when a dvd's compiled it's just a video/audio-ts setup. there's no reason (actautly, there is) to use just dvda. nero is seems to make more compatible discs, it's got a multi-disk burn feature & odds are you already have it.

plus they're two different tools meant for two different things: DVDA is a dvd authoring app & nero is a burning app. use both to their strengths. You would't use movie maker instead of vegas for projects after all, would you? :)

I would burn an image to the hard drive and thereafter just burn that time and time again to disc.

I only use DVDA to "prepare" the files. After that, I use RecordNow to make as many copies as necessary.

Mike

burning an image is no different then burning the video/audio-ts folders except you use "burn image" in nero instead of video dvd. but hten you can't preview the stuff eigther before burning. :(

You didn't mention how many copies you needed or if there was any kind of budget, but you could use a place like Flickos.com to duplicate your discs.

Or other places out there will do this as well.

if you're doing anywhere near 1000 or so copies of one disk, a duplicator won't cost you much more then doing it yourself (at least with the prices i've seen). So yeah, that's a good point too. :)

>>...but hten you can't preview the stuff eigther before burning. :(

Actually, there is a program for loading ISO images as disk drives; your computer will mount the ISO image and show it as a drive letter.

It's called "dameon" something or another.

Sorry for the lack of specificity, but I am not at home now to check the name.

This program is very handy for keeping DVD's handy to load without having to use the actual DVD disk. You can do multiple images/drive letters, all at the same time.

If someone wants to know the program name, I can check when I get home.

You can use Alcohol 120 or Faemon Tools to mount ISO files.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Question:

How would I burn an image to the harddrive, to use with burning the copies?

Please assume I know NOTHING and spell it out.

Thanks again in advance.

Andy

As an example using Nero, in the area where you select which DVD burner to burn a disc, you should have a selection available called 'image recorder'. When you choose the image recorder, you'll have the choice of where to store the image, what to name it and the choice to save it as an 'iso' file or a 'nrg' (Nero image).

I haven't used DVDA yet, just got it a few days ago, but the process should still be the same.

1. In DVDA, use the ISO image writer instead of actually burning the discs. There's a help topic in DVDA if you're unsure of how to do this.
- This is where you will be saving an image file of each DVD onto your hard drive
- It will end in a .iso file extension (or maybe .img depending on how DVDA does this step

2. From here, just about any DVD burning software should be able to burn the image. Check the help file for info on that.

*Optional
3. To watch an image file...Get one of the tools that has been recommended. I use Alcohol 120. Free 30-day trial. get it here: http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/

- What Alcohol does is give you "virtual drives" on your computer. You can "mount" your .iso (or any other image file) onto your virtual drive, and it will become viewable.
- Again you'll want to read Alcohol's help file so that you can configure it for your system
- When you set up Alcohol, you'll get an extra drive letter in your windows explorer.
- After it's all set up, you'll see something like "Virtual CD/DVD-ROM" in the bottom portion of Alcohol's window. (make sure you're in the main window and not one of the wizards)
- Right click on your virtual drive and go to "mount image"
- Select your DVD image and it's now loaded onto your virtual drive...just as if you had the DVD in a real drive. You can watch it in your software DVD player.
- Alcohol also comes with an image burning wizard that can burn your DVDs.

hth

Andre'

I don't do the image thing, i just use the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders from my hard drive after i prepare in DVDA and burn them with Nero. Why Nero? Because it can do a verify pass after each burn. For me, that's much easier than putting each disc in the DVD player to make sure it burned ok.

On the other hand, if i'm only doing onesies & twosies, then i'll usually burn right in DVDA because i won't have that many discs to check manually.

anyone making DVDs needs to be aware of the current bug that'll render the DVDs unplayable in some (and it seems an increasing number) of players.
I creat an image on HD, use PGCEdit to fix and then Nero to burn, mainly becuase as others have said Nero will do a Verify pass.
Also be very careful.
You need to burn a DVD-Video disk, using just any file burn method will yield a DVD that may not play in all players.
RecordNow certainly caused me grief due to this, the latest version(s) of Nero are smart enough to cut you off at the pass with a warning that you're doing it wrong.

If we're doing mulitple copies once we have a good 'master' we copy that to the HDD in our Evocept duplicator then burn multiple copies at 8x on 8x media, this season maybe one or two bounced disks out of a few 1000. Burning the same TY media at 4x caused us much grief

Bob.

I don't understand your problem with RecordNow DX. I have used it many times successfully when I want Verification or want to edit the IFO before burning.
For DVD Video you go to Options Data Disc and tick 'Recognise the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders as per the DVD Specification'.
I would much rather have this on my machine than Nero.

You must have a later version than the one I used to use, never had that option so I ended up (foolishly) burning DVD Data disks, which would play in MOST DVD players, i.e. all of mine but not some of the clients players.

I agree though, I don't really like the way Nero tries to take over everything, see too much of that in apps today. Apart from that aspect I don't find much to complain about with it.

Hang on, yes I do!

I've got a CD burner AND a DVD burner. Both came with an OEM version of Nero. I can have Nero work with one or the other but not both, not fair.

Bob.