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I actually do have the entire series; it was released on a much faster timetable in England, and I was able to order them very cheaply from Bensons's World when the US dollar was doing much better against the British pound. So I had the very end of season 4 by early summer 2003.

If you want to go this route (there are other series/discs that are much cheaper in England for some reason, "The Prisoner" being an example), you'll need to make sure you have a DVD player capable of playing discs from multiple regions. I bought my DVD player with that in mind, but if you want to look into it for yourself, best place is on DVDrhelp.com.

Go here to see if your DVD player supports SVCDs.

There we go, site is up - but damn slow:
93% of the players tested play DVD-R

87% of the players tested play DVD+R

There we go, site is up - but damn slow:
93% of the players tested play DVD-R

87% of the players tested play DVD+R

from dvdrhelp

DVD-R and DVD-RW
DVD-R/W was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with standalone DVD Players.
DVD-R is a non-rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 93% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 77% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
These formats are supported by DVDForum.

DVD+R and DVD+RW
DVD+R/W has some "better" features than DVD-R/W such as lossless linking and both CAV and CLV writing.
DVD+R is a non-rewritable format and it is compatible with about 87% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD+RW is a rewritable format and is compatible with about 77% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
These formats are supported by the DVD+RW Alliance.

DVD-RAM
DVD-RAM has the best recording features but it is not compatible with most DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players. Think more of it as a removable hard disk. DVD-RAM is usually used in some DVD Recorders.
This format is supported by DVDForum.

I recommend checking out www.vcdhelp.com. They have tons of links and guides and howtos on various tools. Here is a link to their authoring page.

I use DVDLab to author dvd's myself, which you can find here. It works in most cases, but sometimes I use ifoedit to do really advanced things. However, Ifoedit is not for the feint of heart.

No you don't. Your apathy towards MacroVision is only because it's so easy to circumvent! :)

Also, you should check out DVDr Help to find out if your DVD is on their list. It contains a comprehensive user-supported list of just about every DVD player out there, and what mods are needed to make the DVD region free. Most of the time, it only requires a sequence of buttons on the remote. Gotta love those engineers!

This site has Tons of information on anything do with DVD's, VCD's, Video etc.

That being said, the cat is out of the bag and the movie industry will have to wait until the next generation of copy protection when DVI connectors become more common.

Yer behind the times. How about a DVD player for under $150 USD that plays DivX/XivD/MPEG4? LiteOn LVD-2002

the other poster is AN IDIOT. he can't read.
see

Other thread was wrong. Numbers are more like 92/86. Much smaller difference.

If you're going to quote figures from a site, you might as well get it right. According to DVDrHelp here, -Rs have about 92% compatability, while +Rs have about 86% compatability. Hardly a huge difference. Both RW formats sit at 75% compatability.

DVD +R and -R have a lot more in common than different. Even the +R "lossless link" stuff is a bit of a sham. Check out dvdr help for more info.

Ultimately, I think the +/- formats will merge the way the 56k modems did.

I wrote a linux-oriented review of this card on the dvdrhelp web site (search for the May 10, 2003 review) which contains everything that I have to say about using this card in linux.

Ask DVDR/VCDhelp.com, they probably know far more. Also look through their Capture Card list which includes a checkbox if it works under linux.

Then again, there's always Bit Torrent.

No kidding. Look here. I never by a player without checking dvdrhelp first.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ has a list of DVD players you can remove the region code from and for some models, the macrovision.

It is this site that motivated me into buying a technotronic DVD players (made in China and Canada). I can remove DVD region and macrovision right from my remote.

Artaxerxes

buying a region free DVD player (which retail chains in the US do not sell)

Ya know, that's funny because the Magnavox DVD player I got last Christmas at BLOCKBUSTER will play DVDs from all regions. Sure, I have to punch a few buttons on the remote first, but it works just fine.

A lot of DVD players, name brand as well as the cheap Chinese imports will play DVDs from all regions if you know how - check the list of region free hacks at this site to see if your DVD player can.

If I am in Region 1 and want one of the many Region 2 DVD's (that will never come out in Region 1), I have to get a hacked DVD player, or get a pirated/cracked version of the CD.

Actually, there are lists of software hacks that you can find on the internet to help with that. Of course, this doesn't really help most grandmas who expect something to work without punching in the first 6 digits of pi into their remote control keypad.

