in message
I appreciate your response.....what would you suggest I buy for best
copying
of a movie from my computer to a DVD? And what would you suggest for
making
the movies to begin with?
If you record using DVD-RAM discs:
Step 1: MPEG_Streamclip (demux .vro to .m2v video & .ac3 audio). A
free tool that can read .vro files. Found a couple others but were
trialware or crap. If you edit (shorten the movie) using the DVD-RAM
recorder itself, fix the timecode breaks (a menu choice) and select to
skip frames.
Step 2: InfoEdit (author DVD).
Step 3: DVD Shrink. If it requires any compression (it will tell
you), quality suffers. Use a larger DVD (double-layered), if your DVD
burner supports it.
If you record using DVD-R discs or from commercial DVDs:
Step 1: DVDFab DVD Decryptor (decrypt commercial DVD to files)
Step 2: DVD Shrink
Some of these tools will read .mpeg and other movie formats. You
never mentioned what was the source filetype for the movie, just that
somehow you "created a movie" which says nothing about the movie
itself.
While usually the above work okay by reading directly from the DVD to
get the movie, sometimes they get screwed up. Copy the DVD's files to
your hard disk and edit/process them from there.
Google for the above tools. RIAA and the movie industry don't want
anyone to have these tools. Yes, the copyright laws (in the US)
permit you to make backup copies but that doesn't mean it must be
easily and readily provided to you to make these backups.
I've also heard of CloneDVD (same source as CloneCD). Both were free
(at first and then payware) until Elaborate sold them to Slysoft
(because they grew fearful of the lawyer threats). I still have an
old copy of CloneCD (before you had to pay for it) but, I believe,
CloneDVD was payware when first released by Elaborate. Rather than
use DVDFab DVD Decryptor (free), you could use AnyDVD to get rid
protection and regional encoding for movies. The free stuff works for
me. Just check if you end up doing any compression at the step to use
DVD Shrink.