot of wear on the burner and your read times will be significantly lower also! Happy shopping!
|
|
burning2
Newbie
|
7. May 2004 @ 10:15 |
Link to this message
|
Hi everyone. I'm new to this whole burning thing and have been reading a lot of the postings on this site...lots of great ideas. After much research, I also just purchased the Sony 530UL, haven't upgraded the firmware yet though, and still trying to decide on a burning software.
Vaderk, what is Quote:
DMA
and how do I go about disabling it prior to upgrading?
I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 P-III 1GH & 512MB of RAM running XP Pro....thanks in advance...BTW, anyone know if a copied DVD can be copied again?
|
Moderator
|
7. May 2004 @ 14:23 |
Link to this message
|
|
Hi,
If your burner is external and runs off USB or Firewire then DMA doesn't apply.
Nero 6 is a wonderful set of burning tools and well worth the money.
My killer sig came courtesy of bb "El Jefe" mayo.
The Forum Rules You Agreed To! http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487
"And there we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" - Numbers 13:33
|
|
VaderK
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
7. May 2004 @ 14:41 |
Link to this message
|
|
O contraire, the external is not what matters, when the upgrade tries to read the firmware file from your "DMA" enabled HD, it will read too fast, and the firware will not apply to the external drive correctly, there is a 50 - 50 crap shoot that it might work, now, the question is, are you an optimist and say that there is a 50% chance the upgrade will work, or a pessimist saying there is a 50% chance the drive will fry?
I am the pessimist, why you ask? Because I just fried an external Sony 530 because I forgot to disable DMA first on my IDE controllers.... fortunately it was only a day old and I was able to take it back for an exchange, lesson learned, but if you want to leave your DMA enabled when you flash one of your external drives, go right ahead and be an optimist.
But you are right, the drive itself does not have a DMA to disable for the external drive, but the reading from the Hard Drive is what is important when it tries to read that firware upgrade file. DMA enabled mode and the HD is likely to read too fast for the drive to get the patch correctly.
|
|
VaderK
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
7. May 2004 @ 15:08 |
Link to this message
|
for burning2
hope this helps...
DMA is located in the Hardware Resources category in System Information. It displays information about your system's direct memory access (DMA). DMA transfers data between system memory and hardware devices without passing it through the CPU.
To disable, go to Device Manager, there are many ways to get there, in XP, easiest is right click on My Computer from Desktop, then left click on "Manage", then left click on "Device Manager", then in the right hand column showing all your installed devices, find the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" listing and left click on the + sign to expand that category. Go to the "Primary IDE Channel" listing and right click on it, then left click on "Properties", then go to the "Advanced Settings" Tab.
This will show the devices on the Primary IDE Channel. Just select the transfer mode option to be "PIO Only" instead of "DMA if available". Click OK to accept the change, and if you have a Secondary drive on the Secondary channel, do the same, sure, may not need to but you are here already and it will not hurt to change it for now, better safe than sorry. Exit out, go apply the firmware upgrade, then after the update is completed, go back thru the steps above and change the IDE controllers back to "DMA if available".
Big note here, when you are running in PIO mode, everything slows down tremendously so don't freak out if after your system reboots it takes several minutes to boot up and another minute or two for Windows to load all the way, not to worry, be patient, after you get it back in DMA mode it will be back to normal.
Nero is a very good CD and DVD burning suite. The Ultra 6 edition, has all the bells and whistles for CD's and DVD's. Be careful tho, it also has IN-CD packet writing software, I have Nero and left off the IN-CD install as it can interfere with DVD authoring programs, as will any program that monitors your drives.
|
|
siber
Member
|
7. May 2004 @ 15:53 |
Link to this message
|
|
VaderK: It's AU Contraire. I have tried just about all the available programs for burning DVD's. I am a little suspicious of VaderK's unconditional endorsement of DVDXCopy products... He claims one of the main advantages of that software is speed. If he really had done his homework, he would know that there are several other programs that are actually as fast or faster. DVDXCopy products are better than some people in this forum sometimes tell us but there are other programs that are just as good, fast, easy, practical and, unfortunately for 321Studios/DVDX, always cheaper or FREE. If you bought a DVDXCopy product and it works for you without any hitches and you are perfectly happy with it: keep using it. If you are just looking to get started, don't bother with DVDX. It always can be beaten in every aspect (cost, comfort and simplicity, speed, features, etc) by other products. I'm afraid DVDXCopy products will just be a footnote in the history of home video.
