DECENT DVD Writer/Cloner/Reader

I humbly bow to all you Geek Gods here at MajorGeeks, and request your input on a decent FREE DVD writer/cloner/reader!...........I have tried various ones with no real good results (Nero, DirectX), they ALL have had various nasty little issues, that I wish to avoid. So if you Video Guru’s could offer some advice it would be truly appreciated.
PS………am willing to pay for a good program, but would like to try it first.

 

Free
DVD Shrink to compress to a 4.7GB dvd
with
DVDDecrpter to rip to your hard drive

Pay (but with a trial version) (which I personally use, less steps then shrink)

AnyDVD runs in background
with
CloneDVD2 rips and compresses at the same time and writes to a 4.7GB

 

Thanks Komodo downloaded AnyDVD, CloneDVD2...............But as one Canuck to another the copies it produced will not play on my tv's DVD!!!!!!!!!!!! Gave copies to a friend to see if they will work on his DVD player.........Will post back
Thanks Again for the time you took, it's appreciated

 

Don't mention that you gave copies to a friend (even if they were your copies). It may get you banned from this site. Bazza

===

 

Sorry but they were just copies of a promotional ad that the friend gave me to watch (not copyrighted), just wanted to try the software. Could not stand to be banned from this site, took to long to find. Apologies to all the Geek Gods, this humble mortal will be more careful in the future.

 

what burner and what type of dvds? +r -r and brand?

 

Using anyDVD, CloneDVD2 on Sony DVD+R, but it maybe the three year old TV's DVD or the original DVD I am trying to copy from??????
Again Thanks for all the input, haven't solved the problem yet, but glad to know that it isn't just my gray matter working on the problem. I will post back when I have it solved.

 

Personally, I use two programs that have never failed. To Copy the DVD "DVD Shrink" Which will make your DVD an .iso image. With that, I then upload the .iso into "ULead DVD MovieFactory 2" and burn the disc image. I'm positive that DVD Shrink is free, as for ULead, well that came free with something else that I bought once, so I'm not sure of it's cost. However, I'm sure that you can find multiple other programs that will burn an .iso image file onto any type of DVD without any hiccups.

Best of Luck.

 

does the origanal one work in the dvd player?

and i meant whats your dvd burner? (e.g. Mine is a Benq dw1655)

 

Yes to the first
DVD burner Aopen DUW1616/AR DVD+R-RW Dual Layer+CDR-RW

 

Ian sorry I should have addressed your post as well, in the last post.
YES I have tried to write to an .iso Image file but both programs gave me the same results................ Nada
Thanks for the good wish's

 

Hi BCGray, personally I use DVDShrink.
DVD Shrink will only use Nero to record directly to the burnable DVD. Nero might have come bundled with your burner.

Some of your older set-top DVD players cannnot playback DVD+R disks, in that case then you need to buy DVD-R disks and use them. One of my friends has this problem. I suggest using Verbatim disks or Maxell.

 

If you go to this site and have the model number of your set-top DVD player you can often find a hack (legal imho) for your DVD player to remove regional coding and make it more acceptable to copied DVDs':

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?select=Philips+DVP+642

and their home site:

www.videohelp.com

 

Thanks Puppywunder58, went out and got some DVD-R's and will try, never thought of that, as most machine will take both. But usually it is the simple things we forget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Bold Eagle great sites thanks for the heads up

Busy right now, but will post back when I get a chance to try those suggestions.........Once again Thanks to ALL who came to my aid, and Thanks to Major Geeks for a great site, best of its kind