DVD Burners

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Recommend me one that is Mac OSX compatible.

Also: any tips on where to find software to rip DVDs? And if I have an external burner can I get around the whole region-coding problem? (Without voiding the AppleCare warranty?)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 9 February 2006 00:37 (nineteen years ago)

Macworld hardware reviews are your friend:

http://www.macworld.com/2005/03/reviews/dvdcopy/index.php
http://www.macworld.com/2005/02/reviews/duallayerburners/index.php

The region locking is a bit more tricky. BIOSes exist for many of the drives within these gadgets, but you may need access to a Windows PC, or even to take the drive out of the Firewire/USB caddy and connect it over regular IDE to a PC.

YAY MOVIE INDUSTRY!

[Note that for region coding, it's the drive itself, rather than the caddy manufacturer that matters. e.g. if you get the Lacie d2 16x say, you're interested in firmware for the NEC ND-3500AG, not Lacie d2 16x. Choose a drive and get Googling to see if firmware exists].

― Mike W (caek), Thursday, 9 February 2006 01:07 (nineteen years ago)

Why are external burners so much more expensive than internal drives. I mean, I'd expect a bit of a difference, but the cheapest external one in that MacWorld roundup is $160. In the last MacUser, they have a step-by-step guide to fitting a DVD burner drive into an old eMac like mine and the Pioneer drive they suggest is only ?’30. Sadly, I am too scared to follow the guide so I think I'm stuck with the Firewire option.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 9 February 2006 01:14 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sorry, but what is ??

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 9 February 2006 01:45 (nineteen years ago)

I have the same question but for a PC-based Laptop. What should I look for when shopping for an external burner, and what software do I need to manage the copyright circumvention and burning?

Thankye

― jonas lefrel (jonas lefrel), Thursday, 9 February 2006 04:33 (nineteen years ago)

FOr PC dvd copying the best software is usually always the free stuff. DvdDecrypter (for ripping) and Shrinkwrap (compressing the video) will give really good results. For burning .img or .iso files Imgburn is really good. To make a standard cd or dvd data disc you can use burnatonce or you can use a pay program like Nero, but Nero 7 is bloated to hell. Any name brand drive should be pretty good with plextor probably at the high end of things. LG and Lite On's are also good. Basically stay away from the bottom line cheap crap they have on super sale for 29.00 at compusa for the week.

― svend (svend), Thursday, 9 February 2006 04:48 (nineteen years ago)

err dvdshrink, not shrinkwrap.

― svend (svend), Thursday, 9 February 2006 04:54 (nineteen years ago)

You know what gets me about burning Super Video Disks (prob the same for DVD burners) ?

Where you line up the vids to go, and then it says "oh, this one is in an incompatible format ner ner de oh", and so you go off and have to convert them first.

Where is the "look just do whatever you need to" type DVD/Videodisc burner program?

I mean, I have a very nice 'Hey I can play anything' video player program now, so why not?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 9 February 2006 09:10 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

what software do mac users on this site use to burn dvds? and does the software work with third-party burners or just the internal apple drives?

― amateurist0, Thursday, 23 February 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

Toast

Works with everything.

― Under the paving stones, Paul Scholes (nordicskilla), Thursday, 23 February 2006 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

The DVD recorder said it would be quick, slick and simple. It is - if you want to make drinks coasters.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

dvd shrink

― slow jamz and white guy indie acoustic shit (Chris V), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

any new advice on this? still haven't bought one. no idea which ones are recommended--those macworld reviews are kinda old.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

there seem to be dozens of models out there: http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/results.aspx?key=DVD+recordable&platform=mac&x=0&y=0

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:14 (nineteen years ago)

i have a lacie external drive, it does dvd-rs, dvd+rs, and dual layer dealies. it was like... under $200 canadian. firewire. and it works totally fast and fine!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:26 (nineteen years ago)

for burning i generally use toast... i author in dvd studio pro and make the VIDEO_TS folder with that, then use toast to actually burn the discs.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:27 (nineteen years ago)

hi amateurist!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:27 (nineteen years ago)

do you mean the LaCie d2 16x DVD±RW FireWire HDD with LightScribe and Toast 7 Titanium for Mac ( 300979 ) for about US$140?

i don't even know what "authoring" is but i should probably figure it out.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:33 (nineteen years ago)

no, mine isn't even that fancy! it's one of those ill-advised "porsche-designed" ones that ended up cheaper than the non-porsche ones cuz the porsche ones were so fugly.

but that totally looks better than mine. also: lightscribe. which is mostly useless but if you shell out for more expensive lightscribe discs you can actually BURN labels/art onto them.

authoring=you know... making the dvd! menus, compression, the works. i don't do all of that in dvd studio pro but it's a good place to throw it all together.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 20 May 2006 01:39 (nineteen years ago)

(1) how do i find out for sure what sort of drive i have (as opposed to just the caddy)?
(2) where do I locate the BIOS for that drive?
(3) how do i change the BIOS to make sure the drive can read discs from all regions?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 29 May 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

(1) I think it's System Profiler (About This Mac -> More Info). It is for an internal drive anyway.

You're on your own with 2 and 3, I'm afraid.

― caek (caek), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:59 (nineteen years ago)

is this so you can play non-region 1 discs? i think the best workaround is just to use VLC as your DVD player. apparently that works (although i've never tried it).

it seems fairly easy to burn discs in whatever region you like.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

thanks!

so, where should i buy this on the interweb?

re. amazon, some of their electronics stuff is farmed out to other places, which is weird, and i'm wary of their customer service.

should i use cdw/mac warehouse? or is there another online dealer that has good price/good service?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

i've only bought this stuff in "meatspace"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

unfortunately there's nowhere to buy such stuff around here, certainly not w/o a car

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

er, does anyone have a SN for fast dvd copy?

i had no idea about dual-layer discs... i have mactheripper which will rip from copy-protected dvds, but now i need something that will compress dual-layer discs so that they'll fit on a single-layer disc....

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 9 June 2006 03:11 (nineteen years ago)

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