Movies to DVD

Here is my question:

I have some movies/ documentaries on my HDD. I want to transfer them to CDs/ DVDs for a variety of reasons - one reason is that I will free over 100GB of space on my HDD - my backup drive is full! I want to watch them on my DVD/ VCD player and on my TV - don't want to watch them on my machine.

Can you folks advise:

What software will do the job - or do I need a software in the first place?

Some of these files types are avi, others are vob, others are mpegs and MP4 files.

I should mention that I am working on Vista Home Premium if that is of any consequence.

Thanks

 

This is never a fun task. When converting to DVD, the software needs to convert the file to a different format, which not only takes a significant chunk of time, but also messes with the quality. Also there is an archival lifetime of DVDs, something like 10 years or so. Would you consider buying a media external hard drive instead?

 

There's a couple of programs.. Roxio's Easy Media Creator and Nero. There's more but these two will do well.

 

use dvdmaker in vista. If you want you can download adobe encore and use that instead.

 

Pinnacle has pretty good software and transfer hardware that usually garners top awards every year, and it only runs around $100, more or less. It can both transfer existing files to DVD and convert the ones you need to convert. It's arguably one of the best home studio programs out there. Most higher end programs start at around $400, and that's more than you need, not to mention the learning curve.

Creative Labs' Video Blaster converter is also fantastic for Video transfers - it has just about every possible input/output connection you need, save for HDMI.

 

If you want a more professional software, you can just download a fully functional adobe encore trial off adobe. When you want to use it, install it, when you finished using it, uninstall it. Repeat the process for every 3 month.

 

I use Ashampoo Burning 8 - worth 20$ investment.

cheers ...

 

Well...buying the external hard drive is not really a problem. The question is whether I can hook it up directly to my TV to watch those films/ documentaries.

 

Thanks guys...I had no idea that transferring movies DVDs onto VCDs/ DVDs was such a problem. I always thought it was just a matter of copying the files over into the desired media and that would be it. Obviously, it is not. I will try out some of the suggestions you folks have made. If there are any more suggestions, then they would be most welcome too.

I just hope the process is easy enough and not very time consuming.

I'll start with Vista's DVD maker in the first instance.

 

Why don't you get something like WD TV ($100) and a external hdd to store all your movies. When you want to watch the movies, connect the external hdd to WD tv and just watch them. WD tv supports up to 1080P resolution.

 

I have never even heard of this thig. I'll look it up. Thanks.

 

WD TV is basically a HTPC without storage medium.

 

Yeah...I was checking it out....!

These are the supported file formats:

Video MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264), MTS, TP, TS

Subtitles SRT (UTF-8), SMI, SUB, , SSA

Audio MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital (AC-3), AIF/AIFF, MKA

Pictures JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG

Playlists PLS, M3U, WPL

File systems FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)


Under video I don't see VOB files...and since I am worse than a novice in these matters, is this omission a problem - some of my best WW2 documetaries are in this format!

Well...after a bit of checking I found that vob files are basically Mpeg 2 files...so if there is problem in playback, I am guessing that I could rename the file into mpeg and play them...what do you think?

 

VOB files should be MPEG2 for DVD and MPEG1 for VCD. Just change the extension from VOB to MPG and you'll be done. MPG is a container for MPEG2 and mpeg1 codec and is supported by WD TV.

 

Cool! Thanks. Got it. Will be ordering it today! This make the most sense. I'll just hook it up to a 1TB external drive I have got and make that my movie storage device!

+1 rep to you for this suggestion!

Cheers!

Edit: Why is the site not allowing me to add a rep to you?

 

I used this a few times. Try it out.

http://www.dvdflick.net/features.php

Check out home page on the bottom marked links..

 

Where are you going to order the WDTV from? What's the price?

BTW.. with custom firmware, you can add a wireless adapter inside WDTV so it plays your movie wirelessly through your network.

 

Probably from Comet for 89 pounds (thye have it in stock) or maybe from Amazon...but Comet looks cheaper!

Nope it will be from Amazon UK for 79 pounds!

 

Thanks. Will do. Looks good actually!

 

That's about 50% more expensive than in US.

 

Yeah...what to do...I don't know anyone who will ship any stuff to the UK and maybe it is better to buy local for support etc though that may not be a factor in this particular case.

Unfortunately, stuff seems to be very expensive in the UK - at least electronic stuff. But the good thing is that I will be going to Dubai and HK in the very near future - maybe I can pick it up from there - will (must) be cheaper....at least I hope so!

 

The cheapest place to buy these kind of electronics is probably in Canada.
E.G. 4GB of Corsair DDR2 800 CL4 ram on sale for $15CAD (about $10USD or $7Euro)
E.g. 320GB 7200RPM 2.5" Seagate hdd was on sale for $50CAD (about $35USD or $25 Euro. )

 

Plus if you still want to burn the movies to dvd in their native format you can still get an external dvd reader. That's probably what I'd do since dvd-r's still provide cheaper storage than hard drives.

 

Check out DVD Styler, it's free and has more features than DVD Flick, however, it is compatible with less input formats.

On another note, I recently used DVD Flick to burn a few videos I made for a school project and it worked flawlessly, I was going to use DVD Styler but it did not like the .mov quicktime files I fed it.

 

1TB hdd cost about $80-100USD. HDD is many times faster than DVD and is erasable. You have the option of organizing all your videos easily.

If you're filling dvds with 700MB movies, you'll can only fill the DVD up to 90% capacity or 6 movies per disk. 1TB of 700MB movies will take close to 250 disks to store. Assuming 25 cents per disk, that's $50.

Which one is better?

 

The problem with hard drives is that they are unpredictably unreliable, you never know when it might break down. DVD's tend to be more reliable and long lasting as long as they are properly used/stored.

If your going to use a hard drive to back up your files, consider getting two at least and mirroring them. And of course, you would still want DVD/Blu-Ray backups of those just in case.

 

For me. Dvd-r's. They're less expensive. It's not just the cost of the discs. Hard drives must either be powered all the time or you must spend more money for an external case. Organization may be as simple as a spreadsheet.

 

+1

I have all my DVDs ripped to desktop hard drives, and then backed up to portable hard drives.