pelvis_3
HWF Member For Life
If you don't see an answer to your own burning query, drop me a line and let me know what's on your mind. Hopefully in the near future I'll make more of these FAQ’s including one on CD/DVD quality and why not to use a bad quality disc!
(I did the best i had to work with :)
In addition similar yet more detailed information is freely available all over the internet!)
Which Format?
DVD-RAM
Suited for archival purposes, DVD-RAM is catered to niche audiences: It's the most expensive form of DVD media but also the most durable and rarest.
DVD-R
This write-once-only format is the cheapest form of DVD media, widely available and compatible with a wide range of home DVD players.
DVD+R
Another write-once-only format in the same mould as DVD-R. But the media's compatibility with older DVD products raises questions on its potential as a video storage source.
DVD-RW
The DVD Forum's DVD-RW was the first rewritable DVD format marketed but has since been overtaken by the faster and more versatile DVD+RW media of the DVD Alliance.
DVD+RW
Fast, versatile and supported by many DVD drives and players, the expensive DVD+RW media is an all-rounder media that does everything from storing data to video clips.
For audio projects, pick CD-Rs. CD-Rs are the best way for you to create audio CDs, the format recognized by CD and DVD players. If you want to pack more music on a disc, convert your audio files to MP3 before burning them to a CD-R. But note that they're stored as data files, not as music per se. That means the player you're using needs to have a built-in MP3 decoder, as many DVD players and portable CD players do--but not as popular in car stereo and living-room CD players.
If I Buy a DVD Burner, Do I Still Need My CD Drive?
No, you don't--but there are reasons you might want to keep two drives.
It's not a question of whether your DVD burner can also burn CDs-It's a question of the speed in which it does it. For a long time, having two drives made sense, since DVD burners started out with CD write speeds that were significantly slower than what you'd find in a dedicated CD-RW drive. However, you really don't need two drives anymore. Today's DVD burners can burn CDs at 12X and 16X speeds, which are quick enough for most purposes.
Still, I can come up with three reasons you'd want to have multiple optical drives. The first, and most obvious reason, is for easy disc copying: Pop a CD into one drive, a blank disc into the other, and there ya go!
The second is for testing: If your second optical drive is a combo DVD-ROM and CD burner, then you have a quick means of getting those DVD movies you've made on a drive other than the one you burned the disc on.
Third, lots of games are coming through with multiple CDs. If you have two optical drives, you can minimize your disc swapping with multi-CD games.
How Can I Copy My Videos?
Your perked up at the question, wondering how you can copy your store-bought DVDs. But I'm not going into that murky water, fraught as it is with questions about the legality of copying movies on DVD. If you do a Web search, or dig around on sites dedicated to DVD burning (such as CD-Rinfo) you'll see shareware and freeware DVD "rippers" out there. What you choose to do with that software is up to you.
Quick Refernce-Burning a Disc
Copy a DVD: If you have a second optical drive on your system, you can easily copy contents from a disc in that drive to another in your burner. But if your second drive isn't the fastest spinner on the block, it might be just as easy to first create an image of the DVD on your hard drive. The software may go a bit faster when transferring the data from your hard drive to disc. Plus, if you destroy your first copy, you can always burn another from the image on your hard drive!
Choose Your Write Speed: For optimal performance, make sure the write speed corresponds to the speed of the media you're using. To maximize your new disc's potential quality, and to avoid buffer underruns, try bumping the recording speed down a notch or two.
In case you're wondering, buffer underruns occur when the data source fills the drive's buffer faster than the drive can copy the data to your destination. All drives have buffer underrun protection; but the situation can still occur, especially if you perform CPU-intensive tasks while burning a disc.
Multisession or Finalize?
For data or video, select a multisession burn, or finalize your disc. With write-once DVD-R and +R, and CD-R, you can choose to add data to the disc in separate burning sessions over time (multisession write), or lock a disc so you can't add more content (disc finalization). You'll need to decide which route you're taking before you initiate the burn. If you want to play any part of your disc in stand-alone DVD players or recorders, you'll need to finalize it.
Drag and Drop Data Files:
If you're using rewritable media, you can simply drag and drop the files in Windows Explorer, just as if the DVD-/+RW or CD-RW drive were a floppy drive. The disc you create will use the Universal Disc Format file system, and should be readable on most PCs and Macs. But note that UDF requires overhead for its disc error correction, so you'll typically sacrifice one to several hundred megabytes on the rewritable disc, depending upon whether you use CD or DVD.
Pick Your File System:
Most burning programs by default use the Joliet file system, which allows you to use 64-character file names, as you do in Windows, and automatically generates an 8-character file name with 3-character file extension for use with DOS and earlier versions of Windows. That should work for most burning needs, but you can usually find a few more formatting options in the software. Burn an ISO 9660 disc if you want the disc to have near-universal compatibility with different operating systems, including Windows, Macintosh, and Unix. The resulting file names must be 8 alphanumeric characters, with a 3-character extension.
Verify Your Data:
It's a pain to do, and it's admittedly boring--but it's also necessary especially if you're backing up critical data or making a one-of-a-kind video disc. Verification is your best means of confirming that the software made an accurate copy of your data. Some burning software performs verification by comparing each original source file to the copy created on the disc, bit-for-bit; other programs simply compare the original file's size to that of the copy.
