DVDXCopyXpress (or the suite-Platinum) is a simple one step, easy approach if you don't do a lot of back ups. I used it until I got a big project of doing a couple dozen. That's when DVDShrink's advantages became apparent. Also one key thing if it's important, DVDXCopy removes the ripped files from the hard disk after it's finished burning. With DVDShrink or DVD Decrytor, you keep the ripped files if you want to use them again. For example, with DVDShrink, you might decided to back up a DVD with a lot of Extra's, a complicated menu, etc. With DVDShrink you could decide later to re-encode the ripped files. You can do it, selecting just the Main Movie. I've had reasons to do this and find it a really simple and quality solution.

This is a good site to check DVD player compatibility
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php

I found this interesting. It's lifted from the dvd forum at cdguides. The link isn't working right now. It's a bit old (references to burn speed), having been posted in Feb, 2003.

The DVD DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM
standard is made up of over 230 companies. The big names giving it support are:

Hitatchi
Matsushita (Panasonic)
Mitsubishi (Verbatim)
Pioneer
Phillips
Sony
Thomson (RCA)
Time Warner
Toshiba
Victor (JVC)

The +R/RW forum has more supporters which are
more PC oriented. You will notice some of the same names
on both standards.

Phillips
Hewlet-Packard
Sony
Yamaha
Ricoh
Mitsubishi
Thomson (RCA)
Dell
Fujitsu

In North America you tend to find
more PC drives are geared towards DVD+R/RW, while more
standalones are DVD-R because of Panasonic.
DVD-RAM has been around for quite some time. It?s also
very good for Data, but not much more then that. The only
standalone DVD players that support DVD-Ram are made by
Panasonic. If your intrest is STRICTLY data then this is
probably the best format to use currently because of size. A
DVD-Ram disc can be up to 9.4 Gigs on one side while the
other standards can only be up to 4.7 Gigs.

So what are the real world differences between the disk
types? They both write at the same speeds (DVD+RW now
writes at 4x so it has an advantage over DVD-RW which only
does 2x) so for the most part it just comes down to
compatability. Check vcdhelp for player compatability to see
if your player is on the list or not, and which format it
supports. They have a list of pretty much every DVD player
out there. Check out the user comments of others that have
the same player. Sometimes a player may support a format,
but not fully support it so it may have issues. Check it out
here athttp://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php Also
please post your comments about your player there and give
back to the community that helped you out. Especially if
your player is new.

Most older players tend to favor the ?R format while more
newer players seem to support both. I haven?t seen to many
standalone players that actually play DVD-RW and DVD+RW.
A lot of players on the VCDHelp site claim to be DVD-RW and
DVD+RW compatible when they really aren?t so be careful
there.

The one advantage that I really like about DVD+RW is the
ability to do packetwriting. What this means is if I am using
DVD-R and DVD+R and I write to it, that?s it I can?t write to
it anymore. If I am using DVD-RW I can format it and write
again, but what if I have one file that I want to change? On
DVD-RW that?s not really possible. I have to format the disk
and reburn all the contents. With DVD+RW I can delete that
one file and add it without formatting.

One other thing to watch for as far as what you buy is the
price of the disks. Currently you can buy ?R blanks in stacks
of 100 for about .60 a disk for cheap disks. The cheapest I
have seen +R discs for is 1.55 a piece for a stack of 100.
DVD-R has been out longer and definitely has a price
advantage at this point, and probably will continue to have
this advantage for quite some time. At this point and time
that is the main reason I would go with ?R over +R.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. :)

And SlickVic78:

I ended up buying a 30ct. Verbatim DataLife DVD+R spindle from Sam's Club. It cost $46 and some odd cents USD. It's only 4X, but that doesn't mean they won't burn @ 8X. That remains to be seen...I'll let you know. But $47 for 30 Verbatim 4X DVD+R is pretty reasonable from what I've seen (about $1.57 ea.). Still, let me know if you see the 8X cheap. :)

I have a Phillips DVD burner, using +disc and use DVDXcopy and have great success with no coasters. :rolleyes:

Good deal, Belthazor. I checked out Staples this a.m. They are getting Equiv. US$56 for 25 Fujifilm. I went back to CompuCentre this a.m. and got 2 more 25 stacks of 4X Aterra for US$28 equiv for 25. Toronto is not the mecca of pc enthusiasts. Montreal is much more advanced. (n'est pas, Bads?) Here, guys we are more concerned about hockey and beer. :)

The 25 Memorex 4X I recently burned cost US Equiv $42 per 25 at Futureshop (Best Buy). Prices are definately dropping like, but in Hockey land it takes longer. :) I'm talking -R, of course.

I haven't looked into it, but I suspect the Plextor 708A might burn 8X -R DVD's with a firmware upgrade.

When I did the firmware upgrade on my 2.4X Sony DRU 500 it burned the Memorex 4X DVD +R's at 4X, but it would not burn other disks at more than 2.4X.

Hey belthazor,

Wow... That isn't bad at all for Verbatim. Looks like I may have to hit up a Sam's Club. :lol:

Thanks for the info! :)

@rikytik
As of right now, there is no firmware upgrade that will bump the burn speed up on -R's to 8x. And as far as I know, I don't think I have seen Plextor giving out a firmware upgrade to increase burn speeds. But if they do, someone please let me know... :D Right now it is up to 1.03.

-SlickVic78

Better late than never, but here's an update on my experience so far.

As for disks, Verbatim Datalife DVD+R 4X do burn @ 8X on my 708A. The bad news is that they won't play on my standalone. So I am now using Datalife DVD-R, which only burn @ 4X but DO play fine on my standalone. The 30 pk. spindle runs about $38. I haven't seen anything that can touch that.

I also experimented with SEVERAL programs and methods. From the feedback posted, no one mentioned one of the proggies I'm using.

Running AnyDVD in the background (for the obvious), I rip using Nero Recode2. The other proggies mentioned above, and at least 2 others that I tried, don't match the encode that Recode gives. The picture is noticeably better than with DVDShrink, for example. I do however choose to do a 2-pass rip for insurance. Only one word of caution: Recode does some of your thinking for you as far as settings. So check them to see what it's omitting. It automatically takes the foreign audio out, and sets the compression individually on each part. Optionally, I've set it to "rip & burn" or I just rip and burn later with Nero.

Again, thanks for all the input, and I recommend the above method.

Belthazor, I t ried your recommendation. Worked perfectly for a complicated movie DVD I was having trouble "shrinking" yet keeping certain features. Looks like this is a winning combo: AnyDVD and Recode2. Thanks for reminding us of this possibility. I've been using DVD Shrink almost exclusively.

@Belthazor: Why not just get RPC firmware for your burner and do away with the need for AnyDVD full stop? There are a few sites out there that provide the software and full details on how to do it- i havent had a problem with any of the dvd burners i have patched :D