Just a couple of questions

unclepercy

Electoral Member
Jun 4, 2005
821
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18
Baja Canada
Someone lasso me. I am out in the pasture. For several years, I made archive copies of DVDs very quickly and easily with X-Copy Platinum. Then, it suddenly quit working and became obsolete. I never had to delete anything I downloaded, and X-Copy cut right to the movie, skipping over the trailers. I had a top of the line HP Entertainment Center with 80 gig.

Now I have fallen out of the loop and wonder what current software has replaced X-Copy? I used to hang out at www.afterdawn.com and found it to be pretty helpful, but I think I am so far behind I'll never catch up. I now have a top of the line VAIO entertainment system with 200 gig. What software (Not NERO!) do you recommend for burning archive DVDs? Thanks.

Uncle
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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I got a bit of extra software with my new DVD burner, Does anyone know about Power DVD or Power Producer
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
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Toronto
Power DVD is great for viewing dvd movies on your pc. Hopefully they gave you a full version with your puchase, not a trial version. Power producer I believe is for creating your own dvd movies, it will alows you to import avi/mpeg2/wmv, then edit clips, combine them etc
 

#juan

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Aug 30, 2005
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Thanks yet again Durka

I think the best way I'm gonna learn is by doing. I'll probably screw up a few DVDs but they're cheap. My son downloaded and absolutely flawless version of one of the top renting movies apparently from a legal site. I would imagine that some of these sites are a little close to the line.
 

cdn_bc_ca

Electoral Member
May 5, 2005
389
1
18
Vancouver
If you are going to download movies or tv shows, I suggest you install PeerGuardian and use it in conjunction with your downloading. Other than that, you don't need it running all the time. It is free and blocks most sites that are controlled by the emm-pee-ayy-ayy and the arr-eye-ayy-ayy (the famous associations that can sue you out of existence). That last thing you want is to download a movie hosted by the them.

Cheers.
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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I've used Bit Comet to download a few movies. It seems to work allright but occasionally a movie is very dark. I think this is from the source..........if I download the same movie fron another source it will probably be okay.
 

temperance

Electoral Member
Sep 27, 2006
622
16
18
I bought xp via ebay.ca for 1/3 of the price of the retail ,no problems ,then I forgot (lost) the product code ---and Microscoft (for 15.00 ) gave me a new code ,they dont do it anymore ,but xp is still avaiable via ebay at much lower cost, it is OEM but Like I said 2 years now no problems
Would that be a solution ?:smilebox:
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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I'm really happy to read that. I paid $249.00 plus tax from Staples.....:?
 

temperance

Electoral Member
Sep 27, 2006
622
16
18
Sorry ,I didnt know I wouldnt have mentioned it ,Iam sorry pls right it off somewhere in taxes --lol

Why didnt the xp come with the puter you bought ?
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
10,385
129
63
Toronto
I've used Bit Comet to download a few movies. It seems to work allright but occasionally a movie is very dark. I think this is from the source..........if I download the same movie fron another source it will probably be okay.

Juan, anytime you download a movie which someone has compressed on your own, you face the risk of it being too dark, pixelated or audio/video sync issues. It all depends on what type of codec they compress the movie with. Thats why I usually just download the dvd image, that way it's identical as you would see it on a dvd, and you could burn it yo a dvd if you so wished.
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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Juan, anytime you download a movie which someone has compressed on your own, you face the risk of it being too dark, pixelated or audio/video sync issues. It all depends on what type of codec they compress the movie with. Thats why I usually just download the dvd image, that way it's identical as you would see it on a dvd, and you could burn it yo a dvd if you so wished.

That is interesting. Sounds like a long download. Does this mean I can burn it directly onto a disc with no further processing, compressing..etc.?
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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Durka

I'm downloading a DVD image right now.(over 4 gigs) This might not be the best time because it looks like it will take a month. I'll let it go for the rest of theday and see how it looks.
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
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Toronto
Durka

I'm downloading a DVD image right now.(over 4 gigs) This might not be the best time because it looks like it will take a month. I'll let it go for the rest of theday and see how it looks.

I usually queue up large download for overnight, doesn't affect your browsing etc that way. Are you using bit torrent?
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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I'm using Bit Comet as a client....downloading from isohunt. Not many connected peers or seeds but I hope that will improve. It doesn't seem to effect my browsing. I thoght I would let it go all day and all night...right now there is 22 hrs remaining.
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
10,385
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Toronto
If there are no active seeds for the file, it can take forever and a day to download. New movies download pretty fast, if it is an obscure or older title, results may vary.