Okay, not one HUNDRED discs, but you know what I mean, a HUGE set trade, like say 40-60 discs. Anyone here ever planned or actually made a huge disc trade like that? I would like to someday, but I don't even have that many discs at the moment :lol: Any of you traders into those kinds of trades?

I have and will trade that many discs at a time. It helps to be set up to take on a trade with that many discs. It helps to have traded with the person before so you know what to expect too. If you ever decide to do a big trade like that, some advice, traders that take a long time to get a 10 disc set to you probably are not set up to do big trades. I have done a big disc trade with a few traders outside of the country that have the discs to me in 6 days from when the trade is finalized, then there are other traders that are in the US that take a month to send me 15 discs.

A 100+ disc trade with 5 duplicators is not a big deal to get done. If you only have one burner then its rough, nothing I would want to do.

If you only have one burner..

Guilty, that would be me :blush: lol, it took me 5 days to duplicate 25 discs, which was the hugest trade I have done so far.

I only have 1 burner, and when I have some free time, 100 discs isn't too bad if it is all I have to do. My first ever trade with Micheal Randazzo was for 90+ discs, he shipped in like 3 days, insane. Just completed another 90+ disc trade with another trader and went smoothly.

Right now I have 2 trades lined up, 1 for 46 discs and 1 for 50 discs. It does get hectic with trades that big, but usually worth it.

It does get hectic with trades that big, but usually worth it.

Defenetely :nod:

that is way over my limit. since i got burned from two trades with 12 discs each.if i haven't traded with you before the limit will be three.

I just did a trade with someone that was finishing up a 212 disc trade. I thought that would be a record, but he said the guy he was trading with has done a 600 disc trade!!

staffino

lol when it gets that big might as well do hd trades..

LOL!

im working on 1 burner too but when i dont have to work i can burn a lot quickly.. would be easyer to have one of those hitech automatic duplicators though that load themselfs.. i need a robotic duplicator..

100 Disc trades are too much for me.
:eek: :talk: :eek: :talk: :eek:
1- its a lot of wear and tear on my burner in a short period of time.
2-you want to get done with burning quickly, that many can make you feel flustered or more eaisly make mistakes
3-If something goes wrong, replacing them can become confusing

Overall its just too much for me.
I like to keep things about 35.00

SHipping adds up and gosh forbid the package gets lost.

If I send Lamont 10 discs and they get lost, sucks but I can handle it, but if I send Loren 100 discs and they get lost- it would just about kill me.

To have to redo that many, reship etc.

I try to trade and ship in ammounts I can lose.

Plus if you do a huge trade like that and find out your media is incompatable-
YIKES!

Slow and steady wins the race for me!

:eek: :talk: :eek: :talk: :eek:

wear and tear on a burner

interesting topic

newegg.com has nec 3550a burners for $35.99 with free shipping

they will burn umteen thousand discs

even if it would only burn 2000 discs

thats under 2 cents a disc

more likely they will do 10 000

so 1/3 cents per disc for drive replacement costs

even the most frugal person can afford a penny or two for a drive


the key to the size of a trade to make is your devotion to the hobby

only take on what you can handle

if you wanna 100 disc trade

i can get it done and shipped the next day, with ease

the next person may handle a 10 disc and take a week

dont try and over extend

thats the important issue

i like making large trades to save on postal costs

10 discs and 70 discs-- cost the same $4.05 for me to ship

7 trades at 10 discs each, costs me almost $30

plus all the extra packing time and mailing time

its simple math

100 discs in 1 day and what is it that you use to burn with?

I ONLY make big trades (50-200 at a time) these days, and only with a handful of people that I know can handle and send out in a timely manner. I choose to work this way mostly because of the shipping costs involved.

Largest single trade I've done has been about 25-30 discs. I have zero desire to do larger trades than that. The people who've contacted me with 100+ disc "orders" immediately drop to the bottom of the list of people I'd consider trading with as a result. If I've never traded with someone and they contact me first, unless they have something that's specifically listed on my want list, I won't do more than a disc or two at most.

