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HOW TO "BACKUP" YOUR
DVDs "NOW"!
(a.k.a. *I hate waiting.*)
BY: Goodspeed
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Hello
all. Many of you are familiar with
such software DVD "BACKUP" programs such as FLASK DVD, and DVD 2 MPEG
(among others). While they work
well when configured properly, used in conjunction with OTHER software, a LARGE
hard drive, and ass-U-me-ing you have the PROPER "CODECS" installed,
they can take anywhere from 4-24 hrs to complete their task. To me, this is UNACCEPTABLE. Like many of you, I want it NOW. TODAY! This INSTANT!!!
Are you with me? I thought
you would be. Let's carry on,
shall we?
I
came to write this article, due to the interest generated in the OCN
forum. If you haven't been there
you ought to check it out. It can,
at times, be quite, shall I say entertaining. :-) It seems
that MANY of you are searching for a FAST, and EASY way to "BACKUP"
your DVDs. Hell, some of you just
want the DAMN thing to WORK. I
know, I know. I have played with
MANY "SOFTWARE" programs over the years, and have come to realize
that MOST of them can be made to work with SOME of your DVDs. I have still not found a software
program that is REAL QUICK and EASY to use, AND works with ALL of my DVDs. If any of you have a REAL GOOD method
of doing this, PLEASE email me and let me know your recipe. "So what am I supposed to do
now?" you ask. Well, keep
reading.
About
a year ago, I was at a friends house.
We planned on an ALL DAY fragfest of QII, SHOGO, and UNREAL. After about 5 straight hours of
MAIMING, KILLING, and GIBS, we decided to take a break and give our eyes a
rest. So, what to do, what to
do? "Lets watch a
movie." he said. He turned on
his T.V., popped a "DVD" disk in to his PC, and hit GO. About an hour in to T2, I asked when he
had purchased his NEW DVDrom for his PC.
I am quite the DVD buff, and owned a PC DVDrom myself. He said that he hadn't. I then asked how he was playing a DVD
on his PC. He said he wasn't. Hmmmm. Now some of you are probably thinking the same thing that I
was at this time. He didn't own a
DVD player, not even a stand alone one.
I came to the conclusion that it must be a "BOOTLEGGED" copy
from someone else. Boy, was I
wrong. Curious? Yeah, so was I.
He
explained to me that between his families movie watching, and entertaining
guests, his VHS tapes were getting QUITE the workout. I must say, he does have quite a sUpreme entertainment
center. In fact, he had to go out
and purchase duplicates of some movies, just because the TAPE(s) began to show
noticable wear. In an effort to
keep his QUITE LARGE monetary investment in his eXtensive VHS tape collection
from going SOUTH for the winter, he decided to make "BACKUP"
copies. This way, he can enjoy his
investment by watching his favorite movie whenever he wants, and NOT have to
worry about depleting the VALUE, or QUALITY of the original. What a NOVEL idea. I asked how it worked, and inquired as
to how his "BACKUPS" looked SOOOO GOOD. My copies usually had this fading in and out of lightness
and darkness, usually accompanied with a tinge of red. Anyone who has ever tried to COPY a VHS
with Macrovision knows what I mean.
"That's EASY." he said.
Hmmm.
I
was hooked. Whatever it was,
however much it cost, I didn't care.
I HAD to have it. You see,
I had played with MANY "SOFTWARE" programs, trying to get GOOD
results. Sometimes it worked. Other times, my PC just ran ALL night
for NOTHING. It was
FRUSTRATING. I explained my
eXhaustive eXperience with DVD backups to my friend. When he was done laughing, he began to show me how he backed
up his VHS tapes. This is where I
came to get the information I am about to share with you now.
It
was such a novel idea. Why the
hell didn't I think of this?
"How long does it take?" I asked.
"How long is your movie?" he replied.
"About an hour and a half." I said, not
realizing his was a rhetorical question.
He indulged.
"About an hour and a half." he said, with a sly
grin on his face.
He then began to show me his technique for backing up his
movies to a CDr. All this in the
same amount of time it takes to watch the movie. And as a bonus, you can WATCH the movie at the same time you
BACK it up. "WOW!" I
said. "HOLY FREAKING
WOW!" "Do you think that
would work for a DVD?" I asked.
"I don't see why not." he replied. So with the DVDrom in MY PC, we did one right then and
there. In about an hour and a
half. :-)
I
must tell you that from MY eXperience, I have come to use a specific
combination of PC parts. These
parts work best for ME. You may
have different parts that will work just as well, or better than the parts that
I have. I have done this with ONE
PC, it works just FINE. I do,
however, have MANY older PC parts lying around, so I put them to GOOD use. I now do this with TWO PCs. Not because I HAVE to, but because I
can. I will NOT list irrelevant
parts such as motherboards, Ram, power supplies etc.. I will, however, say that if you use a SHIT soundcard, you
will get SHIT sound. This goes for
all parts involved. Catch my
drift? Here is what "I"
use:
PC#1 The DVD "PLAYER"
*One DVDrom
2x 4x 8x 16x or 500x, it DOESN't matter how FAST it is, all it has to do
is PLAY the DVD. Got it?
Creative 8x works just fine.