Oddly enough I had to use one of these hacks recently to view a Region 1 DVD on my Region 1 DVD player. When I tried to play the disk I got some kind of screen telling me that I needed a Region 1 player. I've never had that happen before. I tried inserting and removing the disk and even turning off the machine but got the same error each time. Finally I resorted to the software hack on that webpage for my machine and was able to watch the movie I rented. Boy would I have been upset if I had to go back to the videostore in the rain and exchange the disk.

However, seeing as how the disk was 'XXX' (with Vin Diesel) I probably would have been better off if I hadn't been able to watch it :)

GMD

I had the same problems, and decided to go with DVD+RW (Just for video, not data storage.) Dual format burners are coming down in price, too, so you don't have to settle for one side.

An FAQ
Useful link

have fun, nothing like getting a new geek toy :D

RareWares is a good place to find some of the more obscure codecs.

Another resource for codec info (in addition to the codecs themselves) is VCDHelp (aka DVDrHelp).

That site is a reference I've gone back to many times. There's lots of good info there on things like backing up your DVDs, burning them back onto CDs as VCDs, and finding out what your component DVD player is capable of.

RareWares is a good place to find some of the more obscure codecs.

Another resource for codec info (in addition to the codecs themselves) is VCDHelp (aka DVDrHelp).

That site is a reference I've gone back to many times. There's lots of good info there on things like backing up your DVDs, burning them back onto CDs as VCDs, and finding out what your component DVD player is capable of.

RareWares is a good place to find some of the more obscure codecs.

Another resource for codec info (in addition to the codecs themselves) is VCDHelp (aka DVDrHelp).

That site is a reference I've gone back to many times. There's lots of good info there on things like backing up your DVDs, burning them back onto CDs as VCDs, and finding out what your component DVD player is capable of.

RareWares is a good place to find some of the more obscure codecs.

Another resource for codec info (in addition to the codecs themselves) is VCDHelp (aka DVDrHelp).

That site is a reference I've gone back to many times. There's lots of good info there on things like backing up your DVDs, burning them back onto CDs as VCDs, and finding out what your component DVD player is capable of.

RareWares is a good place to find some of the more obscure codecs.

Another resource for codec info (in addition to the codecs themselves) is VCDHelp (aka DVDrHelp).

That site is a reference I've gone back to many times. There's lots of good info there on things like backing up your DVDs, burning them back onto CDs as VCDs, and finding out what your component DVD player is capable of.

Having played a lot with video encoding in my spare time (which isn't hard to do when you've been unemployed for seven months), I will bestow on you some tips on the world of encoded video, so that you won't have to go through as much teeth gnashing, hair pulling, and head slapping that I have. :) (Note: I work primarily on a Win32 machine, so if you want to do this on another platform, just kindly ignore all the words below. :P)

The most likely problem you are facing is that you don't have the right codecs installed to play the files you want. As someone mentioned before, Nimo is your best friend in this case, as it's a file pack that contains a multitude of codecs and filters to play almost everything under the sun.

But say you install Nimo, and things still don't work. What then? Well, assuming you still don't have the right codec, then it's time to meet your other new best friend, AVIcodec. Don't let the name fool you. This little program will identify the codec you need for AVI's, MPEG's, WMV's, ASF's, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. I also hear good things about GSPot, but AVIcodec works too well for me to change. :)

Now, say you run into a file that uses MPEG2 for video or has an AC3 audio stream. Well, you won't find any codecs for those on the web, because the Motion Picture Experts Group likes to rake in those licensing fees. (Well, you MAY find a codec or two out there, but keep in mind if you download them and don't have to pay a fee, it's almost certainly illegal.) What you then need to do is to install a software DVD player like PowerDVD or WinDVD, and that'll straighten things out for you.

Now let's say you're SURE you have the right codecs installed, and the video STILL won't play. Well, that just blows, because your file is probably damaged, or in the case of an AVI, it's incomplete. If you've got an AVI, run over and grab AVIPreview, which is a nice program that'll let you preview incomplete AVI's (see? "AVIPreview"? :P). If it plays in there, and you don't feel like downloading a complete version of the file (which you sometimes can't find when you're using P2P services), AVIPreview will let you save the file with a complete container so most media players won't complain.

Now... (*takes a breath*), if it isn't an AVI, then the likelyhood you'll be able to fix the problem goes down considerably. Free ASF and WMV editing programs are few and far between (and we all know who owns those file formats), and almost all MPEG issues will continue to niggle you unless you do a full-blown re-encode of the file. You can definitely try downloading VCDGear and checking the "Fix MPEG Errors" checkbox, but this almost NEVER works (i.e., times it worked for me: none).