The postage costs don't bother me so much as the time involved. I feel like I'm spending too much time on the hobby as it is right now, what with all the shows I'm recording and the shows I'm transferring to disc. I never worried about commercials on tape, but I'm taking them out on disc, so I'm spending a lot more time on my collecting hobby than I have in the past. Having to constantly swap out discs in the duplicator every 10 minutes or so to get a big trade done in a timely manner just doesn't appeal to me. When I'm creating discs, once I have all the commercials edited out, I set up the recorder to build the disc and walk away and do other things for two hours.

I'll consider a larger trade done in chunks, however - if we both agree there are like 50 discs we want to swap ultimately, I'd prefer to do it in installments, so I can get a batch done and sent to the other person and vice versa. That way, if something happens in the interim, there's at least been a good faith effort to do the trade, and if we need to reschedule the balance, both of us have benefitted from the trade so far. I care for elderly relatives, and stuff happens that prevents me from spending any time on the hobby on occasion, so I need to have that flexibility.

I'm in the final stages of completing a 700 Disc trade. I posted out the first 630+ discs within the first ten days of arranging the trade. The remaining discs took longer as they needed to be created and they were sent about a month after.

Almost all of my trades are in the 100-200 disc ammount now-a-days. I'm fine with it.
I did a couple of 400 discs trades before christmas also.

Its not a drain on my writers, and when they do die, I just go to the shop and get a new one. (Note, when a writer dies in a dongle box, it will still work in a pc, so don't throw it away just yet. Its all about the writing formula, a donglebox works diffrently to a pc. And lowering the write spped can also bring a writer back to life also).
But when you concider the price of a writer, compared to the number of disc you'll get in trade created by it, theres no comparison. To buy the discs you'll be getting at shop price, is a mere fraction of the price of the writer.
So if you really use this as an excuse not to do a big trade, then theres no hope.

As for the trade itself, I have to know the trader well. If its a new trader to me, then they send first. Which surprising has happened with some of the 150 disc trades!
But I enjoy them, as I get tons of new shows to watch, which will keep me entertained until retirement.
Yes, I hate the staying up till 1am running off disc after discs, every day for weeks upon end, but thats my choice, and its only temporarily. I don't have to work like that, i choose to so that they can recieve their half of the trade sooner.

And 100 discs cost about £20.00 ($38.00) which is nothing. I concider this hobby 'gambling'. But where the odds are better.
On some occasions, your going to strike out and lose some discs to a bad-trader, but for the majority of the time, your going to come out on top. The cost of the gamble (the discs) is small to what you'll get back in return. Once you get the shows you traded for, you not only have new shows to watch, but new shows to add to your list, and trade with again. You get so much more in return for the little you have to send.

Anyway, hope that helps.

ku7uk

What's a donglebox?

I agree, it all comes down to choices. Which is why it's a good idea to at least look at a trader's trading terms (if they've posted them) first before contacting them with a shopping list, to see how they've chosen to work in the hobby. When a trader posts something I'm interested in, the first thing I look at before contacting them is their want list to see if I might have something they'd want in return, then their trading terms if they've posted them.

I don't deal in rips at all - I have one set that's a rip, and I didn't realize it was before I traded for it, so it's not on my list of available shows. So trading is on top of my retail purchases.

Like Deb, I feel I'm spending too much time on this hobby, right now. I've built up my collection quite a bit recently (thank you to those who've helped - you know who you are! :wave: :banana: ) and need to go through a couple of stacks of discs & catalog them. (I mean, what's the point of having the stuff, if you don't remember you have it or can't find it when you want to watch it?) I'm also recording several shows and doing some authoring as well. Plus, I'd like to WATCH some of my new acquisitions! :lol: :lol: :lol: So I try to keep my trading down to 1 or 2 at a time with maybe a 3rd one in negotiation. It also depends upon WHAT I'm trading out. I'm more apt to do a larger trade when all I have to do is make copies of DVDs. But if it's something that's not yet transferred from VHS or needs to be authored, that takes more of my time & more of my computer's time & will go more slowly.

I really prefer trades in the 1-30 disc size. As mentioned earlier, if the package gets lost, damaged or there's a compatibility issue, it's less discs to have to replace. And there are not too many people who have enough shows I'd want to warrant a larger trade, at this point.

