I recently installed a BenQ DQ60 dual burner. It came with Nero Express 6. I tried to copy a DVD and got a “write protected” error.

I then purchased DVD Shrink 3.2 and it wouldn’t let me copy due to the region setting on my BenQ drive.

I then downloaded a free trial of Region free CSS and got Shrink to work in a compression mode to 4.75g but not in dual recording on a 8.5g disk.

I then downloaded a free trial of Platinum and got copies of Express Mode and Gold Mode. I then uninstalled Region Free CSS.

I made a perfect copy of a DVD on a 8.5g dual layer disk using the Express Mode.

I went back to DVD shrink and noticed that my region setting is still showing "region free" after deleting Region free CSS. (That’s strange?)

I am wondering now if I should buy Platinum of just Express? Why would I need Gold? It appears that Platinum is just two programs bundled. Or is there something else there I don’t see?

Also, Do I even need Shrink if I have Express? Platinum or Gold?

It’s just too confusing sometimes huh?

I do not understand how you paid for dvdshrink-I thought that was a free program. Some people use dvd decripter and shrink. I use anydvd and clonedvd2 from slysoft.com and they work well. Anydvd takes out the copy protection and clonedvd copies the dvd. If your only using doublelayer dvds then you only need anydvd and another program to copy the dvd. Your version of Nero may have to be updated to Nero 7. I do not use doublelayer disks because of the cost. I think you should download a 21 day trial of anydvd and clonedvd2 and you can try them for 21days. Good luck.

DVD Shrink is free software. You should never pay for DVD Shrink.

It would depend on what you want to do, see the For Help sticky for more info and links to info.

Mack

I bought DVDFab Platinum because you get DVDFAb Gold AND Express. Express reduces Data so that a whole DVD (or a whole film) fits on one DVD. Gold doesn't compress the Data, you can split the film on two DVD's. So it depends what copies you want to make: One DVD with reduced picture quality or two DVD's of one film with full quality.

danoregon, would agree with scotton with the anydvd/ clonedvd2 combo. That being said , a registered(paid for it) user of Fab Platinum. No real regrets, just think the slysoft crew a little more on top of things. There a still issues with Fab (more in the rip/ compressed burn of complete discs(as opposed to Main movie only), that slysoft quite awhile ago solved.

Hi there! This is basically a cut and paste of a reply I made to a similar question in this forum. I hope that isn't against the post rules (I looked thru the rules first and didn't see anything against it - I'm new at posting, guess you could say i'm a little 'post shy' so if it is a no no, I'm sorry-just let me know and I'll remedy it in the future).

That said ... I've been a long time user of the free dvdfab xpress and it has always worked great ... since then, i've demo'd (sp?) plain xpress and fab platinum -
Loved all of these programs ... ended up buying plain fab xpress only b/c i didn't need the xtra features offered by platinum ...

Anyway - it's worked great for me no major problems .. the only problems i've had were easily remedied:
prob #1: wouldn't back up a particular movie but the following day a new version update was out and that fixed it ...
prob #2: roxio wasn't working or playing well with others so got rid of the roxio programs and reinstalled fabxpress again and all was fine (it seems there are a number of programs that can screw up dvdfab)

So in short - I love dvdfab and it's worked well with my 2 burners (pioneer and lite-on) and plays back great in my dvd players -
Since coming across dvdfab programs, I haven't used anything else to backup my movies -- I highly recommend it!

At risk of being corny - thank you to everyone at dvdfab, you have some really great programs!