Is it exactly like writing a CD? Is it good for backing up masses of files and stuf? (i.e can get more on a disc?)

Any help would be cool. The new tower (well, I mean the "new" tower) has a DVD-RW drive. Never had one before now.

Would "power DVD" be the copying software, or would Nero StartSmart be the one?

edit: Where's a good place to get blank DVDs from. Would be nice to have a non-PC reliant form of backup for my music.

Is it exactly like writing a CD? Is it good for backing up masses of files and stuf? (i.e can get more on a disc?)

Any help would be cool. The new tower (well' date=' I mean the "new" tower) has a DVD-RW drive. Never had one before now.

Would "power DVD" be the copying software, or would Nero StartSmart be the one?

edit: Where's a good place to get blank DVDs from. Would be nice to have a non-PC reliant form of backup for my music.[/quote']

Yes, you get loads more on a DVD

Power DVD is (slightly rubbish) DVD playback software. Nero is what you use to burn DVDs and CDs too.

Buy them at www.blankdiscshop.co.uk sooo cheap compared to everywhere else and a very wide range

I haven't had a chance to check out the above one, but a friend told me about www.pricestorm.com

Thanks. I wasn't expecting to be able to copy a bought DVD - thought someone may have thought of a way of blocking making it THAT easy. Just wondered about all the possibilities. I'm guessing a "tweaked" DVD would be easy to copy though eh? :confused:

I use DVD Shrink for making backup copies of DVD films. It's free and an excellent piece of S/W http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html

AND I mean backup copies. DVD's are great but they are not kiddy friendly my 3 & 6 year old can quite easily destroy them with scratches, jam etc. Having had to rebuy kids DVD's before they now use the backup which I can recopy if/when they trash it.

Power dvd is the software that you watch dvd films on

Nero would do the copying' date=' but dont expect to copy dvd films straight off. They need decoding and compressing before they will fit on a 4.7GB dvd. It takes ages...something i do at work where i have spare time [/quote']

Look out for DVD Shrink

SNAP!

Tried getting it but no resulting mirrors for the setup .zip file. Anyone got it saved and could email it to me?

PM me your email address and I'll send it.

Look out for computer fairs to get your blank disks from

DVDshrink will work as a decrypter too however you will find with some "red" disc films using Sony's Arcos(sp) protection that you will have to decrypt it to files on your harddisc using dvddecrypt then use dvd shrink to make it compatible with DVD-5 standard.

Also the new DVD's coming out are going to be copy protected by Macrovision the same company who pioneered the anti copy application for Videos. These are supposed to be impossible to crack but if they do get cracked macrovision simply revise the code.

Also the new DVD's coming out are going to be copy protected by Macrovision the same company who pioneered the anti copy application for Videos. These are supposed to be impossible to crack but if they do get cracked macrovision simply revise the code.

Not only that, but Macrovision also own all the patents on the methods to break their protection systems and of course never licence them - Maplin tried to sell a box o tricks sourced in the far east which recreated the sync pulses for copying video tapes, but it infringed the patent so had to withdraw it!

Clever so & sos aren't they...

But macrovision is direct copy protection through means of the signal to the device and not as a data stream?

What would be easier is, remove the copy protection, charge less

Buy them at www.blankdiscshop.co.uk sooo cheap compared to everywhere else and a very wide range

The shipping cost is a lot on this site comapred to the 1.49 of Pricestorm, also the VAT isn't added until you go to the checkout (Pricestorm include it on the list price ).

I just got some on Ebay today, 50 Verbatim 8X for 35 Euro (includes shipping)

Prices as shown to me include VAT - IIRC the first time you visit it asks if you are a business or private customer and adds/excludes VAT accordingly.

Sounds like my new tower with the DVD drive can do some other jobs for me as well as purely folding away. Backing up my storage space would be a good start.

Prices as shown to me include VAT - IIRC the first time you visit it asks if you are a business or private customer and adds/excludes VAT accordingly.

There's an option in DVDShrink that writes the "shrunk" film to disc, automatically opens DVD Decrypter and writes the disc out (if you have a blank in the drive). If you've got DVD Decrypter set to, it will delete the file after a successful write as well I use it all the time to get space back as soon as possible - only got 600gig in my tower and always nearly full due to the amount of stuff I download a day