And keep in mind these are the EASY solutions. If you're actually interested in using video editing/encoding programs, then take a visit to Doom9 or DVDRhelp.com. The forums and guides on these sites are a boon to the video encoding enthusiast, and the forum regulars tend to be pretty friendly, too. :)

Best of luck and well wishes...

It's not multiformat.

Try a Pioneer A05/A06 or the various ASUS OEM's,

The DVR-A05 isn't dual-format, either...like the DVR-105 I have, it's a DVD-R/RW drive. (At least it uses the recordable DVD standard, which the drive described in the article doesn't.)

The article didn't mention much about media compatibility...my understanding of the situation is that some of the low-cost burners coming onto the market are a bit fussy as to what media they'll accept. You might want to keep an eye on the list of burners at DVDRhelp when you're deciding what DVD burner to buy. (They also have reports on blank DVDs here.)

It's not multiformat.

Try a Pioneer A05/A06 or the various ASUS OEM's,

The DVR-A05 isn't dual-format, either...like the DVR-105 I have, it's a DVD-R/RW drive. (At least it uses the recordable DVD standard, which the drive described in the article doesn't.)

The article didn't mention much about media compatibility...my understanding of the situation is that some of the low-cost burners coming onto the market are a bit fussy as to what media they'll accept. You might want to keep an eye on the list of burners at DVDRhelp when you're deciding what DVD burner to buy. (They also have reports on blank DVDs here.)

I had the same concern. A year ago when I started looking at DVD burners I intended to convert movies from VHS to DVD and even make my own movies (family camcorder movies and photo slideshows). I noticed there was DVD-R, +R, -RW, +RW. What the heck is all this?

After checking out this site I learned that the formats -R and -RW were not standardized. Apparently some companies jumped the gun before the format was fully worked out. This would explain why 'some' DVD's I rented would not play. Thus +R and +RW was born. The story is these new formats are what everyone will be supporting on your DVD players for the future. This is what I bought though I highly recommend a burner which does all the above mentioned formats (just in case).

My burner only does the +R/+RW format which seems to work on just about every new DVD player I've come across. I did notice a few older models which were unable to play my movies. They were pre 1999 models (so far). I always warn people when they buy a player to check what formats it will support.

BTW, that dvdrhelp.com web site is great! They have tons of info on burners, players, editing software, how to convert formats and so on. Very good site to bookmark if you are serious about making movies, capturing or editing them.

For information on just about anything related to DVD/CD recording, DVDRHelp.com is a great resource.

I got myself a LiteOn LDW-411S at Best Buy for $80 after mail in rebates. After reading a few reviews it seemed like a solid drive. The nicest thing about this one is that it does 40X CD-R, which most others only do 24X. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot more of these drives under $100 before and after the holidays.

Someone made a point about the cost of the media. This is very true; it's still rather expensive. However, that's mostly on the retail level. If you take a look around online, you sould be able to find really good media for $1 a piece or slightly more. Ritek is one of the brands that's hailed as highly compatible and overall very good, and you can get a spindle of 50 from newegg for about $55. Not bad!

One last thing, one of the best sites for all things DVD+-RW, check out DVDRHelp.com.

"Movie quality is dependent on the bit rate of the video (which cannot be greater than 3 MB/sec). " link to article on dvdrhelp.com Buy.com has it for $169 link

This website has likely everything you need: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/capture.

There are still plenty out there that won't. My cheap-o apex seems to be able to play anything. The sony I have in the bedroom plays *most* everything (it doesn't like -rw and a few brands of -r) but a few it seems to play the data faster (its really weird, its like watching it with sound at 10% faster than normal) and my first gen ancient sony only seems to like cd rw and +r's.

It sounds like you are more focused on the video side of dvd burning, I think your best bet is going to be browse on over to http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ where they have lots of good info on various players and which media types and brands work with them in both dvd and vcd type formats. If you have an idea of what type of players your friends and family have, you can get a better guage of which format might be better to go with if you do want to just stick with one. (but why! I want both mustard *and* ketchup with my hotdog even though both are good and non-cancelling condiments in their own right).

The dvdrhelp site is very good for software information used for the dvd/vcd creation process too. Definitely worth perusing.

Maybe it is a media problem, or a specific burner problem.. Their user comments do not seem to contradict this.

