Just finshed downloading first show: Questions!

Hi all-

I just finished dloading my first DVD Dead show (Vegas 92 - w- Steve Miller) and I had a few questions.

1. Im about to "burn" the tracks to 3 blank DVDS. Is there any reccomended software I use to do this? I have at home Nero and Pinnacle (which my wife uses for her movie projects).

2. Do I need to "do" anything before I actually burn the tracks. soory if this question seems odd, I just didnt know if they needed to be "converted" or adjusted or what not.

3. Is there any reccomended "cover art" program that I use for creating the DVD covers. I see some on this site, but Id actually like to do it myself, seems more fun that way.

4. This show is 12 gigs in size. I know I should leave UTorrent "open" as proper "courtesy" for others. Is there anyway to reduce or compress the files so I can make more room for more shows? DO I need to buy an external hard drive.

I guess this is it for now. Im a newbie, so be gentle.

Many Thanks.

CheesyBob

[slewofboots]

1. Nero is fine.

2. DVDs that you download are exactly the same as the original movie. This trips up some people new to this so don't feel bad. Unlike audio cds that get downloaded as .flac and which you need to convert to .wav prior to creating your audio CD, the video_ts folder and its files that you download for a DVD bootleg is exactly what gets burned to make the DVD video. So just start a Nero DVD-Video project and toss the contents of your downloaded VIDEO_TS folder (i.e. those .vob files, etc.) into Nero.

3. Nero Cover designer is great, although a bit tricky (make sure you only check the items you want to print when doing a audio cd-cover project for instance).

4. DVD are already compressed (MPEG-2), so there's no point to compression, plus you can't change the files w/o screwing up your seed. The .torrent file in there with the files you downloaded is "telling" all the people leeching off of you to look for the files, folders, names, dates, etc. to be the exact same as what you downloaded. Make sense?

[U2Lynne]

Just to add to #2. Sometimes the seeder puts the .md5 checksum in the VIDEO_TS folder. You do NOT want to burn it in there. Make sure the VIDEO_TS folder you burn only has .ifo, .bup, and .vob files in it.

[Five]

it is also good to keep the little bit of extra stuff like md5, txt file & artwork (if available) in a EXTRAS_TS folder on the same disc. that way you know where it is, and this will play on the vast majority of standalone players.

if you look in the "checksums demystified" link in my signature there's a little more tech stuff about it, the main thing I'm trying to impress here is to keep everything that you download verbatum for future trading. At least once a week I see a post of somebody who didn't do that when they were starting out and later regretted it. Besides, media is cheap.

When you're starting out the first thing you'll notice is that you can't get absolutely everything you want and it will make you frantic. Slow down a little and remember that this stuff comes around again after a while, and mail trades are a great way of filling in the holes in your collection.

welcome to the online trading community, you're gonna love it

Wow!

Great posts!

Thanks. I have more questions, but I have to go change diapers, so no time.

Just a quick thought though, from what you all say, it seems like there is no way around storing the large files on your hard drive for other people to seed.

If thats the case, is it common for people to keep about 5 shows "active" all the time for people to "leech" and delete the rest? It seems like thats where i am headed. I probably have room for about 60 gigs on my hard drive for this.

Ahhh, mail trading...that brings back FINE memories. Those good ole Maxell XL II's tapes. Seems like just yesterday I was getting crispy 1st gen SBD's of the Ventura 84' shows mailed to my dorm room!

Ahhh the hazy memories!

Many thanks.

Bob

[ststephen65]

i still have my sony tape deck!!!! i know what ya mean

[Five]

Bob,

yeah, 5 shows or whatever your drive can hold. Ideally download one and seed one that's complete. If there's no activity on a show and you still need to seed it to get your ratio up (so that you've uploaded at least what you've downloaded) keep it around a while and restart that torrent when it dies down a little and needs more seeders. you can also burn it to disc as you downloaded it and later put it back on your drive to share it again if you need to make some space. just avoid having 5+ torrents running at the same time because it doesn't do much good like that!