*One Video card with HARDWARE DVD support and S-VHS
output. That is SUPER VHS OUTPUT
for the hearing impared. I use an
ATI Rage Fury 32meg. It may not
play games at the FASTEST framerates, but for this, it is sUpreme. No, your Voodoo3 3000 does NOT have
HARDWARE DVD support. I don't care
WHAT it says on the box.
Analog output will NOT work here.
Remember that Macrovision stuff?
Nuff said.
Ati Rage Fury has a purpose after all. :-)
*Instead of a videocard with Hardware DVD support, you can
OPT to use a Hardware DVD decoder
board. Just make sure it has S-VHS
out.
Creative box comes with a Hardware
decoder board.
Look, there it is now. :-)
*Sound card with RCA jacks for audio out, if you have RCA
jacks for your audio in.
I use a Creative Labs AWE64 GOLD.
AWE 64 GOLD with RCA jacks.
Alternatively
you can use your LIVE card with the SPDIF out and relay this through your Home
sound system (my friend did it this way).
This will give you the BEST quality sound available. Remember, other sound cards with other
outputs, and ADAPTORS WILL work.
This is what I use.
This
is it for PC#1. On to PC#2.
PC#2 The "RECORDER"
*One VIDEO CAPTURE CARD with S-VHS in. You can find these on Pricewatch for
around $25.00. Get one, it will
save you a LOT of headaches. I use
my Voodoo3 3500 to CAPTURE video.
No analog in, NO adaptors to CONVERT your ANALOG to S-VHS in. Remember that Macrovision thing? Nuff said.
Voodoo3 3500 S-Video and audio inputs.
Well
boys and girls, that's about it for the REQUIRED parts. As long as you stick to the recommended
parts, the rest of your sysrem can be pretty much whatever. Keep in mind that you will NOT be able
to play a DVD SMOOTHLY with a Pentium 100. I don't care how good your Hardware DVD decoder board
is. Don't even try it. I have, however, used a Celeron 300A for this, and it
works just fine. As far as the
"RECORDING" PC goes, well that depends on what the manufacturer of
your VIDEO CAPTURE card calls for.
Because I have it, I use a PIII450@600. It works great.
If you are going to use one PC for PLAYING and RECORDING at the same
time, I recommend at least a PIII@600 or equivelant, as I have done this with
good results also. YES! You can do all of this at the same time
in ONE PC. I just chose to use TWO
PCs as I have extra parts.
Capiche?
Here
is how you do it. Connect the
S-Video out from your PLAYER, to the S-Video in on your RECORDER.
Connect the Left and Right audio out on your PLAYER, to
the Left and Right out on your RECORDER.
If you are using TWO PCs as I am, make sure BOTH PCs are
ON. "D'oh!"
Here is a picture of the
connections out of my PC.
On the RECORDER PC, start up your RECORDING program that
came with your choice of VIDEO CAPTURING DEVICE. Choose the S-Video as your INPUT. You should be able to see your "DESKTOP" on the
PLAYER PC if you are using the afformentioned ATI card. If you are using a Hardware DVD decoder
board, all you will see is BLACK as the MOVIE has not started yet.
On the PLAYER PC, put in your
fav DVD and hit PLAY.
My favorite DVD. Yeah baby!
After all the PREVIEWS, and JUST before the movie starts,
hit RECORD on the video capture software.
Could it be ANY easier?
Sure it could, but this works for me. And it works GOOD!
:-) You will have to
CONFIGURE the software that came with your VIDEO CAPTURING device. There are so many that I will not go in
to that here. All I have to say
is, when in doubt, READ THE FREAKING MANUAL. Now what do you do?
Well, grab one of your FAVORITE firearms, sit back, and start cleaning.
As this will take a while, and you probably have seen this movie before. :-)
Accurized, Robarized, night sighted, Heine
LONGSLIDE.
You
have to wait until the movie is OVER and STOP the RECORD PC from RECORDING at
the end. If you don't STOP
recording when the movie is over, you WILL fill up your hard drive with a lot
of needless nothing. Alternatively, some Video capture cards
have software that can be PREPROGRAMED to STOP recording at a specific amount
of time. My Voodoo3 3500 has this
option. NICE........
Once you have finished this process, you will more than
likely have an .avi that can be played by your average WinBlows media
player. No special software needed
here. :-) Now all you have to do is BURN it to a
CDr. Depending on the SPEED rating
of your CDr this could take anywhere from an HOUR, ("Oh my God, NOT a WHOLE HOUR!" hee hee:-) or as little as 10 minutes for all you RICH fellers out
there with the latest greatest eight bajillion speed ultra quadruple SCSI CD burners. So, um, like, where are we at now for time? Well lets see. One and a half hours to RECORD the
movie, and TEN minutes to BURN it.
That's LESS than TWO hours TOTAL!
And NO freaking CODECS or "SPECIAL" software. In the immortal words of the Church
Lady "Well, isn't that special?"
Goodspeed out.
PROs:
*It WORKS!
*It can be done in under 2 hrs.
*Some of us have a lot of these parts already.
*Much easier to figure out than "CODECS, RIPPERS,
.VOBs, and the like"
CONs:
*If you don't have ANY of these parts, it will COST.
*Hardware DVD decoder board and VIDEO CAPTURE board take
up TWO PCI slots. (time to get rid of those TWO VoodooII cards I guess:-)
*You probably don't own a Heine Colt LONGSLIDE .