DVD movie backup question

[flipdon]

can i ask a HYPOTHETICAL question?

if i were to buy a DVD burner to backup my DVD movies, is there any way i could rip a DVD to my hard drive (using SmartRipper, etc.) and then burn to a DVD (using Nero, etc.) and have it playable on a stand-alone DVD player or even Playstation 2?

is this a correct way to "backup" my movies? has anyone out there had success with this?

the format that's playable in stand-alones is DVD-R, yes or no? what drive out there would everyone recommend to do what im asking? i found the Pioneer DVR-A03 DVD-R/RW Writer ($435) and the PANASONIC 4.7 LF-D311 DVD-RAM/DVD-R ($380.00) on newegg.com....how are these drives?

 

[Atlantean]

If you were to backup your dvds using a dvd burner, it would probably cost the same as buying an extra copy of the dvd. Also it would take more than 1 hour to complete the burning process. You would probably be better doing a dvd to dvd copy if you really wanted to get a dvd burner. Another way you could back up your dvds would be to make them into divx files using nandub. BUt don't get a dvd burner now, you will pay way to much for something that is way to little.

 

[flipdon]

isn't media cost coming down to like $5 per disc....or is that not for DVD-R media? i do Nandub encoding already, but i was looking for a way to keep the DVD whole and playable on standalones. plus its helps when backing up tons of anime

 

[flipdon]

one more thing...

does striping the encryption also remove the Region coding? cause im interested in getting some Region 3 DVDs, but i'd want to be able to play them in a Region 1 player.

 

[Arithorn]

As far as I understand it, copying DVDs works much like CDs did three or four years ago. DVD burners still cost a bunch of money, but the main reason not many people are doing it yet is the price of DVD-R media (the kind that actually plays on DVD players), which continues to be around $10, or 5 on sale. If you're set on it, get a DVD burner and the discs, but be prepared to wait about 30mins per burn...

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Not gonna happen the way you want. DVD blanks only hold 4.7 gig and regular dvd movies *can* contain alot more than that. Very few movies can be copied that way without re-encoding or down-sampling of some sort.

 

[Journeyman]

I believe you'll also run into the issue of size... DVD-Rs are 4.7GB single layer (DVD-5), whereas a good number of DVDs you buy will be double layered (DVD-9). Since you can't burn double layered, you'd have to re-author anything found on a DVD-9 to span two discs, which would be some work plus double the cost for blank media.

 

[madthumbs]

Consider this; the average lifespan of a cd burner... we're talking hours of usage. Many cdrw's don't even last half a year under moderate usage. For what you're gonna pay right now for a DVDr you may as well buy all the dvd's you can with the same amount of money because by the time your done with all the work and expense you'd probably be worse off... unless you're lucky enough to get a good deal on a quality dvdr drive. As someone already pointed out... dvd burning requires longer burn times and that equates to less disks burned before the drive dies.

 

[Zebo]

How can I learn about "backing up" DVD's with a CDR?

 

[bluesky]

Here.

 

[Sugadaddy]

Yes, ripping the VOB off a DVD gets rid of Macrovision and region codes. (at least I know Smartripper can do it)


Like someone else said, the problem you'll have is size. But it's not that big of a deal. The first thing you do is only burn the movie itself, not the extras. Many .VOB files (the movie) will fit on 4.7GB DVDs, but not all of them. If they don't fit, you'll have to reencode the MPEG2 video using a smaller average bitrate. Doing this takes a lot of time, though. On a top CPU, a 2-pass encode would maybe take around 10 hours. Now add the time it takes to burn, which is another hour, and the price of a DVD burner compared to a CDRW, plus the price of media... Even if media is only 5$, a DVD movie costs 15$, so you'd have to be pretty cheap to think it's worth burning them.

 

[flipdon]

looks like i got a lot more to think about....thanks everyone

 

[Zebo]

Thanks bluesky, great link

 

[Aosh]

To add to what people have already posted:

Yep, size is #1 issue preventing you from doing a exact copy. Also, right now there isn't a standard in DVD recording (3 competing formats). Some are more "playable" in standalone players than others.

Also, if you want to re-encode the movie to fit onto CD-R media, you have a couple options. The most popular option being DivX SBC or DivX 4.0. You can also encode it into SVCD or VCD. My recommendations are either DivX SBC or SVCD. If you want to keep the quality of the encode from suffering too much, a full movie should belong on 2 discs not 1. I don't plan on giving you a step-by-step walkthrough (there's hundreds of methods out there) since this isn't the right place to do it, but I'll warn you that if you want a high-quality rip, encoding takes VERY long (drastically shorter with a high-end PC).

But what I really want to ask is, regarding the size issue, do you guys think a dual layer DVD burner will ever come to pass (say 5 years down the line?). Or is it a technological impossibility?

 

[madthumbs]

Ok... if you want dolby digital 5.1 sound, and don't want to be troubled by wether you can get quality on one disk, the two disks is the way to encode.... but for that matter why not use mpeg4v2 instead of divx? I've downloaded quite a few movies that were great quality and fit on one disk. I have a friend that is heavily into photography, filming. I impressed the hell out of him with some nice mpeg4v2/ac3 encodes.. he couldn't see a difference between them and the dvd... though i've learned to spot the differences but they are minimal, and not always detectable. Same for divx/ mp3 encodes, but the mp3 isn't quite as good as the ac3 for audio. But most movies can play impressively well from one cd if done with sbc/divx/mp3. Any word on mp3pro for movies?

 

[flipdon]

the immediate reason i was thinking about to was to make region free copies of Battle Royale [Japanese-RPC3] and Attack the Gas Station [Korean RPC3].

Guess im just a lil' too much of an impulsive buyer??

 

[JackBurton]

<< But what I really want to ask is, regarding the size issue, do you guys think a dual layer DVD burner will ever come to pass (say 5 years down the line?). Or is it a technological impossibility? >>


Hey, the originals are double layered so it CAN be done. It is just a matter of time before they bring it down to the consumer level. It is DEFINITELY NOT technologically impossible, however the MPAA may very well make it impossible for consumer to get ahold of a double layered DVD burner! :|

 

[flipdon]

can they really stop something like that? how come they didn't do something that drastic with CD burners?



well maybe they could....wouldn't that suck