|
|
siber
Member
|
7. May 2004 @ 15:57 |
Link to this message
|
|
VaderK: Nothing personal here...I do appreciate all the other great info you gave. You seem to know a lot about this subject. Hope to read more of you.
|
AfterDawn Addict
|
8. May 2004 @ 06:25 |
Link to this message
|
|
Me to Vaderk, but do try to use more Paragraphs etc as it makes it easier to read lol ;-)
|
|
burning2
Newbie
|
9. May 2004 @ 21:56 |
Link to this message
|
Vaderk - as always, thanks for the step-by-step walkthrough. I will follow your instructions and hopefully not run into any problems. I've been reading so much about the DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink combo for burning that I think I'm pretty much done with the idea of buying DVDxCopy Plat. Thanks again, and now I'm going to go and download both of them and hope that I get the same error free results that most people in these forums are getting. Wish me luck. :)
|
|
dolley777
Newbie
|
29. June 2004 @ 08:42 |
Link to this message
|
|
Boy, did I make a huge mistake or what? I just purchased DVDXPlatinum with ripper b/c they advertised as banned and limited copy, and rated best by some consumer review groups. But, I should have checked this forum first. Last night I installed it and tried to make a copy of my son's favorite dvd "Finding Nemo" and guess what, now I have several coasters, and I wasted too much time on it. I don't know what I am doing wrong since I'm just using simple button.
Please feel free to drop me an advice w/o making me feel bad about being ripped-off.
Thanks.
|
|
vicster
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
30. June 2004 @ 07:39 |
Link to this message
|
dolley777,
If you bought this directly from 321studios return it. They have a money back policy. If you bought from a store see if you can return it, some will allow you to and others won't. Tell the store it doesn't work on your pc. As for what to use, theres alot to choose from.
It will most likely come down to personal taste and if you want everything free or willing to spend some money.
Personally, I use Clonedvd2 ( http://www.elby.ch/en/products/clone_dvd/index.html ), and anydvd ( http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html ). Other people link using "dvdshrink" which is free, others like DVD Decrypter. For you I would advise you to try out different software and see which works best for you. Some programs work better on different systems. Other people get better results with different software. As you search this forum you'll see what I'm talking about. Good Luck
|
|
science
Newbie
|
11. July 2004 @ 09:32 |
Link to this message
|
|
I just picked up the SONY 530 UL and when I went to install the included software it comes with the worst case scenario- Uninstall Roxio. Did anyone ever make an uninstall program for Roxio that actually works?
|
Moderator
|
11. July 2004 @ 10:08 |
Link to this message
|
Quote:
Did anyone ever make an uninstall program for Roxio that actually works?
Ya can't uninstall Roxio? After uninstalling you may need to use a registry cleaner.
|
|
Ramesh350
Suspended permanently
|
7. August 2004 @ 15:34 |
Link to this message
|
|
Can anyone give me the rf update patch??? I really need it. My DVD x copy platinum version cann0t use the browse option and I did some research on it and looks like I will need something called rp update patch. Can anyone help me out??? My email is <not@here. Com> you can directly post it here and please email me. (emailing me is preffered). Thanks.
<NO FUCKING ALL CAPS>
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. August 2004 @ 15:39
|
Moderator
|
7. August 2004 @ 15:36 |
Link to this message
|
|
Search 321rip :)
|
|
Ramesh350
Suspended permanently
|
7. August 2004 @ 15:47 |
Link to this message
|
|
hello, i am totally new to this. can you give me more info?? what do you mean by get 321rip?? thanks.
Ramesh
|
Moderator
|
7. August 2004 @ 15:53 |
Link to this message
|
Quote:
what do you mean by get 321rip??
I didn't say get ... I said "Search". Top of the page the little white box type "321rip".
Quote:
Can anyone give me the rf update patch??? I really need it. My DVD x copy platinum version cann0t use the browse option and I did some research on it and looks like I will need something called rp update patch.
After reading your post a little closer ... you don't need a patch. You need Platinum v4.0.4.15RF, the download not the patch.
|
Moderator
|
7. August 2004 @ 15:54 |
Link to this message
|
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
Ramesh350
Suspended permanently
|
7. August 2004 @ 16:12 |
Link to this message
|
|
But the program is that i have Platinum 3.2.1 and the compress is very cool. the version you told me Platinum v4.0.4.15RF, my friend bought it and he told me that the compress is complete crap. thats why i am looking for a patch or any updates for platinum 3.2.1 cause i see the browse function but i cant use it. please let me know if you can help me more about this.
Ramesh
|
|
