ignorant Newbie question about Popcorn--please advise

[magnus523]

Guys, I'm hoping you can give me some simple advice. I'm a fairly bright guy, sort of, but not about computers, alas.

 

I'm driving a circa fall 2005 G5 imac, Power PC, all software updated appropriately, btw.

 

What I want to do is fairly simple, I think. I'm in the process of burning a large collection of old VHS tapes to DVD-R -- this is not copy-protected stuff, it's old broadcast TV taped up to 16 years ago. I want to end up by tossing the tapes, which would be a big help spacewise around here. BUT I'm sorta scared to do that until I have at least one user set and one backup set of the disks; a friend would like a set as well.

 

Obviously, it would be great if I didn't have to do three recording passes on each VHS tape--I'd like to simply make one original DVD and two copies. (I assume that this would be quicker--that making a disk copy of a two-hour DVD in Popcorn 2 doesn't take two hours--but please enlighten me if I'm wrong about that.)

 

What I read seems to indicate that Popcorn 2 fits the bill, but I'm pretty scared by all the complaints I see on this forum. Frankly, I'm not sure I'm technically proficient enough to troubleshoot the sort of errors being reported--I can't make heads or tails out of some of the discussions I see here. (Muxing? Wozzat?)

 

So, is Popcorn 2 for me? Would Toast be better? (Or Popcorn 1, if I could find it?) And am I going to need two separate drives to make this work?

 

Again, all I want to do is duplicate non-copy-protected DVD-Rs, no special features, nothing fancy. If I can get that done, the money for the software will be well spent. I'd love to hear your advice, but please speak slowly and use small words. Thanks!

[Guest ivanatrox]

So, is Popcorn 2 for me? Would Toast be better? (Or Popcorn 1, if I could find it?) And am I going to need two separate drives to make this work?

 

Again, all I want to do is duplicate non-copy-protected DVD-Rs, no special features, nothing fancy. If I can get that done, the money for the software will be well spent. I'd love to hear your advice, but please speak slowly and use small words. Thanks!

 

Since all you want to do is duplicate non-copy-protected DVDs, Popcorn 2 would be a good fit for you and you don't need two seperate drives for it. Toast could do the same job but it also has a lot more features that you won't use.

[tsantee]

Guys, I'm hoping you can give me some simple advice. I'm a fairly bright guy, sort of, but not about computers, alas.

 

I'm driving a circa fall 2005 G5 imac, Power PC, all software updated appropriately, btw.

 

What I want to do is fairly simple, I think. I'm in the process of burning a large collection of old VHS tapes to DVD-R -- this is not copy-protected stuff, it's old broadcast TV taped up to 16 years ago. I want to end up by tossing the tapes, which would be a big help spacewise around here. BUT I'm sorta scared to do that until I have at least one user set and one backup set of the disks; a friend would like a set as well.

 

Obviously, it would be great if I didn't have to do three recording passes on each VHS tape--I'd like to simply make one original DVD and two copies. (I assume that this would be quicker--that making a disk copy of a two-hour DVD in Popcorn 2 doesn't take two hours--but please enlighten me if I'm wrong about that.)

 

What I read seems to indicate that Popcorn 2 fits the bill, but I'm pretty scared by all the complaints I see on this forum. Frankly, I'm not sure I'm technically proficient enough to troubleshoot the sort of errors being reported--I can't make heads or tails out of some of the discussions I see here. (Muxing? Wozzat?)

 

So, is Popcorn 2 for me? Would Toast be better? (Or Popcorn 1, if I could find it?) And am I going to need two separate drives to make this work?

 

Again, all I want to do is duplicate non-copy-protected DVD-Rs, no special features, nothing fancy. If I can get that done, the money for the software will be well spent. I'd love to hear your advice, but please speak slowly and use small words. Thanks!

I presume you're using a standalone DVD recorder to make the DVDs from the VHS tapes. In that case Popcorn 2 is all you need. You insert the video DVD in your iMac's drive and click the Popcorn burn button. You're asked how many copies you want to burn then press okay. Popcorn creates a temporary image file on the hard drive of your DVD, ejects the DVD when finished and asks you to insert a blank disc. When that disc is finished being burned, Popcorn ejects that disc and asks you to insert the next one and so on until you're done. The temporary file is automatically erased when you quit Popcorn.

 

As far as something going wrong, that frequently is due to poor quality media which, unfortunately, is commonplace. Memorex seems to be particularly bad. Since these are important discs to you that are not easily replaced I suggest Taiyo Yuden media as that is considered by many to be the best. You may need to mail order it. I have good experience with Verbatim media. You may also want to restart your Mac before starting a multiple-disc burning session to reduce any chance of failed burns.

 

I have not had one failed burn with Popcorn 2.

 

Toast 7 is capable of doing most of what Popcorn 2 does plus many other things. This makes it a bit more complicated to use but has a lot more uses.

[magnus523]

I very much appreciate the advice! Uhhh... I think I know the answer to this, but will there be any loss of picture or sound quality in copy disks? I mean, I know it's all supposed to be ones and zeroes, but I can't help but wonder...

[tsantee]

I very much appreciate the advice! Uhhh... I think I know the answer to this, but will there be any loss of picture or sound quality in copy disks? I mean, I know it's all supposed to be ones and zeroes, but I can't help but wonder...

As long as you're doing a straight duplication then there is no change at all in the DVD. Popcorn 2 does have a feature to compress dual-layer DVDs to fit single-layer media. That, naturally, lowers quality a little (but surprisingly very little). It also can convert the MPEGs on video DVDs to other video formats. Conversions always result in some change in quality. But what you're doing will be an identical duplication.