Postage doesn't bother me, either, if someone has something I really want. It's not unusual for me to trade one 30 or 60 minute show for another, if it's a show I'm looking for. I once traded a 30 minute show for a 7 minute segment of a show. Eventhough the 7 minute segment was only 7 minutes of a longer show, it's the only part of the show that's known to be in existance & very hard to come by. It was certainly worth the trade, to me.

If its someone I know and have good trades with
100+ discs is fine
b/c i know what to expect

but if its someone i have never dealt with i avoid big trades
EVEN IF THEY SEND First
b/c i have had people before send me 100 or 150 discs and they are all messed up and useless
and they get mad when i tell them i wont trade for junk like that and just send it back uncopied

so the moral is, know who u deal with?

i have had the same poor luck on 5 disc trades

poor discs are not limited to 100 disc trades

they occur in every size trade


for those who are afraid they spent too much time in the buring, then drink one less capachino a week and by a duplicator

ebay has single targets for under $200 shipped

they will handle between 4 and 8 discs an hour, depends on the size of course

just an hour an day yield 30 to 50 per week

too much $$, what did you pay for that slow computer you have, now this looks like a bargain doesnt it???


i have a wire serving cart from sams club--its industrial strength

i have some dupers on the cart

it rolls into the tv room with ease

i can watch my favorite tv shows and run discs at the same time

not tied to the office

watch a movie and in that 2 hours, you could easily burn 8 to 15 discs with one duplicator

get a two target machine and have another set for the next trade, in no extra time---

dont just sit and complain that _______ will not mess with your 10 disc trades

make yourself avaible for some action

no one says you need to do a 100 or more

but, ill pass on 10 disc trades all day long. due to cost, and time involved in messing around

most of my trades are made from my stock shelf

almost every trade can be shipped the next day

ok lets say u have a set of 10-15 discs just an example number and all of the stuff is dual layer.. can u change it to single layer with a duplicator??? or how do you go about doing that? that is an issue i have at the moment. a lot of things that i trade right now i have to convert with the computer.. but i would really like to buy a duplicator.. what are you currently using right now and which one do u reccomend 500$ range or so.. i mean my dream is to have a robotic one but i dont have like 3000$ to spend on one.. soo what is recommended to use???? i would like a place with a warrenty.. ebay garrentys me if i get ripped off tuff s***

Well some traders only have one duplicator (like me), as for other traders may have up to 5 duplicators *cough*scottdvd*cough* :lol: ;)

well can someone tell me name, brand, store, etc for a good one??

I only do about one trade a month or so and everyone I have done is always a small trade. I think the most I did was a 6 disc trade.

i hope i dont cause any fights here with this question but i was just thinking about how un reasonable some people can be it all goes back to my one and so far only attempt at trading it happened way back in 1993 and i was trying to get some early hee haw eps and at that time a hhad a second vcr so it was simple for me to set up trades . anyway i saw an ad in a collector mag. and he said that he had 7000 shows and welcomed all trades so i get on the phone with this guy and i knew i was heading for disaster from the second i started talking to him first i asked him what sort of shows he had meaning of course what type of shows did he specialise in ie comedy drama or whatknot well instead of saying i mostily deal in such and such type of show he was very snippy and said WHAT DD YOU WANT ME TO DO DO YOU WANT ME TO NAME ALL 7000 shows i said no and then explained what i meant and so he asked me what i had for trade and then gave me a whole list of shows he wanted that i didnt have and he kept getting madder and madder at me because i didnt have them and then he asked me how long ive had a vcr and i told him that i got my first one in 1984 he then talked to me like i was a stupid idot and asked me well if you have had a vcr that long then how come you dont have any of the shows i asked about i then had to explain to him that i was not really a trader and that i was tot going to spend good money and waste tape watching and taping things that i didnt like he then wanted to aurgue about how i shouldnt be so unreasonable so then he asked me if i had any gong show eps i said yes he then asked me if i had any with gene gene the dancing machine i said yes he said great because he wanted one i said great thinking i was home free on the hee haw eps but then he asked me if it was an nbc airing i said no that it was from usa network he then said forget it he then asked me if i had any network airings of game shows i said that i had the last week of the richard dawson family feud from abc and as a bonus i had a few synde feuds too he said great i want those . again i made the giant mistake of thinking that this moron might not be as bad as i thought until he asked me4 what proof i had that these feud eps were the last week of abc eps i then started to think that this guy might not be all there but i kept my cool and explained that i was sitting at home watching thhe eps off of my tv as i taped them .bleieve it or not he asked how i was sure that they were the last week of eps and how do i know that you didnt tape a different set of ep and maybe you just thought it was the last week. so he said he didnt want these ether but i kept trying to please this weirdo so then i asked him if he would trade some of my hee haw eps for the ones i wanted he then goes on a rant about how no he dosent want any more hee haw eps how much he hates hee haw and everything about hee haw so after a calm him down i try one more thing that im sure will work earler he had told me that he collected all norman lear shows as long as they were complete network broadcasts with comm. and at that time i had some jeffersons eps with comms billboards the whole nine yards and so i told him i had these eps and he said no that he didnt want these ether finally i had had enough of this guy and i said but you just told me that you collected all norman lear eps as long as they were network telecasts he said to me but i dont like the jeffersons. well enough was enough i slammed and i mean SLAMMED THE PHONE DOWN so hard it could be heard in 2 states well i have plenty of old hee haw eps now and ive made some wonderful trades here at so and other places too life is too short to dael with pains in the a;; like the man i just discribed and im sorry if my story went wayyy too long but the question i really have for all of you is have you ever had a trader not just here but anywhere be so unreasable please share your horror stories ive always wondered if anyboddy else had an experience like mine

