Need crash course on DVD burner info please

I'm ready to order my new T42, with one issue left to decide: whether or not to get the multi-burner CD/DVD. As an add-on to the Expresspackage I've put together, it is only a $149 upgrade (i.e. the package already includes a CD RW and DVD read drive, so the upgrade to the multi-burner is less than the standalone price for the multi-burner. I know NOTHING about DVD burners, capabilities, limitations, what is "state of the art" etc.

The IBM multiburner reads and writes DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM and reads DVD+R and DVD+RW.

My main use of the DVD burner would be to copy some of my old VHS tapes onto DVD format. Is this multiburner a good tool to do that? Will the newly burned DVD discs be viewable on my home DVD player connected to my TV? If so, will the image quality be as the original VHS images?

How much do the blank DVD discs cost?

Any other important issues I've not covered in these questions?

Thanks.

 

I dont know much about DVD burners, but I do know that if you decide to not get the upgrade that you could buy an external one in the future to use with your laptop.

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Fujitsu S6210: 1.6Ghz PM ~ 768MB RAM ~ 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
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All the common writable DVD formats allows you to store 4.7GB of data or about 70 minutes of video. There is a very new Sony drive (~$1000) blue laser drive which can write both tracks (9.4GB) just like commercial videos, but very expensive toys right now.

The DVD-R (write once) and DVD-RW (re-writable) is somewhat lower-tech, than the +R (+RW) format in subtle ways, but it also seems to be the most intercompatible format for videos. If you cut a DVD-R or a DVD-RW from your laptop there is a high probability your video DVD player will play it back successfully.

The DVD+R (write once) and DVD+RW (rewritable) formats allow some better recovery and scene to scene linking but unless you are a video geek you won't care. Same storage capacity give-or-take a tiny bit.

There are a couple weird formats like DVD-RAM only intended for commercial data storage.

As for media - *ONLY* use name brand stuff - Verbatim, Memorex, .... I've found that cheapo DVD-Rs sometimes cannot be re-read on my old drive while the name brand stuff always works.

The -R media is a little cheaper but if you buy in quantity (25 packs) both -R and +R are under $1/disk and probably ~$.80 a disk as Walmart and Sam's type places. The -RW and +RW media are more expensive ... - 3 months ago I was paying $2.50/disk for verbatim DVD-RW, maybe $3/d for the DVD+RW at a Comp-USA type prices.

It's a good idea to get a drive that can write both +R and -R type disks. Then see what your video player can handle. One of the Video websites had a test where they wrote +R and -R video on 3 or 4 different drives then tried to play them back on a dozen or so video players. None of the players read all the media !!! Most read the -Rs and quite a few handled some of the +Rs. The DVD writers drivers are better now (than 6 months ago) IMO. Still some DVD video players absolutely reject all +R media.

Another thing to consider is the writing time. 2X media will take at least 30 minutes to write and 4X media that drops to 15 minutes. That's a huge difference when you are waiting. Faster costs more of course. The 4X drives will normally handle slower media (2X and 2.4X) at the slower speed. For some reason there is a big difference in how fast the drives actually write and how much CPU time they eat up while writing. I wouldn't sweat it for a laptop. IBM can be counted on to choose a reliable, hi-quality drive and if it's a few minutes slower than the best - no big deal.

Also - if you are just backing up data or copying MPEGs you'll see the DVD speed difference. If you are editting video with Pinnacle type software the re-rendering of a 60 minute video can take several hours on a fast P4HT. I'm talking about minor editting like cutting out commercials and changing the bit data rate ! Processing video is S...L...O...W and eats all your processor.

--
The way I operate I have invested in a high-speed high quality DVD writer drive for one of my desktop systems and I use a 100Mhz ethernet at home for laptop backup. It takes under 8 minutes to copy 4.7GB (a DVD full) of data across the network so I could keep up with an 8X DVD write speed. For a laptop I'm only looking for a CDC-RW/DVD-ROM type drive. If my laptop was my main system I'd definately get the DVD-R,+R drive on it. The DVD drive speed and technology is changing fast and by next year you'll definitely own a slow drive by market comparison no matte what you buy. If you are serious about even a little DVD video processing then get the biggest disk you can afford. 5GB is only an hour of video and you'll be copying and editting bits together.

