Creating Your Own Great DVDs and CDs: The Official HP Guide

Description

Make the most of your DVD or CD recorder.

• Burn music, video, and images!
• The fast, easy, and fun way to create great audio CDs, VCDs, and DVD movies
• Covers MusicMatch Jukebox, Roxio Easy CD Creator, HP RecordNow, HP DLA, Sonic MyDVD, and more!

The Official HP Guide

Getting a DVD or CD recorder? Already have one? Now, make the most of it! Creating Your Own Great DVDs and CDs, the only guide authorized by Hewlett-Packard, shows you how, one step at a time. Through start-to-finish projects, you'll learn to create every type of DVD, CD, and VCD, and record whatever you want—video, photographs, music, or data.

• Comparing and choosing the right recorder for your needs
• Installing an internal or external CD-RW or DVD+RW drive
• Preparing your PC to record DVDs and CDs reliably
• Ripping songs from a CD, or downloading songs from the Internet and creating a compilation CD
• Using software bundled with HP's CD Writers and DVD Writers and other leading DVD and CD recording tools: HP RecordNow, HP DLA, CyberLink PowerDVD, PhotoRelay, Roxio Easy CD Creator, Roxio CD Spin Doctor, Roxio CD Label Creator, Sonic MyDVD, ArcSoft ShowBiz, Microsoft Defrag for XP, MusicMatch Jukebox, and Netscape Composer
• Recording CD slide shows with digital photographs
• Enhancing your discs with labels and on-disc menus
• Troubleshooting recording problems
• Using your recorder to combine video, digital images, music, and data onto one disc

No matter whose drive you own, or whether you've ever burned a DVD or CD before, Creating Your Own Great DVDs and CDs will help you get outstanding results. With this book, it's fast, easy, and fun.

Sample Content

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Click here for a sample chapter for this book: 0131001051.pdf

Table of Contents

Preface.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
1. How Does DVD Recording Work?
The Language of Computers. Reading Data from a Disc. Recording DVDs and Audio CDs. Identifying Your Media. Caring for Your Optical Pets. Things to Avoid. Storing Your Discs. Cleaning Discs the Right Way. A Word about Copy-Protected Discs. DVD Formats on Parade. Summary.

2. Installing Your DVD Recorder.
Before We Begin. What Do I Need? Be Prepared. Time to Determine Your Settings. Determining Jumper Settings for an HP DVD-Writer. Determining Jumper Settings for Other DVD Recorders. Installing an Internal Drive. Installing an External Drive. Troubleshooting EIDE Installation Problems. Troubleshooting USB and FireWire Installation Problems. Summary.

3. Preparing Your Computer and Material.
Freeing Up Space on Your Hard Drive. Defragmenting Your Hard Drive. Disabling Scheduled Programs. Adding System Memory. Converting Files to Other Formats. Organizing Files. Summary.

4. Burning Discs with HP RecordNow.
Introducing HP RecordNow. Putting Computer Files on a Disc. Recording Your Music. Recording with Digital Audio Files. Recording Tracks from Existing Audio CDs. Copying a Disc. Project: Recording a "Road Trip" Audio CD. Requirements. Project: Creating a "Briefcase Backup" DVD. Requirements. Project: Copying a Backup Data CD for Archiving. Requirements. Summary.

5. Drag-and-Drop Recording with HP DLA.
Formatting a DLA Disc. Writing Files to a DLA Disc. Ejecting a DLA Disc. Recording Additional Files to a DLA Disc. Making a DLA Disc Compatible. Project: Recording a DVD Genealogy Archive Disc. Requirements. Project: Recording a "Working Copy" UDF Disc. Requirements. Project: Recording and Finalizing a PowerPoint Presentation Disc. Requirements. Summary.

6. Recording a DVD with Existing Files.
Introducing MyDVD. Using the Wizard. Adding a Menu Manually. Adding Video Clips Manually. Changing Menu Styles. Checking the Safe Zone. Previewing Your Work. Recording the Disc. Project: Recording a DVD Video Disc with MyDVD. Requirements. Project: Recording a cDVD with a Custom Menu. Requirements. Summary.