Disc trades are the bomb! I hate VHS, it's so old and nobody wants to do trade tapes nowandays.

im so sorry for ruining this therad with my own therad im not sure how this hapened

im so sorry for ruining this therad with my own therad im not sure how this hapened

its a little more civilized now

the better prepared traders have web sites and you can sit and look for hours and pick what you would like

some folks even list them by single episode

shipping is quite cheap, compared to vhs trades

ok lets say u have a set of 10-15 discs just an example number and all of the stuff is dual layer.. can u change it to single layer with a duplicator??? or how do you go about doing that? that is an issue i have at the moment. a lot of things that i trade right now i have to convert with the computer.. but i would really like to buy a duplicator.. what are you currently using right now and which one do u reccomend 500$ range or so.. i mean my dream is to have a robotic one but i dont have like 3000$ to spend on one.. soo what is recommended to use???? i would like a place with a warrenty.. ebay garrentys me if i get ripped off tuff s***


mine will burn dual sided disc, but not if they are copy coded

for $500, a 7 target is avaible

a single target is about $200

only advice i would add is --dont buy anything sony

you will learn why if you do

go on ebay and do the old search, spend some time reading

what brand is yours??????

what do you mean dual sides discs?? as in side a and side b?? i mean dual layer like dvd-9.. make dvd-9 into dvd-5

what the heck are you guys talking about?? :confused:

lol ok ussually when there is retail sets or retail movies.. they make them on discs bigger then the normal 4.7 or whatever the normal is. they make it around 6-8gb instead. thats what dual layer is its having up to twice as big on 1 side. dual sided is like say. you get a movie.. and on 1 side its wide screen and the other side is full screen.. thats dual sided.. has dvd on both sides.. there wont be information on 1 side and a picture on the other..

Dual layer recording allows DVD-R and DVD+R discs to store significantly more data, up to 8.5 Gigabytes per side, compared to 4.7 Gigabytes for single-layer discs. its like those vhs tapes that hold 8 hours instead of 6 or whatever. Dual Layer disks are DVD’s that have multiple layers. These layers can contain over four hours of information on a single side of the disk. All this means is that more information can be held on a dual layer DVD so that you can get more out of the DVD.

Oh I get it, so your saying you can't duplicate retail DVD's with the average 4.7 GB DVD+/-R's?

what brand is yours??????

Loren uses the one he talked about earlier that newegg has on sale. I use the same ones. Here is a link for the lazy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152059

Someone mentioned a 700 disc trade. I really doubt at this point I could ever find that many discs from one trader that I want. What I mean is between me and the person I am trying to trade with both picking 700 discs from the other person. I sometimes trade 500 discs in a week but it is from multiple traders, never just one person.

soo u just use it in your computer?? i mean if your doing huge trades whats the point of having one on your computer? or is this like something you put in the duplicator when the dvd burners stop working??

