Feature
Article
by Bob Elgines
Colorado River Computer Club
This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization to which this user group belongs.
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Buying a DVD Recorder
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Well the prices are coming down, now under $300 and as low as $220, for a DVD recorder. The blank disks are now under $2.50 each in lots of ten or more. But beware, the great decision as to which format is still under debate, DVD-R or DVD+R! If you just wish to make videos either one should work in most DVD players made after the year 2000, but not all. Cheaper DVD-R disks and players will not work.
Support out there is very weak to almost none! Much time is needed to be invested like 4 to 10 hours to make a 2 hour video DVD, of which several programs require you to sit in front of your computer.
Most of the software is over priced and does not work without many problems and no support like "Video Studio 6" by Cyber. The best so far has been "MyDVD" by Sonic. Some of the suggestions listed below came from them.
The best input devices are: "USB Instant DVD" by ADS ($160), "Bungee DVD" by Pinnacle ($150), "DCS 100" ($170) and "DCS 200" by Dazzle ($230). They all come with software that have individual problems, and advertise "Fast, Easy & Fun", boy that is a huge JOKE! It's Slow, Hard, & Will drive you nuts.
If you cannot handle all of the suggestions (necessary evils) below, then don't get involved. I became one of their guinea pigs and I am about to throw it all in the circular file and call it a loss.
My ASUS computer is an Intel P3-866MHz, 256MB RAM, 60GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon 32MB video card, with the "USB Instant DVD" input device (I tried out the DAZZLE equipment, but it had big noise problems and they had NO support at all), and the VIVASTAR (LF311) DVD-R recorder. I have tried two operating systems (98SE and Me) and saw no difference, so went back to 98SE.
Start off with these suggestions on getting ready to record a DVD:
- Install at least 256 MB of RAM
- Disable the Screen Saver
- Disable the Hard Drive standby
- Disable the Hibernation option
- Disable the Network Time Server (XP)
- Disable Text to Speech (XP)
- Disable any scheduled tasks
- Do not increase Virtual Memory beyond Windows' recommended setting
- Close any other running applications
- Do not copy any large files while capturing
- Do not allow any remote activities, such as PC Anywhere or Timbuktu connections
- In XP, your hard drives should be formatted to NTFS (which has no files size limitations)
- You have at least 21GB available on a single drive
- You have the latest drivers for the following: DVD Rom, burner, CD-ROM and burner
- ú Your hard drives have been defragmented
- In particular, while capturing video, do not use your PC for any other activity. Video capture requires all your PC's processing power, and any action such as inserting a disc or receiving e-mail may cause errors in the captured video files.
- Your monitor resolution must be set to 1024x768 16- or 32-bit color
- You are running ASPI driver 4.6. No higher, no lower. If you are unsure, you can find out and download the driver: http://aspi.radified.com
- You are not running your machine in a RAID configuration
- Make sure you have the latest version of DirectX and WMP (a must)
- If your "Input digital device" is on USB, then remove all other USB external equipment
- You may also find it beneficial to enable DMA for all your drives.
There are DVD-RAM and DVD+RAM which allows you to save up to 9.6GB of data, but hard drives are much cheaper, like 20GB for $69.00 or lower. It is just not fast and easy as they have stated in their advertising!
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