Someone suggested an external DVD writer. That is a very bad idea on USB. USB2.0 is only 12megabits per second and can only support old slow 1X speed DVD writes ... way too slow. You don't want to wait an hour to back up 4.7GB of data over USB. You need a fireware or 100Mhz ethernet network drive to use any sort of modern external DVD drive effectively.

-S

 

Steve,

That's very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

So, the most I'll be albe to get on a single DVD disc (without going to the Sony technology you described) is about 70 minutes of VHS run time?

As regards cables and inputs, etc. My VCR is old and it has only an RCA-type Video/Audio Out output and a coaxial type single output (for audio and video) which is how it is connected to the TV.

Will these output formats work to connect to a T42? If not, what type of conversion/interface would I need?

Thanks again for your help.

cheers.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>So, the most I'll be albe to get on a single DVD disc (without going to the Sony technology you described) is about 70 minutes of VHS run time?<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>
well, it depends on how good/bad you make the quality. i have fit 11 hours of video onto one dvd, but i had to turn the quality down in order to do that. the source videos were not of great quality anyway, so i could get that much onto the disc without sacrificing what i had to work with. surprisingly, even with 11 hours on the disc, it doesnt look THAT bad. it is hardly reference quality, of course. with some experimenting, you can get pretty good results.

CJ

 

>So, the most I'll be albe to get on a single DVD disc (without going >to the Sony technology you described) is about 70 minutes of VHS run >time?

*IF* you record at the same MPEG2 streaming rate as the commercial DVDs then it's about 70 minutes (8mbit per second plus two 44.1k samples/sec audio channels I as I recall) . Commercial DVDs (and the magic Sony units) are recorded on 2 layers and can double that figure at full image quality. If you cut the image quality down a bit you can boost that way up ... 3 hours or more on 1 DVD. You probably won;t notice the difference if you are copying from VHS. Pinnacle has a very nice (but very pricey) SW package for this, buut others do too.

BTW here
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
is a website with a lot of compatibility notes between DVD formats and DVD players.


>As regards cables and inputs, etc. My VCR is old and it has only an >RCA-type Video/Audio Out output and a coaxial type single output (for > audio and video) which is how it is connected to the TV.

Right the RCA jacks are analod video & audio while the coax has the signals all modulated up to TV channel 2,3,4 etc. Normally you'd want to use the RCA jack analog signals for a little better quality.

It's not my field of expertice but you need a video capture device than will take your (non-composite) analog video and convert it to MPEG-(1,2) on your laptop. There are a lot of these available for firewire, but I don't think the T4x has firewire. There are also USB2.0 video capture devices and USB is fast enough (greater than 1X) to capture video at full quality. You can buy a USB video capture device for like $50-$100 or so.

It is NOT a recommendation but here are examples I found ...
http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV_701/intro/usb701intro.asp?pid=USBAV701
http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV702/specifications/usb702specs.asp?pid=USBAV702
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=VOX
These are available for about $65-$100 have analog video inputs, connects to your USB port and can capture the video as either MPEG1 or MPEG2. Get one like these that can capture at the maximum MPEG2 720x480 pixel (the NTSC DVD) rate. You may need some audio conversion cables from RCA to PC audio jack type, Radio Shack, $15 or less.

If i didn't say so before ... allow about 3GB of disk storage for every hour of hi-q video capture you want to make. Cut that in half roughly for the lower resolution capture.

>Will these output formats work to connect to a T42? If not,
>what type of conversion/interface would I need?

One of these USB2.0 capture devices (or similar) and maybe a few extra cables should do for hardware. These should(do) come with software necessary to capture the video to an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 file. There are simple and also very sophisticated programs for making video DVDs from MPEG files. You need some sort of DVD video writing software. These two packages include such software too.