Question about dvd burners....

[aka_nelly]

Hi all,
I've always been of the mind that a dvd burner wasn't really worth the money. The discs are too expensive and the copy protection schemes often make copying discs too tricky (besides, you can buy the dvd for 19.99 anyway) But, i ran across a new phenom (at least to me) of people uploading full images of their dvd movies (hehe, and they worry about mp3 swapping) In fact, lets say I d-loaded a perfect image (although 4.3gb) of just married, which isn't even out yet....the cost to me(if i had actually d-loaded it...) would be crazy....5.00 for the d-load(@ 8gb for 10.00 from NH) and then 10.00 for a dvdr disc. so to me, to watch a movie once, that doesnt seem worth it. And to back up data doesn't make much sense either, no data is ever good for longer than a year or so anyway. So, i guess my question is.....what are peoples experiences with dvdr drives and why do people think they are worth it. And please don't flame me about the d-loading mp3's and "other stuff" I know it's wrong, but so are alot of other things, and that's not why I posted this...just want a convincing reason to drop 400.00 bucks on a dvdr drive.
Thanks,
Nelly

[reboot]

So as not to get into a warez discussion, I'll only say the following;
If you download a copyrighted movie, in any format, it's theft.
You do NOT need a DVD burner to burn stolen movies.
Save your money.

[aka_nelly]

Thanks Rebbot,
i respect your opinion....i don't want to discuss warez either. It will be something that wil be around as long as there are puters...it can't be stopped. Thankfully, only a select few can get anything they want anytime they want..... I know i can watch them without a burner, I just load the image onto the virtual dvd drive (in this case Alcohol 120%) and voila! i can watch it right on my lappy. however, I was wondering if people thoght they were really worth the money is all.

[Iman74]

My wife and I got an external DVD burner. You can see the details and description of it in my Sig. Reason for buying it is for mass storage. For instance she has multiple archived Lotus Notes databases that are just too big for CD, so we got a DVD burner and now she is much happier. I did back up a movie of mine just to see if I could do it, but the time and effort, well it's just not worth it. So buy it if you plans to use it, otherwise it will be a dust collector.

[reboot]

For serious backups, in excess of the normal 700mb CDR's, or maybe 2 or 3, it makes perfect sense to use a DVD burner, however...the price is beyond justification for most.
Those backups can only be restored from a system that has a DVD or DVDRW, and most do not (yet).
For the price of a DVDRW you can buy 4 60 gig hard drives, and have permanent, virtually instant backups, without buying more disks and waiting for the burn time.
I use Daemon tools for my viewing pleasure, even though I do have a burner and DVD, and mount game CD's on it as well, never having to dig through a pile of CDR's to find the one I need. They're all on the hard drives ;)

[aka_nelly]

hey Reboot,
do you know of any good tutorials or inst. for daemon tools? I know alot of peeps who use it, but I can't seem to get the right version of it and it seems pretty complicated to boot. I love the virtual dvd drive in both alcohol120% and clonecd, but you still need to install the apps/games to use them....does daemon require you to install as well? or is it just able to play without install?
TIA,
Nelly

[reboot]

aka_nelly, YHPM as this is not appropriate discussion for this board.

[aka_nelly]

YHPM.....?
dunno what that means but, It's no big deal anyway...I'll figure it out :-)

[TwoRails]

It means: You Have PM...

I use a burner for backup, as mentioned above, and to put all my Home Moives onto disk. I want to get rid of all my VHS tapes.

Also, your prices are a little high. Burner can be had for under $200, and blank media can be had for about $1 - 2.

I have never watched a DVD on my computer and don't intend to. Don't even have the software installed for it. Just video editing and CD / DVD burning software.

TwoRails

[glc]

Nelly, could you please shorten your signature? It's longer than your posts.

[aka_nelly]

PM?
Still drawing a blank....glc, I shortened it a bit, if that's not enuff let me know. I don't understand why people get all testy about posts...as far as the dvd burner goes...you can get a crappy one for 200.00 but a good one will cost you 3 or 4. I may not know what "YHPM" stands for, but i do know what hardware is good and whats bunk. :-)
Nelly

[glc]

Nelly: Take a look at IMAN74's sig - he has more info in it than you do in yours, but it takes up a LOT less space on the screen. If you were to use the smaller fonts and not put each and every item on separate lines, you could get all you want into your sig without taking up so much screen real estate! It's done using font tags - he has (font size="1") at the beginning and (/font) at the end - (replace the ( and ) with < and > respectively) to make it small.

PM = private message. Go to the main forum page and look just under the Welcome section - it says Private Messages. In your profile, you can enable E-Mail on PM if you want - that way when someone sends you a PM, you get an email telling you to go read your message.

We are not being "testy" - but you might want to read the forum FAQ - this discussion has gotten borderline as to what is acceptable here - DVD ripping is one of the things that isn't supposed to be discussed here, for example.

[reboot]

Nelly, here's what your sig should look like:
<font size="1">Epox 8rda / 2.6GHz Athlon XP (333 bus) / 1gb PC 2700 DDR-(Corsair) / 40gb WD SE/Maxtor 120gb (8mb) / PNY Verto Geforce 4 Ti 4400 / Gamesurround Fortissimo II / Linksys Ethernet / Antec Lanboy w/350w blue / Winxp Pro
Asus a7v8x / 2.0GHz Athlon XP / 1GB PC 2100 DDR-(Crucial) / 40gb Maxtor 7200rpm / 120gb Western Digital 7200rpm x4 / 200gb Maxtor 7200rpm / Gainward GForce 4 4200 GS / Gamesurround Fortissimo II / Linksys Ethernet / Lian-Li Modded Case / 550W Antec PS / Winxp Pro</font>

[aka_nelly]

Sorry glc and thanks reboot, i'll use that post. I know that warez and everything evoke alot of emotion...I'm a hardware junky at heart, but you can only spend so much money on hardware...the "other stuff' is just fun to find and test out, it's like a giant easter egg hunt....If I did ever d-load stuff, i would never sell or give stuff away (unless to freinds ;-) but i'm amazed at how easy it is to get anything....too easy sometimes. I'll use that sig reboot, thanks man!
Nell

[reboot]

Piece of cake :D