Oh I get it, so your saying you can't duplicate retail DVD's with the average 4.7 GB DVD+/-R's?


ya i wanted to know if u can do that with a duplicator.. like with the pc i just use clonedvd2 and it just automatically converts a dual layer to a standard 4.7..

I would think you'd use a dupilcator for discs already shrunk to fit 4.7 GBs, not a retail DVD, but what do I know? staffino

I have not tried to duplicate a retail disc onto a regular 4.7 GB DVD-R yet.

What is the best brand?

Memorex always was and always will be the best brand for me!

Oh I get it, so your saying you can't duplicate retail DVD's with the average 4.7 GB DVD+/-R's?

This can be done on a computer with a program that compresses the data. Although the data is compressed, it's not noticeable to most people. I backup my retail discs this way all the time & store the original. That way if the disc gets damaged (ever drop one of those puppies onto a ceramic tile floor?), I don't have to go out & buy a new set.

Ah. I was trying to figure out what he was talking about - a single drive. Got one of those in my laptop, and my duplicator can be slaved as just a burning drive rather than two drives, source and target.

I think the lesson from all of these posts in this thread is that not everyone has the same capabilities or desire to trade on a large scale - or on a small scale. And that kind of stuff is good to know before you start discussing a trade with someone you've never traded with before.

I am really only interested in the bigger trades, 50 to whatever, I just got done doing a 3 trade installment with JD for 650 disk's and all went very well.

If I am offered 2 or 3 disk's I will pass everytime. Most sets I want are more then 3 disk's and I want all at the same time, not done in parts. Thanks and God Bless

Michael

a little background

duplicators are not computers

they just read a disc and then burn the same disc

they will not shrink, remove protection or anything else

so theres no sense in trying to run a 8.4 gig disc

since they are all copy protected from the studio


some dupers have a usb or a firewire port

extra cost of course

this allows the use of an external hard drive, and thus doesnt require the use of --original discs to read from

much faster this way


some dupers have the option of a built in hard drive

only useful if you run the same discs over and over


in theory, you could have all your collection on hard drives and just switch the cables to change sets


dupers are not the end all solution to all of your trade needs

some discs just dont duplicate for what ever reason

i have had big time traders send me sets that they couldnt duplicate

and i got them to run

i have 5 different brands of drives on one of my computers

and several helpful pieces of software to aid in the duplication process

dupers are not magic, they have flaws that need to be overcome as well


another thing to consider is that just because you have the means to make a bunch of discs, that doesnt warranty you will be able to trade

why, the basic flaw with most peoples collection is they have the same items that the next 43 folks have

i had the same problem when i started as well

i over came this by --finding--3 good sets that werent in normal trade circles

i traded those three sets about 20 times each

and built 45 discs into about 1000

yes it can be done

but not by grabbing the smurfs and retails of buffy and the like

yes i did purchase the three sets i started with

and yes they cost me some coin

but nothing was going to happen if i stayed with rental copies and what i found on cable tv

i get numerous lists from well wishing people that would like to get into my list

they are basicaly the same

worry less about how many items you have on the list

worry more about what those items are

perhaps its a better choice to work on the disc selection, than how many you can make of the smurfs, etc

its not a contest to get the most discs

the idea is to get the ones you want to watch

ok thanks got some usefull info out of what u just said.. whats up with everyones obsessions with the smurfs???

Ha, I have no desire for any smurfs at all :lol:

But what I want to know is this:

I read on some traders trading websites, and on their trading rules and policies pages, I sometimes read something like this:

"I only use DVD+R, do not request a DVD-R for it will do no good"

or

"I only use DVD-R I do not use DVD+R at all so don't even bother asking for one"

I don't get it, what's the big deal if it's plus or minus? :confused:

They may have older equipment that can't read either plus or minus, or their burning drive is one or the other. You see more multi-function drives today, but some brands go with one or the other. I think it's a matter of licensing to some extent, since different companies own the patents on plus and minus.