7. Direct-to-DVD Recording.
Connecting to the Source. Configuring Windows for Direct-to-DVD Recording. Using DMA Mode. Defragmenting Your Drive. Avoiding Multitasking. Selecting Capture Settings. Setting Chapter Points. Project: Recording Directly from a DV Camcorder. Requirements. Summary.

8. Watching DVD Video with PowerDVD.
Loading and Playing a DVD Movie. Basic Video Controls Explained. Showing and Minimizing the Panel. Switching Between Window and Full Screen. Pausing and Stopping the Movie. Fast-Forward and Rewind. Selecting a Chapter. Using Next and Previous. Using Repeat. Setting the Volume Level. Selecting an Audio Stream. Switching Angles. Bookmarking Scenes. Displaying Subtitling. Using File Mode. Using the Menu Pad. Project: Capturing and E-mailing Images from Digital Video. Requirements. Summary.

9. Printing Disc Labels and Inserts.
Do I Need Labels and Inserts? Applying Labels. Project: Creating a Label. Requirements. Project: Creating an Insert Set. Requirements. Summary.

10. Recording Advanced Formats and Video CD Discs.
Introducing Easy CD Creator 5. Video CDs vs. DVD Video Discs. Introducing Mixed-Mode Recording. Introducing Multisession Recording. Recording an Incremental Multisession Disc. Recording a Multivolume Multisession Disc. Selecting a Session from a Multivolume Multisession Disc. Recording with a Disc Image. Saving a Disc Image. Recording a CD from a Disc Image. Project: Creating a Video CD. Requirements. Project: Recording a Promotional CD-Extra Disc. Requirements. Project: Recording a Bootable CD-ROM. Requirements. Summary.

11. Recording Digital Photographs on CD.
Introducing PhotoRelay. Creating a Thumbnail Album. Printing Photographs. E-mailing Photographs. Project: Creating a Family Photo CD with PhotoRelay. Requirements. Project: Creating a Video Postcard on CD. Requirements. Summary.

12. Making Movies with ArcSoft ShowBiz.
Introducing ShowBiz. Expanding Your Media Library. Building a Movie from Media Elements. Adding Transitions. Editing with the Timeline. Creating a Different Look with Effects. Adding Text to Your Movie. Previewing Your Work in ShowBiz. Saving Your Classic to Disc. Summary.

13. Troubleshooting Recorder Problems.
Common Hardware Problems. Common Software Problems. Eliminating Buffer Underrun Errors. Summary.

14. Adding an HTML Menu System.
Do I Need a Menu? Multimedia Material. Internet Content. Text-Based Material. Off-Site Web Content. Programs to Download. Discs You'll Give to Others. Adding Menus to a DVD. Why Use HTML? Easy to Learn. Compatible with Most Computers. Large Installed Base. Did I Mention It Was Free? Familiar Controls. A Wide Range of Commands. More to Come. Designing Your Menus. HTML Editing vs. Web Design vs. Page Layout. The Basics: HTML Editing. The Visual Approach: Web Design. The Alternative: Page Layout and Word Processing. Project: Building an HTML Menu. Requirements. Summary.

15. Converting Albums and Cassettes to Audio CDs.
A Word of Caution. What Do I Need? Project: Transferring a Cassette to Audio CD. Requirements. Summary.

Appendix A. Hewlett-Packard Technical Support's Frequently Asked Questions.
Appendix B. Tips on Buying a Recorder.
Appendix C. Using Musicmatch Jukebox.
Glossary.
Index.

Preface

Preface

Who would have ever thought that DVD recordingwould be so affordable so soon? When I wrote myfirst book on the subject of optical recording in 1997, aCD recorder was out of budgetary reach for most ofus—in fact, I had bought my own personal drive onlyabout three months before! (I had gathered a year ortwo of previous recording experience, strictly fromusing a very expensive CD recorder that my companyhad bought to handle backups at the office.) From thefirst appearance of CD recorders in the late 1980s, ittook a good chunk of a decade for CD recordingtechnology to gain acceptance and hardware andsoftware prices to drop.

