Page 1 of Just bought an NEC 1300a DVDRW but there`s no software with it! What do I do?

I bought the drive as part of a new desktop, but it came with no software much to my annoyance. I want to use it to watch movies (maybe make copies), and back up my files. What software would you advise? Obviously don`t want to spend anything more than I have to. Any advice you can give would be much appreciated. Thanks

DVD Shrink (free) for ripping DVDs;
RecordNow DX for burning CDs/DVDs (costs about £20 if I remember right but it will pay off in the long run due to the lack of coasters in produces - see for yourself: a 30-day trial of the US version, RecordNow Max, is available at www.download.com.
Can`t think of any free DVD playback software, sorry.

Brilliant thanks! Excuse my ignorance, but what does `ripping` mean?

LOL - did you buy an OEM drive because it was cheaper? They`re cheap because they are drives for the trade (your local PC shop who builds to order for his customers) and therefore require none of the expensive packaging, software, leads etc that would go in a retail box.

Anyway - for ripping I`ll second DVD Shrink. All you need for burning is something like Nero or Easy CD Creator. Drag and drop just like creating a CDR.

Ripping is the term used for getting the DVD movie files off your disk and onto your hard drive ready for burning. Because the DVD will contain copy protection it`s not as straight forward as just copying them across then backing them up.

Plus a commercial DVD actually holds more information (9gb) than a writeable DVD (4.7gb) so you`ll need something that can either compress all the information or allow you to remove things like menus and extras you don`t want so it`ll fit on a writeable disk. DVD Shrink is free and allows you to do this quite easily.

Oh yeah - free DVD play back software - Windows Media Player 9 will do it.

This item was edited on Friday, 19th September 2003, 08:33

Great help, thanks so much! Er, excuse me again - what`s an OEM drive??

Actually, I`ve already got Easy CD Creator Standard Version 5.1b on a Freecom CD that I got with an external CD-burner 18 months ago. I`ve installed this on the new computer and it seems capable of burning CD`s but isn`t even giving me the option of burning DVDs. It has a DVD copy button, but doesn`t allow me to access that. Actually, I think it did on one occasion, but then told me that there was no recognisable DVD recorder installed or something!

Secondly, I`ve tried playing DVD movies with the drive using Windows Media Player (not sure of version though), and it told me I didn`t have the necessary DVD decoder to go with it. What does that mean?

To clarify - OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. It`s exactly the same drive you`d buy in say PC World from their shelves - in a retail box with all the packaging and software included. When you buy the OEM version it`s cheaper because it`s packaged for computer builders who don`t need all the fancy packaging, instructions and software. You tend to just get the drive in a brown box with nothing else - like PC World`s components section.

If you get Nero or Easy CD with a drive it`s a version that will usually only work with that particular drive (rather than the full version that will include drivers for all CD / DVD drives) it`s not surprising your copy doesn`t work as it came with a CD writer. I don`t know of any free DVD burning software. But you can download the trial version of Nero from their website to see if it works: http://www.nero.com/en/index.html

Not sure about the DVD decoder for Media Player. Check you`re using the latest version is all I can think of. Failing that you`ll have to get something like PowerDVD to play your movies with.

This item was edited on Friday, 19th September 2003, 08:56

Windows Media Player doesn`t play DVD`s `out of the box`.
Amazing really to think an OS is shipped in this day and age that won`t play DVD`s.
It only plays them once you have installed another DVD playing application that installs the necessary codec.
PowerDVD is the best in my opinion. Look around, I`m sure you`ll find it. ;)

Ste

Thanks a lot all of you! That really is a great help. By the way, upon the earlier advice I have tried to download dvd shrink - not sure if it worked yet. Should it come down in a zip file that I then extract? That`s what it looks like. I`ve downloaded `mirrors` too. Do you know if there`s any order I should be going with to install it?

:) I think dvd shrink comes down as a self extracting .exe file, just double click on it and it will install itself - using DVD shrink couldnt be simpler, just make sure you have obtained the latest V3 beta file, works fine.

You might consider also getting DVD decrypter to rip the files from the dvd in question, ( a quick search on google will find it..) seems to be the best of the bunch and has never failed me yet.

Also the DVD Shrink forums are well supported with a nice bunch of guys, and several of them have made nice websites that will hold your hand thru the whole process, worth checking out... and finally.... for your first few attempts, use re writable discs.... will save on coasters until you are confident with the tools...

Spangles 8)