Backing up your DVD,s of UFO

Keith wrote:

>Anyone know where I can get a replacement of the case for set 2 region 1? The tabs are broken and the discs are floating free. Media Play won't replace it because
>it's been opened (how else would I know it's broken) and A and E won't replace it because I didn't get it from them.
>
Considering the damage that could be caused to our irreplaceable disks for this and other reason's,has anyone
made copies of their originals for general viewing.

Mark UK

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

if you are asking is it possible to make backup copies on dvd, yes,
but the initial costs are high enough, that it would be cheaper just
to buy a second set, which might still be able to be picked up with a
little persistance.

if you want to hear the kind of costs involved, assuming you already
have a decent speed computer, you need a dvd writer, cost still over
$200, software $80 to $100, and blank dvd's from $2 to way over $3
depending on how many you buy at a single time. Commercialy produced
dvd's can hold more data then the kind you can burn on your home pc,
so even if you think a 6 dvd box set can be backuped using 6 blank
dvd's, you would probably need anywhere from 8 to even 12.

If you wanted to look at cheaper alternativies, the cheapest being
just recording it to video tape. If you have a dvd player on your
computer, there are some sofware packages that would convert the
programs to 'vcd', but not all dvd players can play vcd. A 'vcd' is
a low res as compared to dvd. Also you can hold only about 2 hrs
worth of video on a single vcd.

Bruce

--- In [hidden email], "Mark Davies" <aonq79@d...> wrote:
> Keith wrote:
>
> >Anyone know where I can get a replacement of the case for set 2
region 1? The tabs are broken and the discs are floating free.
Media Play won't replace it because
> >it's been opened (how else would I know it's broken) and A and E
won't replace it because I didn't get it from them.
> >
> Considering the damage that could be caused to our irreplaceable
disks for this and other reason's,has anyone
> made copies of their originals for general viewing.
>
> Mark UK
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

 
> If you wanted to look at cheaper alternativies, the cheapest being
> just recording it to video tape. If you have a dvd player on your
> computer, there are some sofware packages that would convert the
> programs to 'vcd', but not all dvd players can play vcd. A 'vcd' is
> a low res as compared to dvd. Also you can hold only about 2 hrs
> worth of video on a single vcd.
>
Actually I believe the capacity is 80 mins max on a 700MB CDR.

Also, (mior point) some of the DVD backup solutions available for
Linux users are free, but I certainly agree with your general point
- it's not cheap to do if you consider the initial costs, but if
you already have a burner, you can get write-once DVD blanks for
less than £2 or so if you buy in multiples, and this will come down
soon no doubt - as will the price of the burner hardware I'm sure.

>Considering the damage that could be caused to our irreplaceable
>disks for this and other reason's,has anyone
>made copies of their originals for general viewing.

Irreplaceable? They're still in print -- you can easily purchase a
replacement set if something goes wrong with your current copies. I
even have all the necessary items to make a DVD backup (my computer
has a DVD-burner on it), but I think I'd still just buy a new set if
something went wrong with my current set.

Also note that these UFO DVD's are dual-layered, and I think all the
DVD-Rs you could buy are single layer. Which means that you *might*
be able to get 2 episodes onto a DVD-R, but certainly not 3 or 4
episodes without having to recompress at lower quality. On the
3-episode A&E discs, each episode is around 2.3 GB in size. On the
4-episode discs, the episodes are around 1.9 GB. A DVD-R can hold
about 4.7 GB.

Of course, if you've got a spare 60 GB on your hard drive, you could
back up the entire series onto your computer... :-)

Marc