Today, CD recording technology is "old hat"—if you're shoppingfor a computer these days, you'll find that virtually every model hasa CD-RW drive as standard equipment. But, unlike the early daysof CD recording, it took only a couple of years for affordable DVDrecording hardware and software to arrive on the scene. DVD discscan store it all: gigabytes of high-quality digital video, thousands ofMP3 audio files, and all of the digital images that a professional photographercan produce in an entire career! (Heck, rewriteable DVDdiscs are even well suited for mundane chores you've been performingall along, such as storing hard drive backup data.)

In writing this book, I've made a serious—and I hope a successful—attempt at gathering together all of the information that a PC owner islikely to need to explore the exciting world of DVD recording. By theway, that includes several chapters that concern CD recording, aswell—things such as disc label printing and standard Red Book audioCD recording—just in case you have to return to the "archaic" worldof 700 MB from time to time.

Definitely not! Don't get me wrong, I have an HP drive in my ownPC—in my personal opinion, they make some of the best hardware onthe planet—but like every title in the HP Books series, this book hasbeen expressly written for all PC owners who want to record DVDsand CDs, using any recorder on the market from any manufacturer. Infact, I talk about specific hardware features in only one or two places inthe book, and the recommendations and tips I mention will carry overto any recorder.

To be honest, this book makes a great linear reading adventure—butonly if you're a novice when it comes to optical recording, and you'reinterested in what makes things tick. If you already have experiencerecording basic discs, your recorder is already installed, or you're justnot interested in how your DVD recorder works, you may decide toskip the material at the beginning and return to it later. This section willhelp familiarize you with the design of the book.

The first group of three chapters explains how optical recordingworks—how your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive readsfiles and music from a disc and how your recorder stores informationon a blank CD or DVD. You'll also learn how to install an internal orexternal DVD recorder, using an EIDE, FireWire, or USB connection.I'll show you how to prepare both your computer and your data beforeyou record, assuring you of top performance, error-free operation, andthe best organization for your finished discs.

The next three chapters provide you with complete, step-by-stepprocedures for burning basic audio and data discs with HP Record-Now,along with drag-and-drop recording within Windows, using HPDLA. I'll cover how you can create your own DVD Video discs for usein most DVD players, using MyDVD.

The final chapters cover the more exotic procedures and subjectsin optical recording. You'll learn how to record digital video directly todisc, how to use PowerDVD to watch DVD movies on your PC, andhow to print your own professional-looking custom disc labels andjewel box inserts. I'll discuss advanced formats, such as CD-Extra,Video CDs, and multisession discs, and show you how to create eachone, step by step. I'll also show you how to create digital photographslide show discs, how to edit your own digital video movies, and howto archive your existing vinyl albums and cassettes to audio CDs.You'll even learn how to design and produce a powerful menu systemfor your data discs with the same tools you use to create Web pages!Finally, I provide a software- and hardware-troubleshooting chapteras well.

At the end of the book, you'll find a helpful Glossary (which can aidyou in keeping track of what strange term means what), as well asvaluable recording and troubleshooting tips from Hewlett-Packard'stechnical support group. Just in case you haven't bought a recorder yetand you're shopping for one right now, I also provide a quick rundownof the features to look for in a recorder—as well as the "Do's andDon'ts" of buying any computer hardware online.

Before I launch into Chapter 1, let me familiarize you with the specialfeatures you'll find in the text:

• You'll find Tips that I've added to help you save time and money—as well as avoid potential pitfalls and recording errors.
• Pay close attention to any Caution icons in the text—whatever it is, you should definitely avoid it!
• Make sure that you have all of the Requirements that I've listed for a project before you begin the step-by-step procedure.

Here are my recommendations (don't forget to return later to readchapters that you've skipped):

• If you haven't bought your recorder yet, read through the chapter titled "Tips on Buying Your Recorder"—then begin with Chapter 1.
• If you've already bought your recorder but haven't installed it, begin with Chapter 2.
• If you're interested in mastering the basics of recording and your drive is already working, begin with Chapter 3.
• Finally, if you're already well experienced with burning audio and data CDs and you'd like to jump into recording digital video on a DVD, begin with Chapter 6.

It's my sincere hope that you'll find this book valuable: I hope itanswers your questions, provides an occasional chuckle and—most ofall—helps you have fun with your DVD recorder. If you have any questionsor comments you'd like to send me, please visit my Web site,MLC Books Online, at http://home.mlcbooks.com

And now...let's Burn It!

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