I guess it all depends on your bias. Yours is obvious. I don't care what standard wins. I have a dual burner. Right now DVD-Rs are less expensive where I shop, so that's what I burn.

Here is a list of DVD machines that play divx files.

Isn't this the reason why many bootleg DVDs from Hong Kong and China are "region-less" and why "region-free" DVD players also come from the same place? (By the way, do these actually work or is that just a myth/scam of some sort?)

Yes, all bootleg DVDs are region-free to allow the most number of people to use them. That is not to say many legitimate DVDs aren't region-free, in China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere (while most DVDs from the US are region 1, you will find many that have no region restrictions built-in).

DVD players that can be modified to be region-free (usually through a remote hack) work excellently. The Nerd-out forums and dvdrhelp's player hack list are both very helpful in finding a region-free player or finding out if your current player is region-free. But basically, once you have a region-free player, you can watch DVDs from anywhere. Especially if you have one that does proper PAL -> NTSC conversion, allowing you to play anamorphic widescreen DVDs from Europe and any other PAL countries (CyberHome and Malata are two brands to look at with this feature).

There is a changing preference from the journalists, but basically, here are the technical facts:

1. You usually find faster burners for +R than for -R (in the order of 2.4 vs. 2)

2. DVD-R plays in a wider range of set top boxes / Video dvd players. This means that the movies of your holidays that you're going to burn will play on a wider ranges of video players with the -R technology than the +R.

For an evidence of my assertion, go to http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ and click on "DVD-Players" on the left. This list represent "all" the DVD players available on the market since the creation of the DVD-Video (or pretty close) and can tell you which DVD player plays which formats (DVD-R, DVD+R, CDRW, CDR, ...). If you click on DVD-R, you get 1484 results. Click on DVD+R: 1045 player only matches.

3. DVD-R are cheaper than DVD+R, DVD-RW are cheaper than DVD+RW. Just go check the prices on amazon.com or anywhere else (Amazon might not be the best example)

4. DVD+R is backed up by bigger companies with bigger bucks than DVD-R. This explains IMHO the good press that DVD+R is having these days. It will probably not help them impose their standard as "THE" standard.

5. Most DVD-R burners read DVD+R, where most DVD+R burners don't read DVD-R. Another good reason to buy a DVD-R burner: You can read every single DVD burned.

Giving that, I bought a Pioneer A04 19 months ago and I don't regret it. Even if DVD-R is to die (and I doubt it) I will not regret having bought a DVD-R.

As I said, my DVD-R are DVDs, they will play forever (or at least for as long as they last as a media) in any (or most) DVD player.

They comment on those single-standard burners like they were state-of-the-art technology, without mentioning any of the two dozens of DVD burners out there which are able to create any DVD format. See this comparison. Much better. :-)

Why is it that everytime DVD writers are mentioned there are dozens of comments that state they are waiting for a clear winner in the so called standards war.

We also get dozens of comments that will point out what I am going to say.

BUY A DUAL FORMAT BURNER.

Looking at dvdrhelp.com there are 21 burners out there that do the following formats: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW

Ok, I admit, I didn't read the article. Why? Because I looked at the drives they're reviewing and knew it was pointless.

First off, they're reviewing the previous generation of DVD burners. The new Pioneer A06 is a multi-format drive, capable of burning everything but DVD-RAM (which is a dead standard - it required usage of caddies and was incompatible with stand alone DVD players). The Plextor and Panasonic are so-so drives at best. They didn't review the Sony, which is considered the other "best" drive (Pioneer and Sony have been the only two major players until recently), which is also multi-format.

There are a ton of new companies on the DVD burner front too -- LiteOn, NEC, Mitsumi, etc. which I suspect OEM either the Sony or Pioneer drives (no, I haven't looked into it enough to know for sure).

If you want a real resource for DVD burner comparisons, don't even bother with Techspot. Their "review" is about 6 months out of date. Instead go to DVDR Help, which is pretty much the place for anything you could want to know about DVD players, burners, software, etc.

Format wars are essentially over too... most new (and even most 2-3 year old) players can read any of the formats except DVD-RAM. The new burners can write any format you choose, and are at or under $200 now (pricing from NewEgg). Buying a single format burner is just silly.

Honestly though, unless you're burning home videos then you're probably still better off with a CD-RW drive. At under $50 it's hard to go wrong, and there's a lot more computers with CD drives than DVD drives. On the other hand, more games are starting to come out on DVD now (HL2 will be, as well as CD and via Steam), so you may want a DVD drive in your computer (although DVD-ROMs are only $30-40, so CD-RW + DVD-ROM is less than half the price and gives you 2 drives).

