So I have a DVD burner on my PC, and I want to burn a DVD with standard downloaded movie files onto it, usual file formats.

I've tried just copying them over in Explorer - same way as I do with standard CD burning, but it doesn't want to know.

So, can I only burn proper DVD movies onto blank DVD's (which I've done and works fine) - or am I not using the right software?

You need to convert the movie file to dvd format.
I use cucosoft avi/mpeg to dvd which works very well. Another one to try is DVD Santa which also does the job.
Beware that it can take a fair few hours to convert.

i second dvd santa, just put you avi/mpeg file into it and then let it do its business, takes about 3 hrs but its one of the quickest you will find, then once the dvd files are done just burn to disc with nero rgds Alex

You can burn any file formats onto a dvd.

Not sure if explorer automatically assumes you are burning DVD format to a DVD though.

In most buring progs you need to tell it what type of dvd you want to make. If you want the normal movie files (avi, mpeg etc) to stay in their current format you need to burn an ISO DVD.

If you want to burn the movies onto DVD so you can watch them in any DVD player (ie conver to DVD format) you need to re-render them into the correct format. I use Nero for everything like that as the full package contains everything you could need. (Well worth the £30 investment!)

David

i didnt think windows natively supports dvd writing .............

I'd go along with David on this one. Nero 6 and above full suite in the dogs. Does just about everything you'll ever need and then some. Make sure you download ffdshow as well for the latest codecs.

quote:

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Originally posted by Scotty
i didnt think windows natively supports dvd writing .............

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There is a free download (truely free) CDBurnerXP Pro that makes Nero look old hat -- I found it and I set it up for a client but as I don't need DVD burning myself haven't used it much.

CDBurnerXP Pro
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/features.php


NB If trying ---- it needs a really high screen resolution setting or you can't access all the control icons.

[Edited on 21/2/06 by britishtrident]

quote:

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Originally posted by flak monkey

quote:

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Originally posted by Scotty
i didnt think windows natively supports dvd writing .............

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XP Pro does (well mine seems to work), though I am not entirely sure about XP home.

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As I know less about computers than I do about cars, I found the easy option was to buy a DIVX player from Maplins for £35.

Don't need to worry/waste time reformatting movies and you can fit several movies on one DVD.

OO, Look just made my first century.
This definitely calls for a pint!

[Edited on 21/2/06 by Confused but excited.]

For copying DVD's I bought and downloaded AnyDVD and CloneDVD and they are excellent - haven't had one fail yet.

So am I right in saying blank DVD's are really only good for copy and keeping movies and maybe music. I was wondering if you could use them as kind of high capacity CDRoms for backing up general PC files? Or am I just being dim .....

No you can put anything on them. Some firms now put program suites on them as they can get everything onto one disk. I put divx files on dvd to play on the tv, you can get more than one film on that way. I paid for the divx mpeg converter a while back and have used it quite a lot. I can't find dvd decrypter anywhere now as it's been bought by Sony or someone and removed from circulation but dvdshrink does a similar job, grab it before they do the same with that.
edit :- It's macrovision who is trying to get it off the net but there's a copy here, download it and save the setup just file in case. decrypter

[Edited on 23/2/06 by Peteff]

I've been using AnyDVD to decrypt DVD's, work excellently and even gets rid of trailers, and other gumph at the beginning of movies.

But when I just try to copy regular files onto blank DVD it won't let me.

Interesting, what are you using to write DVDs with? If its a program designed for movies then it will probably not write ISO DVDs.

Buy yourself (or DL from torrent) a copy of Nero 6 or 7. Its only £30 and will do everything!

David

[Edited on 24/2/06 by flak monkey]

I use CloneDVD to copy and write DVD's. It's REALLY easy to use, and the AnyDVD (which decrypts movies) gets updated all the time - it's really excellent for copying DVD's - recommended by a mate.

But I don't have anything to write general (non movie) stuff for DVD.

I have a version of new (probably lite) Nero that came with the DVD re-writer I bought - haven't tried it yet though.....

Ahhhhhh - just fired up 'Nero Startsmart' - and it seems to do all the data writing I need to do - might help if I looked at what I already had on my PC

[Edited on 25/2/06 by Jasper]