having a computer with a dvd burner drive is 100 % needed

i get discs sometimes, like loren that will not dupe
no matter what
the dupers fail on them
BUT if i use my computer dvd drive to burn a copy-- the COPY will dupe just fine

dupers can be finnicky and can be picky, so it is important to have a computer drive to deal with the hard to dupe issues

ALSO The Smurfs set---- its just an inside joke--- it seems the 14 disc set of THE SMURFS seems to be a set that A LOT of new traders get for some reason, and they all seem to want to swap it to me, ha ha ha

starting off trading can be hard, b/c u get stuff and then realize everyone has it, or most people--- like me, do not trade for copies of retails 99% of the time

best advice is to find some stuff noone has, it CAN be done, i find rare old sets all the time, sometimes on VHS and then i have to edit and redo them on dvd
i know traders who get stuff from old film transfers
and some people, like me taped a LOTTTTTT of stuff off tv back in the 1980s
it can be done, just takes time and frustration :wave:

100 Disc trades are too much for me.
:eek: :talk: :eek: :talk: :eek:
1- its a lot of wear and tear on my burner in a short period of time.
2-you want to get done with burning quickly, that many can make you feel flustered or more eaisly make mistakes
3-If something goes wrong, replacing them can become confusing

Overall its just too much for me.
I like to keep things about 35.00

SHipping adds up and gosh forbid the package gets lost.

If I send Lamont 10 discs and they get lost, sucks but I can handle it, but if I send Loren 100 discs and they get lost- it would just about kill me.

To have to redo that many, reship etc.

I try to trade and ship in ammounts I can lose.

Plus if you do a huge trade like that and find out your media is incompatable-
YIKES!

Slow and steady wins the race for me!

:eek: :talk: :eek: :talk: :eek:





You are so right about NUMBER 2

plus or minus

even brand new sony family dvd players only play minus

for example the toshibas, i got one for free recently, and of cousre i didnt look at it since the word free was involved

and it wouldnt paly a plus at all

2 quickies

1. EVERY PLAYER I buy now, i make sure they play ALL types, +, - VCD, anything--- most players i own are ALL REGION Players that play anything from the whole planet

2. i wouldnt own a SONY dvd player if it was FREE, they have all sorts of issues and are junk as far as im concerned

i have found that bigger trades have no more mistakes than smaller ones

for instance if i use a good duper and good media, and do a 200 disc trade
the # of bad discs is very small, MOST trades i do have ZERO bad discs, but occasionally some do happen, BUT that is rare, since i use a verify process that helps pick out errors

this is somewhat of a myth

there are some traders here who i have swapped over 100 discs with easy and 99% of the time, there are NO bad discs on either side

BUT sometimes on a 10 disc trade a bad disc or 2 pops up

BUT that is just how it goes, some discs are duds and dont burn right, and sometimes errors happen, BUT the # of discs in the trade has NOTHING to do with that at all, i have had VHS traders send me a 4 vhs tape trade, and i get 3 tapes with bad tracking (not u tvcollector, dont worry :crazy: ), so it doesnt matter how big the trade is as long as 3 things happen, 1. u use good machines, 2. u use good media, 3. the person who RECEIVES the discs has a good player to use (if u have a sony player, u can expect problems)

100% agreed :nod:

What programs do you guys use to create your homeade tv show dvds?

Well, you know, 100 discs at a time is very efficient if you're dealing with an established trader who is well known. But if the trader you're dealing with is not well known, or doesn't have a solid reputation, boy, I would sure NOT recommend sending 100 discs first.
Sending large numbers of discs per trade always seems to take me a lot longer than doing smaller trades 10 or 15 discs at a time. The problem for me always involves hunting down the various sets, which although I've organized them well tend to get out of order very quickly. The more I pull discs out of boxes to duplicate them, the more easily they get out of order, or placed next to the computer, or next to the DVD player, or anywhere but where they're supposed to be.
DVD duplicators in my experience burn about one bad disc out of 40 or 50, so in a typical 50 disc batch I expect to get at least one unplayable or uncopyable DVD if the discs are done on a bulk duplicator. These kinds of errors are undetectable except that the bad DVDs just don't play.
Duplication with a computer usually takes longer but in my experience has a much lower error rate, perhaps 1 in 200 bad discs. The computer will usually tell you when there's a bad burn too, so you'll know you have to do it over again.
Really, smaller trades are much better for me, though they cost a little more in postage. But the postage isn't much. We're talking $4.50 to mail 15 or 20 discs as opposed to $5 to mail 50 discs. You're only saving about $4. That's not a huge amount of money to save on mailing, so I strongly prefer to do multiple smaller trades.

