Software for DVD burning, ripping, etc

[duragezic]

I just got a BenQ DW1655 today... I'm pretty behind the times. I had a Plextor 8x CDRW for many years until a couple of months ago a buddy gave me his BLAZING FAST 16x CDRW. And 6 months before that my friend gave me his HIGH QUALITY Liteon DVDROM (much sarcasm). That piece of crap DVD-ROM barely played DVDs and was slow, and I figured a DVD burner-combo drive was due.


For now I got the Nero Express disc with my OEM DW1655, and I just downloaded Surething demo/SE version as well as the lightscribe drivers from lightscribe.com. I also use DVD Decrypter to rip DVDs.

Can I do any better with other free programs or fairly cheap ones. I want to be able to make lightscribe CDs, burn all modes of CD and DVDs (Nero Burning ROM is what I'm used to, is it still the best?), as well as make 1:1 copies of CDs and DVDs for backup, and finally I'd like something along the lines of DVDLab for creating a DVD out of a bunch of .avi files.

What software do I need for this? Please recommend good freeware, but if its reasonably priced and better than freeware equivalents, then I'd consider purchasing too since it'd be used for so much.

Also, for example I couldn't for the life of me make a backup of RB6 Raven Shield CD2. Nothing would work on the copy protection. Will my DW1655 somehow be able to do it? Or was I just using the wrong software?

 

[duragezic]

bumpity

 

[Janet Reno]

That burner should come with a stripped down version of Nero that has Lightscribe capabilities.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I use DVDDecrypter, DVDFabDecrypter, DVDShrink, and NERO.

 

[duragezic]

I use Nero 6 for burning, SureThing 4 SE for lightscribing, and DVDDecrypter for ripping DVDs (haven't found one yet it couldn't do).


I guess what I'm missing is something to make 1:1 CD or DVD copies. I've heard of Blind Read/Write and CloneCD/CloneDVD in the past, but I'm not sure if they will do what I want? I was able to make a .ISO of UT2k4 and BF2 with DVDDecrypter which I can now burn to DVD as a backup disc using Nero, but couldn't make a .ISO with Raven Shield CD2. So I'm wondering if theres some sort of CD ripping program like DVDDecrypter or something all-in-one that'll make straight disc to disc/1:1 copies.

 

[trexmgd]

Well it depends on the size... That's where DVDShrink comes in.

EDIT: I was thinking movies, but read your post again and see you're looking for games/data 1:1. I'd recommend going to CD Freaks or gamecopyworld and reading up.