Robert,

If you are having problems with skipping and freezing, I would first examine
your media. Slowing down your burn time might also help. The quality of the
media is of extreme importance. I purchased a "house" brand of 8x DVD (and
it wasn't even that much less expensive) that gave me lots of problems. The
DVDs I burned would often begin skipping and freezing near the end of the
disk (outside of the physical disk). In contrast, I have purchased high
quality Taiyo Yuden 4x which I routinely burn at 8x without problem. I have
even burned some of the Taiyo Yuden at 12x, but decided the few seconds
saved were not worth the potential for a coaster.

I record a lot of tv from a PVR, so I can't comment much about DVDShrink and
DVD Decrypter. It is my understanding that they simply provide a method of
bypassing the encryption scheme and copy the commercial DVD to your hard
drive. Once it is on your hard drive, some burning software is required to
tranfer the files back to a blank DVD. I use Nero to format and burn the
mpeg2 files produced by my PVR. Nero has a utility that scans the recorded
disk for defects. I have found that DVDs that skip and freeze always fail
this test. You can download a trial version of Nero and give it a try.

Jim Maki
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Jones

>
> Some times i use decrypter and then go to shrink and then
> back to decrypter
> in order to  backup a dvd that i just purchased and other
> times i use skrink
> first then decrypter.
>        Is one way better than another, would i see a
> difference when i played
> that backup copy, would i have less skipping, freezes one way
> over the other
> etc ?
>        Lastly the dvds i use at rated at 8 x, would it be
> better to burn at
> 6x or  4x to get a smoother playing dvd or what?   Or is the
> only problem bad
> DVDs and other help sites claim and pot luck, seeing how dvds
> movies are all
> made differently ?
>        Any ideas ?   thanks
>
>        [log in to unmask] (Robert Jones)

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