I rented the 1950s musical The Pajama Game the other day (I think I mentioned this film in past post calling it The Pajama Gang. As I’ve said on other blog post I have no editor or proofreader so mistakes happen). It was a pleasure to see this movie again after first being exposed to it at a high school play.
It’s nice to be able to see movies from the past or my youth again on DVD. This is a luxury that wasn’t there before the early 1980s.
I can buy movies now and back them up on a DVD +R or DVD -R and watch them over and over again without being dependent on broadcast or cable/satellite networks.
One must be careful about the type of DVD player one buys. A lot of players cannot play burnable disc of one type or the other. Some cannot play music CDs or mp3 files and some cannot play DVD +R and/or DVD -R .
If your DVD player cannot play the burnable DVD disc then you will be unable to play homemade movies on your DVD player and you will not be able to back up the films on DVD that you purchased either.
Many companies in the movie industry are putting security features in their DVDs that make it difficult to make a back-up copy. They use all sorts of security methods to keep you from copying their product for any reason. It does not matter if you own it or not.
All security methods presently used in DVDs can be broken but it might take a lot of work or steps that the average consumer would not understand or would not want to go through.
I have a great dislike for companies that won’t even let one make a single personal backup copy of a movie. Of course, the privilege to make a copy of a movie can and will probably be abused (even I break one or more parts of the copyright laws on occasion) but I think the industry must allow this simple courtesy. The consumer must be allowed to make at least one copy of a DVD that they own and if any movie making company does not allow for the copying of their product, it does not deserve your business.
I can alert you about a few things I’ve found out like that the so-called “PC friendly” DVDs are the one’s that are least likely to be able to back up. If you read the packaging DVDs usually come in it usually tells you if the DVD is “PC friendly”, PC ready or whatever. These disc most likely will have features that will make them very difficult to back up or not able to be copied using standard widely available methods.
It seems like cheap brand DVD players are the ones not able to play DVD +R or DVD -R disc in most cases. Avoid cheap brands (DVD players that are 39.00 dollars or less) or at the minimum make sure they can play the type of media you want played.
If you find a cheap DVD player that plays all types of files, and can read CD-R, DVD +R and DVD -R disc then jump on it (mind the outputs though… ie S video, etc).
Moderate to expensive DVD players can usually play DVD +R, DVD -R or both. If it is a combination DVD/VHS player it can usually play at least one of the burnable DVD types. Some expensive (or some moderately priced) DVD players can even burn disc directly, cutting out the need for a computer to do it.
So, when buying a DVD player you must make sure that it can play the medium types you intend on using. Confirm before you purchase that the player can read mp3, wma, jpeg and other types of files. There are a whole bunch of trademarks or symbols used to indicate whether a DVD player can play certain types of disc or files. Make sure the player can read stuff on CD -R, DVD +R, and DVD -R before you buy (DVD +R is the most popular and versatile medium in use in the US as of this post).
Further Info On DVDs: Philips 8x DVD +R and DVD -R disc average 4 defective (not able to burn info on) disc per pack of 25. Imitations 8x DVD +R and DVD -R disc average absolutely 0 (excellent!) defective disc per pack of 25 (or in pack of 25). Sampling consisted of 7 packs of 25 disc per brand.