Enjoy.
(I did the best i had to work with :)
In addition similar yet more detailed information is freely available all over the internet!)
Which Format?
DVD-RAM
Suited for archival purposes, DVD-RAM is catered to niche audiences: It's the most expensive form of DVD media but also the most durable and rarest.
DVD-R
This write-once-only format is the cheapest form of DVD media, widely available and compatible with a wide range of home DVD players.
DVD+R
Another write-once-only format in the same mould as DVD-R. But the media's compatibility with older DVD products raises questions on its potential as a video storage source.
DVD-RW
The DVD Forum's DVD-RW was the first rewritable DVD format marketed but has since been overtaken by the faster and more versatile DVD+RW media of the DVD Alliance.
DVD+RW
Fast, versatile and supported by many DVD drives and players, the expensive DVD+RW media is an all-rounder media that does everything from storing data to video clips.
For audio projects, pick CD-Rs. CD-Rs are the best way for you to create audio CDs, the format recognized by CD and DVD players. If you want to pack more music on a disc, convert your audio files to MP3 before burning them to a CD-R. But note that they're stored as data files, not as music per se. That means the player you're using needs to have a built-in MP3 decoder, as many DVD players and portable CD players do--but not as popular in car stereo and living-room CD players.
If I Buy a DVD Burner, Do I Still Need My CD Drive?
No, you don't--but there are reasons you might want to keep two drives.
It's not a question of whether your DVD burner can also burn CDs-It's a question of the speed in which it does it. For a long time, having two drives made sense, since DVD burners started out with CD write speeds that were significantly slower than what you'd find in a dedicated CD-RW drive. However, you really don't need two drives anymore. Today's DVD burners can burn CDs at 12X and 16X speeds, which are quick enough for most purposes.
Still, I can come up with three reasons you'd want to have multiple optical drives. The first, and most obvious reason, is for easy disc copying: Pop a CD into one drive, a blank disc into the other, and there ya go!
The second is for testing: If your second optical drive is a combo DVD-ROM and CD burner, then you have a quick means of getting those DVD movies you've made on a drive other than the one you burned the disc on.
Third, lots of games are coming through with multiple CDs. If you have two optical drives, you can minimize your disc swapping with multi-CD games.
How Can I Copy My Videos?
Your perked up at the question, wondering how you can copy your store-bought DVDs. But I'm not going into that murky water, fraught as it is with questions about the legality of copying movies on DVD. If you do a Web search, or dig around on sites dedicated to DVD burning (such as CD-Rinfo) you'll see shareware and freeware DVD "rippers" out there. What you choose to do with that software is up to you.
Quick Refernce-Burning a Disc
Copy a DVD: If you have a second optical drive on your system, you can easily copy contents from a disc in that drive to another in your burner. But if your second drive isn't the fastest spinner on the block, it might be just as easy to first create an image of the DVD on your hard drive. The software may go a bit faster when transferring the data from your hard drive to disc. Plus, if you destroy your first copy, you can always burn another from the image on your hard drive!
Choose Your Write Speed: For optimal performance, make sure the write speed corresponds to the speed of the media you're using. To maximize your new disc's potential quality, and to avoid buffer underruns, try bumping the recording speed down a notch or two.
In case you're wondering, buffer underruns occur when the data source fills the drive's buffer faster than the drive can copy the data to your destination. All drives have buffer underrun protection; but the situation can still occur, especially if you perform CPU-intensive tasks while burning a disc.
Multisession or Finalize?
For data or video, select a multisession burn, or finalize your disc. With write-once DVD-R and +R, and CD-R, you can choose to add data to the disc in separate burning sessions over time (multisession write), or lock a disc so you can't add more content (disc finalization). You'll need to decide which route you're taking before you initiate the burn. If you want to play any part of your disc in stand-alone DVD players or recorders, you'll need to finalize it.
Drag and Drop Data Files:
If you're using rewritable media, you can simply drag and drop the files in Windows Explorer, just as if the DVD-/+RW or CD-RW drive were a floppy drive. The disc you create will use the Universal Disc Format file system, and should be readable on most PCs and Macs. But note that UDF requires overhead for its disc error correction, so you'll typically sacrifice one to several hundred megabytes on the rewritable disc, depending upon whether you use CD or DVD.
Pick Your File System:
Most burning programs by default use the Joliet file system, which allows you to use 64-character file names, as you do in Windows, and automatically generates an 8-character file name with 3-character file extension for use with DOS and earlier versions of Windows. That should work for most burning needs, but you can usually find a few more formatting options in the software. Burn an ISO 9660 disc if you want the disc to have near-universal compatibility with different operating systems, including Windows, Macintosh, and Unix. The resulting file names must be 8 alphanumeric characters, with a 3-character extension.
Verify Your Data:
It's a pain to do, and it's admittedly boring--but it's also necessary especially if you're backing up critical data or making a one-of-a-kind video disc. Verification is your best means of confirming that the software made an accurate copy of your data. Some burning software performs verification by comparing each original source file to the copy created on the disc, bit-for-bit; other programs simply compare the original file's size to that of the copy.
Enjoy.
