Tech Guide: Buying a CD/DVD burner

Understand CD/DVD burners | Specs that matter | Select the right format | Which discs to buy | What you can do with your burner | The software you need
What you can do with your burner
A DVD burner lends itself to all sorts of tasks: playing and burning audio CDs, playing and burning DVD movies, making photo slide shows for friends and family, and more. Below, we discuss a few of the most popular uses.

Burning options: Can I copy commercial DVDs? | Understanding the law | What kind of DVDs can I legally copy? | How do I copy audio CDs? | How do I back up my system?

Can I copy commercial DVDs?
DVD X Copy
321 Studios' DVD X Copy

Until February 2004, 321 Studios' hugely popular line of DVD-copying products, including DVD X Copy, DVD X Copy Xpress, and DVD Copy Plus, gave consumers the power to make backup copies of DVDs -- even those with copy protection. But when a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that 321 Studios' products were illegal because they circumvented commercial DVDs' antipiracy technology -- not because it's illegal to make copies, mind you -- the party was over. Since then, 321 Studios has released new, ripper-free versions of its line of DVD-copying apps, but these programs are considerably less potent and cannot copy commercial DVDs.

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Understanding the law
Still, there is software out there -- even freeware -- that will circumvent the copy-protection schemes used on commercial DVDs and enable you to make copies of store-bought DVDs. ZDNet Australia does not encourage or condone the illegal copying of copy-protected discs, and doing so places you in violation of intellectual property laws.

To copy a movie, you first need to rip it -- that is, to digitally copy it to your hard drive after removing CSS, Macrovision, and region protection. To do this, you need a ripper such as SmartRipper, DVD Decrypter, or DVDShrink, all of which are free and available online.

Many commercial movies ship on 8.5GB, dual-layer DVD-9 discs and are too large to fit on a 4.7GB DVD disc. Tools such as DVDShrink let you compress the files and remove as much redundant information from the video and audio streams as necessary (up to about 50 percent) to make the movie fit on a single-sided, single-layer DVD. How can it do this? Unless the movie is longer than normal, chances are the publisher used a higher bit rate than necessary to keep the movie from fitting easily on a single disc. Despite all the missing information, shrunk copies can be hard to tell from the original. Double-layer DVD burners, which can burn 8.5GB double-layer discs, offer an even better solution and require no compression at all.

Once you've ripped and shrunk the movie, you can use your mastering or authoring software to burn the ripped movie onto a blank disc.

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What kind of DVDs can I legally copy?
Copying a DVD movie that is neither copyrighted nor copy protected (that is, one made on your digital video camera or on someone else's or a nonprofessional movie) is as simple as firing up your mastering software and initiating the copy disc routine. Just place the source disc in the drive, click Copy, and place a blank disc in the drive when prompted.
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How do I back up my system?
When disaster strikes your computer (and it will), it's much easier to reassemble the broken pieces of your electronic life if you've backed up your data. The most efficient and convenient way to back up your system is with a dedicated backup program, such as NTI's BackupNow Deluxe or Dantz's Retrospect. Some burning software suites also include backup programs, and you can also simply copy your files using packet-writing software, such as Nero's InCD, Roxio's Drag-to-Disc, or even XP's built-in solution. Packet-writing software allows you to drag and drop files onto a CD as if it were a floppy disk, and it's far less demanding of your system's resources than writing a CD or DVD, which can make your PC essentially unusable during burning. And if you're superorganised or you don't need to back up everything, you can simply burn the files you want with mastering software, such as Nero's Burning ROM.
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Talkback 13 comments

    Very useful article. Thanks. ...Anonymous -- 21/06/04

    Very useful article. Thanks.

    Any chance you could do an article reviewing some budget external cd burners - I need one but I have no idea which to buy. Help! Thanks.

    Excellent explanation of the g ...Anonymous -- 30/06/04

    Excellent explanation of the gobbledy **** abbreviations used with DVD's and the various format limitations; e.g. I had no idea DVD-RAM was physically fragile.

    Great article, now I won't emb ...Anonymous -- 02/12/04

    Great article, now I won't embarrass myself by referring to DVD-R as "minus R" thanks so much!

    Clear and informative presenta ...Anonymous -- 10/12/04

    Clear and informative presentation.

    You need to update this. 16x a ...Anonymous -- 14/12/04

    You need to update this. 16x are the norm now and on the table relating to speed vs time is N/A

    In this article you have incor ...Anonymous -- 05/01/05

    In this article you have incorrectly defined 1MB as equalling 100KB, it should be 1MB = 1000KB.

    "Shorthand terms are used to describe how fast a burner performs. A CD-RW drive rated 52X/32X/52X can write a CD-R at 52X, write a CD-RW at 32X, and read a CD at 52X. The X stands for times the original transfer rate of a disc. For a CD, the original transfer rate is 150 kilobytes (KB) per second; so 52X would equal 7.8 megabytes (MB) per second, and 32X would come to 4.8MB per second (1MB equals 100KB)."

    Well written and informative.E ...Anonymous -- 10/01/05

    Well written and informative.Easy to understand for a novice. I'm looking to buy a dvd burner soon and this answered many question I had.

    THANK YOU. I CAN NOW ANSWER SO ...Anonymous -- 04/07/05

    THANK YOU.
    I CAN NOW ANSWER SOME OF MY WIFES QUESTIONS ABOUT WHY WE NEED A NEW DVD DRIVE.

    Avoid "Heartburn Pro" Unhappy user -- 07/08/05

    Just wanted to share my experience with Iomega and HotBurn pro. I bought a Iomega USB CD-RW drive and HotBurn Pro came with it.

    HotBurn pro copies music CD's OK (no violation, this is a CD a friend made and gave me permission to copy), but I couldn't make a readable data CD, even when I slowed down write and added a simulated burn step.

    I tried to update the product using the "update" button, but the download didn't work, I got a message that "your current installation is not valid".

    Worse, I had to put up with registering at iomega.com just to GET the download. I think companies should make it as easy as possible to download bug fixes, and registrations are a mistake (especially if the sofware doesn't work after all the rigamarole).

    So, I'm deinstalling Hotburn pro, and given how nosy Iomega was, will be looking for companies that just want my money, rather than my money and my email...

    website John Stephens -- 01/12/05

    One of the most difficult websites to read. Blue writing on blue background: bad design

    DVD Burners / player compatability Victor Johnson -- 31/12/05

    Very informitive, however-Can I transfer digital camara pics w/a dvd burner to dvd disk format that can be played/viewd with the common home/tv type DVD-Player. Do I need a special software and/or dvd burner? Anyone, please. Thankx

    Advice on dvd burners Desmond Auer -- 14/05/07

    The article is well thought out and presented. Just one query, what are the hardware requirements for using a dvd-burner?
    I have a Pentium 1.1 GHz processor with 256 MB RAM running Windows XP and I was told that my machine would not be able to run a dvd burner. Is this correct?
    If so, what ARE the requirements for a computer to run a dvd burner?

    iSkysoft DVD Creator for Mac sese -- 10/05/09 (in reply to #320079329)

    iSkysoft DVD Creator for Mac is the best dvd burner for mac users,This mac dvd burner can convert all formats such as MP4, M4V( without DRM protection), MPA, MPG, MPEG, MOV,3GP, 3GP2, FLV, MOV,VOB, DAT, TS, TP, TRP, M2TS, AVI, MKV to DVD on Mac OS X.
    http://youtubetodvd.blogspot.com/

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