recently we lost a very valuable dvd movie (expensive too) and I want to make sure this doesnt happen again, so I will be attempting to backup/copy all of my dvds. How do I do this. I have a 4xDVD+R/+RW drive which came with my hp a430n pavilion pc. What kind of disk do I need (that will play in my dvd player). Also what software will I need? Please include anything else that you deam relevant. thanks alot :) eskiled www.linuxteens.com

What's the exact brand name/model of this DVD drive? i_XpUser

First you will need to know if your DVD player will support the + format of DVD discs. If so then all you need is a program called DVDShrink. It will compress the consumer DVD down to the 4.3 gig recordable DVD discs. Get DVDShrink here - http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html If your stand alone DVD player doesn't support the + format, there isn't much you can do other then going and purchasing a DVD burner that will burn both the + and - formats

You don't need a +/- burner. DVDShrink can burn both types of media. Your drive can burn +R media anyway, based on your original post: 4xDVD+R/+RW.

my exact DVD burner is not named but it is described on HP's product pages: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00055520#N1002F THankyou for the information on software. but what type of media do I need? thanks! www.linuxteens.com

iamc, +R media will be useless to him if his stand-alone DVD player doesn't support +R. That is why Kurt mentioned the dual format burner. Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.

Many stand-alone DVD players can play both media formats. Wouldn't it be better to, say, find out if +R media is required than to arbitrarily recommend buying a ~$100 piece of hardware that may not even be necessary?