But I was to understand that discs made in DVD+RW (as opposed to DVD-R or DVD+R) format won't read in all DVD players and drives because the pits aren't as deep or some such?

dvdrhelp has lots of statistics.

With software programs like:

DVD Decrypter - DVD Decrypter is a CSS decryption tool that has most, if not all, of the features of current ripper/ripper GUIs like CladDVD, Smart-Ripper or VOBDec GUI, including CSS authentication/detection, multi-angle processing, Macrovision and Region removal. Also includes option to use either VOBDec or DeCSS Plus to decrypt the DVD.
NanDUB DiVX 3.11 ;-) encoder.
VirtualDubMod - VirtualDubMod is based on the famous video editing software VirtualDub by Avery Lee. Used for DiVX 5.x and XViD encoding
DVD2AVI - Takes a DVD and turns it into an AVI or AVI FrameServer for other programs like NanDub and VirtualDuB to encode with.
BeSweet - an audio transcoding tool. it lets you convert audio files from one format to another. supported formats : MP3,AC3,WAV,MP2,AVI,Aiff,VOB,Ogg Vorbis.
TMpegEnc - video encoding software. mainly used for the creation of MPEG's encoded for either VCD or SVCD
DVD2SVCD - Software Suite for converting a DVD into an SVCD (MPEG-2 encoded Video CD).
Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot started out as a simple bitrate calculator for DivX encoding but has evolved to become an integrated package or tool for the entire process of DivX encoding. It now has the ability to calculate the bitrates for XViD

And sites like

Doom9 - The definitive resource for DVD backup
DVDR Help - This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF
DiVX Digest - a DiVX news and reviews site.

And many more like the ones above make it easy for encryption and DRM schemes to be broken or bypassed, but the process is far from trivial. These programs aren't exactly user friendly. The formats that come out of these programs while not very noticable do make a degredated (?sp) copy that is compressed more than the original. The files may look rather nice, but they are definantelly not as perfect as a standard DVD player.

People want to be able to plug their DVD's into their DVD players. I don't really know how many people rely on their computer solely for DVD playback, but I'm assuming not many.

Here's the kicker I know that I use my computer to watch videos that I own, but if I'm going to be traveling I will rip that DVD into a one disc XViD. So if I break it, who cares I'll just burn another one. And well someone isn't as apt to steal a blank CD-Rom as they would be for say, a DVD with a case and title on the disc.

It's plain to see just from visiting the links I posted above though that you are correct in saying that there will always be a time that someone comes around and completely bypasses or disables DRM. I know for a fact that my APEX DVD player has MacroVision and other BS taken off of it and it is also RCE (regionless) which means I can put any DVD I like into the player and it will play.

It's these sorts of things that make me wonder why all the effort for DRM is made, someone will truly crack it eventually. I still remember when DVD's were said to be uncrackable, and had some s

I think the CVD he is refering to is the China Video Disc More info here about the China Video Disc Format, which seems to be a variation of the SVCD format. I think it is supposed to be a type of DVD thing developed in China so they wouldn't have to play ball with the DVDCCA but I am not sure on that anymore.

I went with the Toshiba SD5002, and have been as giddy as a schoolgirl.

DVD+R/W has some big supporters behind it, although the discs are about twice the costs of -R/W discs. If you're curious if it will work in your player, you might check out the Compatibility List at dvdrhelp.com. It's also a good place to find out which player to buy.

My votes go to the Koss KD305 available for $49.99 at Sears (plus option $7 service plan, unlike $30 at Best Buy) or the Norcent DP300 which is $39.99 at Amazon ($49.99 at Walmart). Both play darn near anything you can throw at them, and they're CHEAP!

I own the Koss 305 and simply love it.

DVD+R/W has some big supporters behind it, although the discs are about twice the costs of -R/W discs. If you're curious if it will work in your player, you might check out the Compatibility List at dvdrhelp.com. It's also a good place to find out which player to buy.

My votes go to the Koss KD305 available for $49.99 at Sears (plus option $7 service plan, unlike $30 at Best Buy) or the Norcent DP300 which is $39.99 at Amazon ($49.99 at Walmart). Both play darn near anything you can throw at them, and they're CHEAP!

I own the Koss 305 and simply love it.