Yes, I do agree. If it's a newbie, I don't like trading big.

What programs do you guys use to create your homeade tv show dvds?

I started out with Nero 6 Ultra but quickly outgrew it. Most of the time, I now use DVD-Lab Pro. I really like it. It gives you greater flexibility with the menu options. But once in awhile, I still have to rely upon Nero. IE, I was having problems loading the audio for a show into DVD-Lab (eventhough the MPG played fine w/audio) & ended up using Nero for that. But I'm going to try ripping it from the Nero disc to see if I can get it into DVD-Lab Pro, that way & make the disc I REALLY want to make. Nero is also nice when you've got PAL files & want to convert them to NTSC.

KristinHerreraFan asked:
"What programs do you guys use to create your homeade tv show dvds?"

There are 3 kinds of programs you have to use, encoding programs and authoring programs and burning programs, so not sure which one you mean. I used to do everything the hard way and capture to the hard drive of my computer and then encode the video and then author the DVDs but that just took too long.

Now I just record everything on a DVD recorder and rip the DVD-R/W to my computer hard drive and cut it with Cuttermaran, a great little mpg cutting program, and then author the mpg file into a DVD. Very often I don't even use menus, especially if it's an out of print movie recorded from digital cable TV, or some TV show without commercials from the BBC.

Anyway, the encoding programs I used to use are the ones everyone uses, TMPGenc and Mainconcept. Interestingly, Mainconcept runs about twice as fast as TMPGenc and yields smaller mpg files and there's no real visible difference between the two, so I mostly wound up using Mainconcept to encode into mpeg-2. I use an old obsolete program called Spruce Up to author the DVDs. It's very limited but works OK for what I need to do. It won't even let you import an mpa audio track, only WAV or ac3 audio. But since I record everything on a DVD recorder nowadays it's all in ac3 audio anyway so it's no big. I use VSO's CopyToDVD software to burn the img files from Spruce Up. After Nero went to version 6 it got buggy and I stopped using it, too many problems. Nero 5.5.x whatever was really great but I could never get 5.5.10 or whatever I had to work on my Windows 2000 computer so I dumped Nero for VSO, a French company that has some really great burning software. I've heard really good things about a company called Sonic with their RecordNow burning software but I haven't tried it yet. VSO's CopyToDVD seems to work great for me. My homemade DVDs even play on X boxen so VSO seems to do the job.

The website www.videofaq.com has excellent info about the best software to use to encode, to author, and to burn. All-in-one software doesn't work too well in my experience. Either you get crummy encodes, or the authoring capacbilities are too limited, or it burns non-compliant DVDs like DVD-Lab tends to do. Lord Smurf knows mostly everything you need to know about encoding and authoring and burning DVDs, so you could do a lot worse than look at www.videofaq.com. You could also take a look at www.videohelp.com and check out the HOWTO guides, and also look at www.doom9.org for their guides, although doom9 tends to center more around divx.

There are a bunch of different proggies you can use to encode and all of them are about equally good -- Canopus Procoder, TMPGenc, Mainconcept, CCE lite or whatever it's called. For authoring DVDs, Spruce Up or Ulead DVD Workshop 2 or the authoring stuff that's built into the latest version of Ulead Media Studio Pro works equally well. [Maybe because Ulead did both MSP 7 and DWS 2. :-)] For burning DVDs, from what I've heard, DVD Decrypter and VSO's CopyToDVD and Sonic's RecordNow work about equally well.

The latest Nero has some bugs. From what I've heard DVD-Lab Pro has some bugs. ImageTool is known to have bugs. MyDVD and DVDIt! Pro are all-in-one proggies that are kind of limited, but they seem to work OK if you just want to do basic DVDs without anything fancy.

lol I just use iDVD and its only one step :lol: