These tips to fix dvd drive errors will also work for a CD or CDR drive. The first thing we need to do is determine where the issue is. It can either be a physical issue like power not getting to the drive or a IDE / SATA cable has come unplugged. It could be a Windows operating system problem that is preventing your drive from showing up or reading disks and finally it could be that disk is garbage. You might have a scratched up dirty disk and it is unreadable by your player.

Let’s see how we can identify and resolve these issues. I see issues with drives on a daily basis in my day job as well as hundreds of questions coming in at Ask The Admin. Let me share some of my troubleshooting tips with you. Maybe it will stop the questions – but I doubt it!

These instructions can be used for both internal and external drives but some of the fundamentals might be a little different. Like the power cord versus the internal power connector, the USB interface or a IDE connector. But use your intuition to guide you.

Some of these problems are common both to the external and internal drive and can be fixed with a little application or by following the tutorials that come with these drives.

Step one: Is the drive not showing up in Windows Explorer? Here I can see my CD burner but not my DVD burner. My DVD burner is usually drive E:\.

First things first, we should check the power and connections to your computer.External drives can be checked while the system is powered on but internal drives will need you to shutdown the system and remove the power cord before beginning.

If the cables are connected but loose pull them free and reconnect them.  Start the system back up and see if the drive or drives are showing up. If you have recently modified your drives in your system and have removed or changed jumper settings remember cable select is normally the best way to go. If you are on an external drive these jumpers will not matter.

When the system is on and the drive is getting power you can push the eject button and it will open. If it does not open and it is powered on it can be a physical issue which we will see below.

Step two: If your drive is getting power and will not open or close, it is time for the paper clip trick. Sometimes these drives get stuck closed and you cannot open them. This can be from someone spilling something or using the drive as a cup holder. Go get a paper clip and straighten it out. Ladies and gentleman we will perform this amazing feat of opening a stuck drive with a paper clip and only a paper clip. Are you ready?

Push the paper clip into the small hole located on the right, left or slightly to the right of the left hand side in the older drive above. Pushing the paper clip in the hole releases the door and you can open it with your hands. If it is sticky use a damp cloth to clean it.

Step three: Your drive is opening and closing and it still doesn’t work? We need to check that the drive is connected to the computer. Just as you checked the power, check the connectors. See if the drive now shows up in your computer.

Step four: You have ruled out power and system connections. Now let us look at the device manager in Windows. Open it by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting manage. Then select Device Manager. On older machines it will be in the system properties and then device manager.  If there is a red exclamation point next to one of the items, resolve it and your problems will go away. The drive should appear like this:

A device with an error will have this icon before it:

Step five: If your drive has power and your Windows operating system recognizes it but still it does not read the discs it may be because of a dirty laser lens in the drive. Clean the laser lens with a cleaning kit or run some other discs after the cleaning kit and then try. If the drive works after cleaning it you have found your issue.

Step six: If the drive still is not reading your disk but it is connected and the system sees it, try another disk. If this other disk works it can be the disk. Some older drives cannot read CDR’s or CDRW’s. Try a purchased CD  and see if that works. If so you should probably replace your drive.

Got any other tips for fixing DVD Drive errors – share them with us in the comments!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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So you have the last episode of the Sopranos to watch and no way to get it to play on your DVD player? I will help you learn how to burn mkv files to DVD with a free application!

The application is called E.M. Free MKV Video2Dvd V3.10 (Freeware). It can be downloaded from here. Once you download and install it you will be ready to convert and burn your MKV files to a DVD directly or to an ISO file to burn later on. Either which way you will be on your way to watching your video file in no time.

You will then choose between Easy Mode and Advanced Mode. The easy mode is well um….easy! So that is the way we went. If you need to modify the menus, chapters, subtitles or other good stuff choose the advanced mode option.

Hit OK and you will see the program’s main interface. This is where you will drag and drop your MKV file (or files) to be converted to a DVD. It looks like this:

Locate your MKV file in Windows Explorer and drag and drop the file in the white portion of the window above. Repeat the process for any other files you want in the same compilation. Could it be any easier? Yeah well they could do it for you right! But this is pretty damn easy.

Once you get your files in there can you guess what we do next?

If you said hit the Burn Now button – shame on you Make Use of reader!  We should look at the settings before burning! If you don’t want to hit Burn Now choose your output files as ISO or burn to DVD and you are done.

You will see choices for NTSC and PAL on the TV system pull down menu on the left hand side. And then on the right you will see the display aspect ratio. You can drop that down to choose widescreen or normal old TV options on the aspect ratio. 4:3 is normal for those of you who don’t know. You can also hit the change profile button to see the pre-configured profiles for quality. I left mine on the Automatic adjustment setting. You can choose the best setting for yourself and obviously the worse the quality the more you can fit on the disk.

Now you are ready to burn. Hit OK on the settings screen and Burn Now on the main interface. From there you will see your two options. One for a DVD disk burn and another for a straight ISO image. You can burn the ISO later.

Once you select your burn now preference you will see the progress of the burn. My video was just a sample 5 minute clip and it finished almost instantly.

I saw this and knew I was done. I now had a ISO I could burn. If I had a DVD burner in this machine I would have burned directly.

How do you deal with MKV files? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Speaking of optical disks, CD and DVD are the most commonly used media by common people nowadays to store their multimedia digital memories. Being a media that supports interactive menus, it’s a bit surprising that most people use DVD only to store the raw data – just a direct copy of the files from the hard drive.

Maybe they just don’t know how to make a DVD, or they think that creating DVD interactive menus is not for everybody, “those complicated things are too advanced for my simple brain” they might say.

Getting started with iDVD

But compiling pictures and videos to make your own interactive DVD shouldn’t be a daunting task. Apple provides its users with a tool to make a DVD easily. The name is iDVD.

I was opening iPhoto to organize my photos and videos taken from my cameras when I saw that there’s iDVD sitting there nearby waiting. Curious, I opened it and found out that the DVD creation process is as simple as using other iLife apps like iWeb and Garageband.

When you open iDVD, you’ll get the familiar menu with several start options. As our purpose today is to quickly and easily create an interactive DVD with our personal photos and videos, the suggested choice is “Magic iDVD“.

The next step is giving your project a name and choose the theme for it. There are several theme groups available: 7.0, 6.0, 5.0 and older versions. Each group has several themes to choose for. I just picked the “Revolution” theme as it’s the first choice that appeared.

Then you can browse the media folder to find items that you want to include in the DVD. The materials could be music, pictures and movies. Adding them to the project is just a matter of dragging and dropping.

Hit preview to see what the end result will look like. A preview window will appear, complete with the remote control-like playback interface.

If your project contains a big size of data collection, it might exceed the maximum capacity of the disc and iDVD will give you a pop-up notification.

You could delete some files to reduce the size, or you could try to modify the encoder setting. To do that, open “Project Info” from the “Project” menu (or use Command + Shift + I),

And choose the lower quality setting from the “Encoding” drop down menu.

Click “Start Project” to enter the next stage.

Giving the final touch

There are other things that you can adjust from the menu interface. Click the “Menu Info” buttom at the bottom left of the window.

The menu info window will appear. Here you can adjust the loop duration, audio volume, buttons and drop zone. You could also change the background music simply by dragging and dropping any audio file from the hard drive to the audio box.

You’ll see the general folders of the DVD such as Movies, Pictures and Music. The folder and sub folder names could be edited easily by double clicking on it.

While editing the names, a text object setting dialog will appear. You could choose the font type and size here.

The last step is producing the DVD. From the File menu choose “Burn DVD” or hit “Command + R“. You could also save the DVD as an image to store in the hard drive (Shift + Command +R).

Another way to start the DVD burning process is by clicking the “Burn” button at the lower bar of the window next to the “Play” button. The process will stall unless you have a blank DVD ready in the drive.

And all that’s left to do is wait. The time will depend on how big your files are and how strong your Mac is. You could do something else while iDVD handle the necessary steps one by one.

There are a lot of iDVD features still uncovered by this short introduction, but I think it should be enough to start your own DVD project.

Have you tried compiling personal movies and pictures into an interactive DVD? Do you know other free alternatives to iDVD? Please share using the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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So, instead of buying a new DVD copy every time the old one has been scratched to bits; a better solution would be to convert the movie inside the fragile physical disc into a digital file, store it inside a computer hard drive or portable media player, and watch the copy as many times as you want.

Apple has succesfully made the iPod the most well known name of portable media players, thanks to the great design, intuitive interface, and the high quality of the product. This makes the iPod the perfect home for the converted DVD movies. This article will help you effortlessly put a DVD movie onto your iPod.

The missing ripper

No doubt the best free tool to extract the content of a DVD as a video file is Handbrake. This is like a one click solution for your DVD converting needs.

But there are many online discussions mentioning that converting the DVD directly using Handbrake doesn’t always give users the best result. To keep the result as good as possible, the DVD has to be ripped first to the hard drive before being converted by Handbrake.

There’s only one name that keeps popping up as the best free tool to rip DVD: MacTheRipper.

This is a free app, but you actually have to do a little web searching to get the download link. There’s a story behind these extra steps : MacTheRipper is developed in a country where ripping DVD’s (even the ones that you legally own) is forbidden by law, so the developer had to take the down the link.  To honor the developer’s goodwill, I will not include any link here either. But worry not, finding the app is not that difficult. -cough-torrent-cough- ahem. ‘Scuse me.

Rip the DVD into a VIDEO_TS folder, then open the folder as a source from Handbrake.

Choose Your Configurations

In order not to mess things up with all the complicated configurations, the first thing you need to do is to choose the resulting file you want to produce out of the (ripped) DVD.

There are some pre-configured settings that you can choose from the preset pane on the right. Choose iPod because that’s the topic today. Choose Low-rez if you only want to watch the video on your iPod, but choose Hi-rez if you are also thinking of plugging the iPod to your TV and watching the movie from the real tube.

The video configuration will always change, reflecting what setting you choose from the right pane. Unless you understand what you are doing, I suggest you don’t change anything from the configuration in the main window.

Instead, go to the Audio & Subtitles tab. I also prefer not to mess with the audio configuration, but this is the place to go if you want to add subtitles to the converted video. Just choose one subtitle from the available option.

The last step is to click the “Start” button above and make yourself some coffee while waiting for the process to finish.

If you have more than one movie to be converted, click the “Add to Queue” button after finishing the settings for one movie, then move on to the next movie. After all the movies are standing in line, you can click the “Start” button.

After the conversion process is finished, all of the converted movies will be added to iTunes and automatically synchronized to your iPod when the gadget is connected to your Mac.

Now you can safely keep those discs and enjoy the pod.

Handbrake is also available in Windows and Linux version, while MacTheRipper is Mac only.

How do you use rip your movies for iPod viewing? Do you have an easier way to do it?   If so, why not show off your expertise in the comments below?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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I have had a few favorites and they have all either become paid software or they have been crippled via updates. The movie industry is a hard cookie to have mad at ya…

So the lawyers get cease and desist letters out to the developers and hey why would a free app writer want a long drawn out battle in court? Most don’t and cave.

Please note that it depends where you live – but deciding to copy DVDs that are copyright protected might be illegal! Know your country/state laws regarding ripping DVD’s. I am sticking by my story that I back up all my DVD’s so my little one doesn’t destroy them and the $30 they cost!

So the new kid on the block is WinX DVD ripper. I put it through the normal tests and it is really easy to use! Let’s take a look

Let’s set up our options, load our DVD in our drive and see how it works.

You choose the format you want to convert to by clicking on the appropriate tab. I chose the first one which is AVI (my format of choice). Then I left all of the settings alone and just modified the path to output to above the settings here:

I left the folder name the same and changed the drive it was writing to. When I was done with the settings I made sure my DVD was in a DVD ROM and recognized by my system and then I hit the blue start button.

Now it was time to play the waiting game..

You have the option of shutting down your machine when the rip is complete or for the application to open the output folder when it is done. If you want either of these options to happen simply check the corresponding box.

Once the rip is complete you will have a video file in the format of your choice in the folder you specified a few steps earlier. If you did not change the path it will live in the same drive you installed the software in a directory called OutPutFolder.

For real – I have never seen a quicker or easier method to ripping. What do you guys use to do this dirty job? Care to share your favorite applications to copy copyright protected DVDs with us in the comments? We would love to hear from you!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Varun wrote an article a while back on how to repair damaged CDs and briefly mentioned using toothpaste.  In this article, I’m going to take a closer look at the claim that even when many store-bought CD-repair products fail, you can fix a scratched CD with toothpaste.

True or False: Can You Fix a Scratched CD With Toothpaste?

Taken at face value, the claim seems very odd and very likely false. How could smearing a paste on the surface of your CD save the data that lies within? Why not just dip your CD in ketchup, jelly or dish soap for that matter? The truth about the toothpaste claim comes out when you take a look at how a CD actually works. Please examine my poorly drawn sketch of a cross section of a standard CD.

Each of the major layers of a typical CD are displayed here. When you flip over a CD and hold it up to the light to look for a scratch, what you’re looking at is the “thick” polycarbonate plastic layer. I put the word thick in quotes, because we’re talking 1.2 mm here.

Now, if you follow the path of the laser beam through the clear plastic layer, you’ll see that it strikes the aluminum (or reflective) layer. This layer bounces the light directly back to the CD reader. As the CD spins, the time it takes for the light to reflect and return tells your CD ROM whether or not there’s a “pit” or “land” – the structure within the CD where the data is encoded.

The technology within your CD/DVD drive is actually very impressive considering that the process where the laser from your drive “reads” this structure is very precise.  When the outer surface of the polycarbonate layer is nice and smooth, this process works slick – and your music or video game runs like a champ. However, what happens when there’s a significant scratch on the outer surface of the polycarbonate layer?

As the CD spins and the laser is busy scanning the pit data pattern along each track and decoding the information, when it hits a significant scratch in the polycarbonate surface, the laser beam is deflected just enough so that the pit data pattern is misread.

Now, normally for very small or occasional scratches, this isn’t a huge deal because the data on the CD and the CD drive circuitry has an integrated error-checking code system to handle the occasional misread bit here and there. However, when the scratch is significant enough so that the laser beam misreads a large batch of the track, the disk either skips or becomes unreadable.

Toothpaste To The Rescue – A Minty Fresh CD Repair

A lot of people testify that rubbing toothpaste (either with a soft cloth or a cotton swab) along the scratch has the ability to correct the problem described above. Does this really work, and if so – why? The answer is: Yes. It works, and it works well.

First, when you place a dab of toothpaste on the scratch (preferably baking soda or other “gritty” paste, not gel) and rub the paste into the scratch from the center of the CD outward, you are essentially “sanding” down the imperfection on the surface of the polycarbonate plastic layer. By sanding away the imperfection, you’re removing deflection of the laser beam, and by doing so you’re correcting the problem. Of course, before you attempt to do a “toothpaste buff,” always make sure to wash off any dust and fingerprints from the surface of the CD.

Dry it off with a soft cloth, and always wipe the CD starting from the center and outward toward the outer edge of the CD. This will reduce the chance that you’ll introduce any additional scratches across multiple tracks. Once the CD is clean and dry, you’re ready to buff the surface with toothpaste.

Apply a dab of paste (not gel) to a cotton swab or soft cloth and apply it directly to the scratch. Rub the toothpaste in small circles (like you’re buffing a car) along the length of the scratch. This goes against everything your mother ever told you about not touching the back of a CD – but trust me, you’re doing the right thing.

After a while, you’ll notice that while you’ve created some very fine surface scratches, the deeper scratch has either grown faint or entirely disappeared. Don’t apply too much force when you’re “sanding” the scratch – a gentle circular motion is all you need to buff it away. When you’re satisfied that the scratch is either gone or reduced enough to make a difference, put the CD through another gentle rinse and dry.

Congratulations – you’ve just proven that yes, it is possible to fix a scratched CD with toothpaste! If it doesn’t work for you, then follow Karl’s advice on how to read the data off of your scratched disk.

Have you ever attempted the toothpaste CD repair, or do you have any tips and tricks of your own to fix scratches on a CD? Share your insights with MakeUseOf readers in the comments section below.

Image Credit : Gustavo

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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So when I happed upon VideoSpiritLite and saw that it could convert video files from and to any of these formats, VCD / SVCD / DVD / MPEG / AVI / DivX/ASF / WMV/DAT / SWF / FLV / 3GP / RM / MP4 / MOV, I was pretty happy and I hadn’t even downloaded the application yet.

While I started downloading the LITE version that is free from here I read through its features and it does some really neat stuff, other than converting, like extracting audio or still pictures from video. They do have a PRO version that costs money the only difference between the two products is the ability to edit the videos. Let’s take a look at what we can do with the free version.

The download was 10.9MB and once I downloaded it, I extracted the exe file and started installing. When it was completed in about 45 seconds it launched the application. You will see an info box when the application starts, prompting you to check that you have each of these three codec packs installed. They are K-lite which I wrote about here, Real Alternative and Quick Time.

With these three codec packs you can convert video files to and from any of the above formats for free! If you do not have any of them installed follow their respective links to grab and install them. I had all of them installed on my system so I was good to go.

Once you complete that, you will click close and you will then see the application. It looks like this:

I know, I know, you want to see how to convert a video file… So here we go. Start with Add Task

Then I chose Convert One File and that brings up the Wizard to get your video converted. Just fill out the fields

I chose the type I want to convert my video to, then I chose the input video and it automatically gives you the most reasonable settings but, if you know what you are doing you can go in and modify most settings.

When you are done hit OK. This will not start the conversion yet. The program can do batch processing – meaning you can set multiple files to convert and then start it. We will just be doing one today though. After you hit OK you will see a task like so:

Hit Start and you are off…

Once the conversion is complete you can view or copy the file from the output folder to where it needs to go. Very easy, and VERY handy!

To use the other features we were talking about it is as simple as going back to Add Task and selecting one of the other options:

You will see options to Split, Join and extract images. You can also convert a DVD. I was not able to figure out how to extract audio only from a video file but their website listed it as a feature. If you figure out how to do it – let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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The file is just under 700KB and has been downloaded from the author’s website almost 3 million times. And today, I needed to create some cases for my um, well… ahh,  MY (Those are the words I was looking for!!) movies that I’ve burnt and am going to move down to the basement for storage. I wanted them to be easily recognizable on a bookshelf so that I can see and grab whatever I want.

Enter DVD Print which can be grabbed from here http://www.dancemammal.com/dvdprint.htm. Once you have downloaded the application, you just need to extract it and run it. This is a portable application, so you do not have to install anything.  Once you run the application, you will see a screen similar to this. Also, note that the application asks for registration information that is not discussed on the website or in the documentation. But I have used it for a while now without having any issues. So, if you run into issues or know how to obtain a registration code by all means let us know in the comments!

The left side of the program’s window is what you see above and the right side is a link to a free resource for CD/DVD covers (FreeCovers.co.uk).

Now that you have seen the program – let’s try to make a printable DVD movie cover. Let’s try it with The Simpsons.

Next, you will see the results below the search box. Each result will show what it contains – in this case, I wanted the front DVD Cover so I was looking for the word front. Then, I saw it and clicked on it. The application opens an external website and requires you to download and save the image to your machine to use it.

That’s it! I found it and proceeded to download the cover by clicking Download Cover. The website requires registration but we used BugMeNot to get a username and password.

I saved the image to my desktop. Next, I opened the image in DVD Print by clicking on Open Image.

Then my image appeared in the main window. I hit the drop-down box to choose what I was looking to print. In this case, it is a DVD Box Cover. I hit Preview and it looked great! This was what I saw:

I printed it out and it was perfect! This is a huge help for me and my monsterous DVD collection. Maybe I will start on my music next. Only 750GB of it – that shouldn’t take me too long, right? Maybe this Batch mode from the application will help. I could not find any documentation on it but maybe one of you readers have used it – if you have let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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That’s why modern people can afford to lose their computers but not the data inside. That’s also why the necessity of backing up your data is unquestionable.

Disc Burning in Mac OS X

One of today’s most popular and practical method of data back up is disc burning, and there are two popular disc formats used by the masses: CD (up to 700 MB worth of data) and DVD (up to 4.7 GB worth of data).

Mac OS X comes with its own built-in disc burning feature and users have several ways to access it. I’ll show you how to use native Mac apps to burn CDs and DVDs for free without installing anything.

1. From the iLife Suite

Mac users can burn their music, photo and movie collection directly from the respective iLife applications. There’s a “Burn Disc” button in iTunes, The “Share –> Burn” menu in iPhoto, And the burn button in iDVD.

2. From Finder

You can create a Burn Folder in Finder by choosing “File –> New Burn Folder” menu or by using “Command + Shift + B” key combination. Give name to the folder and then drag and drop the files and folders that you want to backup.

After everything is in place, open the burn folder and click the “Burn” button on the top right corner of the window.

3. From Disk Utility

Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app) and you can see that there’s the Burn button in the main window. Please note that Disk Utility can only burn from an image file. So, the first thing to do is to choose or create an image file. (You can create an image file by clicking the “New Image” button.)

The advantage of using Disk Utility is that you can create multisession disc. Just make sure you tick the “Leave Disc appendable” box before you start burning.

4. Burn Baby, Burn!

Mac OS X built-in disc burning feature has some limitations. The main one is that users should use different apps to create different kind of discs, and the kinds of disc that can be created is limited. That’s why there are still so many users who use third party disc burning application. We mentioned some of them in the article about free alternatives to Nero CD / DVD burner.

One good and free alternative of such app is Burn. This is an all-in-one, easy to use disc-burning software for Mac that has the ability to burn different kinds of discs with only a few clicks.

To use Burn, choose the type of disc you want to create from one of the tabs on the upper part of the window. There are three main types of disc available: Data, Audio, Video, with an additional ability to Copy disc.

The next step is to drag and drop the files you want to burn into the main window. Then, give the disc a name and click “Burn”. That’s it. No more complicated processes necessary.

There’s a list of adjustable sub-types of disc next to the name field. Other settings can be changed from the Preferences menu.

To create a multisession disc, be sure to check to the “Allow more sessions” box. And if you use CD-RW or DVD-RW, there’s the option to erase the disc before burning.

Burn is by far the easiest disc burning software that I’ve come across. I also think that this one is better than most of the paid competitors.

Have you tried Burn? Do you know other alternatives to burn CDs and DVDs for free? Share your burning experiences in the comment below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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That’s right, kiddies! I have an awesome free program that attempts to get your data back for you lickity split! Here’s how you can read and retrieve all the data from scratched CDs and DVDs.

To start my testings, I whipped out an old spindle of CDs circa 2003. These things were scratched to high hell and they worked (a little) in my CD-ROM but not reliably.

Next, I downloaded Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier version 3.56 from here: http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29 and simply ran it without installation. I saw this screen below:

It looked pretty straight forward so, I decided to give it a whirl. I hit the browse button for the source field and then for the target field; and proceeded to select my CD-ROM and a blank folder respectively.

Then, I hit the Copy button and it took off! It read and copied my whole disk in a few minutes flat! I tested the files and they were working just fine.

I grabbed another disk that I knew was seriously flucked up and again hit Copy. When I say seriously flucked up, I really mean it – I took a screwdriver to the disk and made a scratch from end to end!

This time, the copying process took a bit longer and the drive made some crazy noises but it did successfully copy all my files. This is awesome. I wish I had something like this 5 years ago after my great CD disaster. But hey, that can be a story for another time.

Let’s check out the programs settings:

Everything is pretty straight forward and you will not find yourself looking to use them unless your disk is beyond repair and files are erroring out. Strangely, I could not make this happen. My slider was also on the best data recovery side but you can also push it towards the faster side if the CD is not horribly damaged.

And of course, batch mode can be used to do multiple disks extractions:

This is great if you have multiple drives. Just add the locations and they will do their thing in order from top to bottom.

Do you have a free CD/DVD recovery program that is reliable? If you do or aware of any alternative way to read scratched DVDs or CDs, let us know about it in the comments.

If your disc is broken beyond repair, or at least, that’s what you think — then read Varun’s post on How To Repair Damaged CD’s Or DVD’s & Recover Data. You’re bound to learn something new.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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• Six Steps To Help You Fix Common DVD Drive Errors (7)
• Make Printable DVD Movie Covers with DVD Print [Windows] (10)

• Easily share your collection, ratings, reviews with friends
• Look up your collection via your cell phone while shopping
• Compare online prices to get better deals
• List your collection in social networking sites like Facebook

With DVDSpot closing down last year, thousands of movie collectors seem to have been left in the lurch. Social sites for cinephiles such as Flixter and iHeartMovies do not offer a permanent offline solution for cataloging. With that in mind, here’s a look at websites that allow you to catalog your movie collection online, and also let you export your collection for offline backup.

GuruLib

Developed by two students in their spare time, this site allows you to catalog and share movies, books, music, and games. You can add items by searching, entering UPC/ISBN details, scanning barcodes, or importing in bulk via CSV/XML. You can choose privacy settings for your shelf, get automatic recommendations, and generate Genre, Actor, and Director clouds. You can track lent/borrowed items even with non-members, export your library, and upload documents. It supports adding items to your wishlist by cellphone using UPC/ISBN, but does not support browsing or searching with your mobile.

There are cool ways to view your collection including an iTunes-style cover flow, that you can even set as your screensaver. The freebies – a Facebook application, a widget for your blog, an iGoogle Module, an RSS feed, and an Amazon bookmarklet – are unparalleled among all these websites.

iTrackMine

iTrackMine is a collection manager for tracking, trading, and lending various items like movies, books, games, wine, and gadgets. You can add movies by scanning barcodes, searching, importing from files, or from iTunes, CollectorZ, Delicious Library, etc. It allows you to export your collection along with current market prices for insurance purposes. Using the cellphone assistant, you can search, browse, check prices, and add items to collections, wish lists, etc.

You can manage auto-feeds to Twitter and Friendfeed. The site only offers a default list view for your movies and there is no support for any statistics. iTrackMine is recommended if you wish to manage all of your movies, books, etc. at one place and are looking for good support on the cellphone.

DVDAficionado

This site allows you to share, browse, and search your collection, compare prices among top retailers, and do all this via your cellphone. Apart from titles, the search works with UPCs, ASINs, IMDB IDs, Directors, etc., and is incredibly easy to use. Though it doesn’t yet support bulk import, it has an active community of users, and supports bulk export to a text file. The development process is very transparent allowing you to submit new titles, and prioritize feature requests and defects. There is minimal support for statistics, and this site is thus best suited for those actively buying movies.

DVDCorral

DVD Corral has a nice interface with plenty of eye candy. You can scan your collection by UPC, import in bulk via CSV/XML, or search individually. It has a built-in loan manager, supports exporting to CSV for backup, and creating wishlists. You can view your collection in multiple ways, and easily post a link to Facebook and Delicious from within the site. You can also buy or rent downloadable digital movies from Amazon. At present, it does not offer any statistical view of your collection, but the site is under active development so expect more features in the coming months.

DVDCrate

DVD Crate allows you to track and catalog movies you own, wish to see, and have ordered. You can share these lists with others, import and export lists for backup, and is simple and fast to use. DVD Crate is for stats lovers: check interesting statistics, such as Top Actors/Directors/Genres, Decade, etc. The site seems to be maintained by a single developer, so enhancements are very slow. On the other hand, there is visibility for tracking enhancement requests, defects, roadmap, etc.

Are you familiar with any better website that allow users to catalog their movies online? Share them in comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Today I’ll be showing you how to use the free DVD Flick to convert just about any video files to DVD format. DVD Flick supports a huge number of audio and video file formats. You may create DVDs from avi, vob, iso, wmv, mp4 and even Flash video (FLV) so that you may preserve that YouTube pirated movie cute cat video for generations.

For starters, we’ll need a good video file. In this example, I’ve downloaded the latest episode of Pure Pwnage, which is probably the greatest ever Internet show about pr0s who pwn n00bs @ g4m3z. If you can read that last part, you might have already seen the show. Moving on.

(photo credit: Silvio Tanaka)

Open DVD Flick and click the New Project button. You should have a blank canvas before you. Click Add title on the right side and pick your video files. You can select multiple files and create multiple titles, but we’re going to stick with one to make it simple. Now, select your title and hit the Edit title button on the right.

This is where you’ll be doing a lot of your customization. You’re going to want to name the video and make sure that it’s set at the correct aspect ratio. Under Chapters, you can specify the length of each chapter. For something feature-length this could be five or ten minutes, but for a video this short, I’ve set my chapters at two minutes. Under Audio and Video sources, you may wish to include a different angle of a shot, if available, or an alternate audio track, such as commentary.

Under the Project settings button you’ll find more options to fine-tune your DVD. If you plan on opening this project again later, you may want to give it a title. Your Target size will likely not change from 4.3GB DVD, unless you’ve bought some special-format disks. For simplicity’s sake, and from my own experience, I suggest going for a 4.3GB DVD-R or DVD-RW for maximum compatibility. Under Video, please be sure that your Target video format is appropriate for your region. For the Americas, select NTSC. For just about everywhere else, choose PAL. Finally, under Burning, check the box next to Burn project to disc.

Under Menu settings, you may select your preferred template, with options such as forcing audio track selection. You may preview the menu to make sure that it navigates the right way. Once you have everything set the way you want it, it’s time to hit the Create DVD button.

It may take some time for the process to complete, especially with larger video files. As a rule of thumb, expect the DVD to be completed in about the same time you’d spend watching the whole DVD. If you’re working with big files, this might be something you want to have running overnight when you’re sleeping.  It was quite nice of the developers to include a Tetris game to pass the time. Just hit that little Entertain me button.

DVD Flick makes DVD authoring ridiculously easy. I’m creating a PP season one DVD as I type this, and it couldn’t have been much easier. There are other options, and we’d be happy to hear them in the comments.

As for me, I’m off to pwn some n00bs.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Bookcrossing in this post refers to exchanging the books you have for books you want. However, there also is a website called BookCrossing that follows quite a different strategy. You sign up with BookCrossing, register the books you would like to give away, print the ID for each book, put it into the books and set them free in a public place. The lucky finder will eventually report your book using its ID and post a comment about how he liked it. Likewise, you may find a book that was registered at BookCrossing and share your feedback using its ID.

Now let’s look at the sites that allow you to swap items.

Title Trader

Through this website you can swap books, DVDs or CDs with people around the world.

To participate you sign up and create a list of the things you are offering. This procedure is quick and easy as the site supports ISBN numbers to identify items. Then you have to wait until someone is interested in one of your items.

Once someone has received an item you sent them, you receive a request credit which you can trade in for an item you want from somebody else. The service is free, but you cover the postage.

There are two more ways you can earn request points. First of all you can purchase them. Secondly, you receive points for referring new, active members.

BookMooch

BookMooch works very much like TitleTrader, but it’s limited to books. It’s a multilingual, community-driven site that works based on a point system.

The site supports English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Japanese, and Português and is available to anyone around the world. Points are earned by providing someone with the book they want and these points can be spent by requesting and receiving a book you want. The only fee you pay is the postage to send books.

Using the MoochBar browser toolbar (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, OmnniWeb) you can search books on Amazon and then see if they are available for trade on BookMooch.

SwitchPlanet

This site allows to trade DVDs, CDs, video games and books. The mission is to reduce environmental waste, help those who need it most and support arts/culture and education.

Much like Title Trader and BookMooch, SwitchPlanet works based on a point or currency system and adds the community aspect. Users can create profiles, and join groups. Also, SwitchPlanet hopes to collect donations from its members. This money will be used to help needy families.

Textbook Revolt

Textbook Revolt is made for students around the world who cannot afford to buy new college textbooks all the time.

The limit is that you need a valid .edu address to register. However, if you are a student, would like to participate, but don’t have such an eMail address, you can contact the site owners and request to be added.

Other than that, Textbook Revolt works very similar to the sites described above. Through Twitter you can keep track of all new books listed or requested.

Read It Swap It & Swapz

This is a service for people from the UK to exchange books.

Books are swapped between two users, which eliminates the necessity of credits. If you find an item on someone’s list, you can ask them to swap with you. If there is nothing on your list they like, they can deny to swap with you and you’ll have to find somebody else to swap with.

Swapz is a similar page. It’s also limited to residents of the UK. However, you can exchange any item you have or want including collectibles, instruments, stamps or clothes.

Swaptree & PaperBack Swap

Recently, Wendy wrote about a site through which US residents can swap books, CDs, DVDs and video games for free.

Items are listed based on their ISBN numbers and users can add a short description. Like on Read It Swap It, users are matched for swapping an item.

PaperBack Swap is a club for swapping books that is also limited to US residents.

The cool thing about this site is that books are sent using a wrap that contains all essential information, like address and sender details. The book can simply be wrapped into this printed piece of paper, which simplifies the packing and labeling process.

The advantage of sites limited to residents of a specific country is that postage costs remain predictable for all members.

SwapAce

SwapAce allows you to swap, buy or sell items and meet members. The site supports any type of item, such as electronics, services and of course books.

Users can use the system to barter and negotiate for items or services. This makes the site extremely flexible.

Neighborrow

Finally, here is a page that makes anything possible.

Join neighBORROW hoods and trade items within these groups. They can be made up of strangers around the world or your personal neighbors, friends or students from your campus. You can borrow, lend, sell, buy or trade anything with whomever you like.

Are you familiar with any other good websites to swap books, movies and games? Remember the story of the guy that started swapping stuff online and ended up with a house? What was your best swap? Let us know in comments

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Your only expense is paying the shipping to ship your item but since you are shipping CDs and books the cost is minimal if you use Media or First Class mail. When you are ready to ship your item, Swaptree will automatically provide you with the shipping amounts and class information based on the particular item that you are shipping.

Swaptree creates trades by matching items that you have with other people who want those items, and vice-versa.

What you can trade:

• Books
• DVDs
• CDs
• Video games

You must own whatever you are trading and you can trade for thousands of items that you want.

Note: At the current time Swaptree is only available to residents of the United States.

It is very easy to join SwapTree. Just fill out the simple registration form at www.swaptree.com. You must be 13 years of age or older and agree to their Terms of Use to join.

How to use SwapTree in 4 Easy Steps:

Step 1:

List an item you want to trade by putting it on your “Have list”. Add the ISBN number and the system will look up the details for you. Add a short description about the condition of the item.

Step 2:

Find an item you want. SwapTree searches through their database to find users who have what you want. Your want list is easy to fill. Add the books that you have been dying to read, classic movies you want to watch, or your dream games you want to play. Having items on your want list allows other users to initiate trades with you.

Step 3:

After you have added items to your “have list” you will begin to see the green GET NOW button next to items. This means that Swaptree can set up a trade that allows you to receive that item right now. Just click the link and get the trade started.

Swaptree suggests that you put items on both your Want list and Have lists. All trades on Swaptree are one-for-one, meaning that you will trade one item and receive one item in return, and therefore all items have the same value.

Don’t let your collections of books, CDs, DVDs, and video games just sit on the shelf gathering dust. Start swapping them so you can acquire other items you want. Because Swaptree is free, it makes it easy to discover new authors, musicians, films and games that you might not otherwise buy.

If you have used Swaptree yourself, please let us know your experiences with the service. Have your experiences been good or bad? In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of the service? Any equivalents / rivals out there we should be looking at?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Netflix was established in 1997 as the first completely online DVD rental service. Almost immediately they began massive amounts of web advertising to help get the word spread. They would house thousands of DVDs that users can rent via their Netflix website. All shipping expenses would be paid, after a small monthly fee. No late fees, no envelopes to worry about, and an incredibly easy website to create movie queues, rate them and reserve future releases. The ease and price of the service made it extremely popular almost immediately. Today it’s huge and continually growing. They now have hundreds of streaming movies to watch through your browser, and nearly every DVD and Blu-Ray disc ever.

With something as popular as Netflix, there are always going to be individuals out there trying to take advantage of the service in their own way. There have been both online and offline Windows Netflix apps that have come and gone as Netflix has upgraded their website. However on November 1st 2008, Netflix released their API to the public and we are already beginning to see web-based Netflix tools and iPhone Netflix apps being released.

Below are a couple of fun apps that have been hatched based upon that very API.

Feedflix

Feedflix is a Netflix analyzation tool that takes your account’s RSS Feed and breaks down how often you’re renting, and if you are truly getting your money’s worth.

As long as you are logged into your Netflix account through the present PC you are using, Feedflix can link up to your account and begin an analysis.

Below is a graphical breakdown of my account. I haven’t been returning them as often as I should be, so at $1.55/movie it’s not bad, but I could be doing better. I should point out that this includes instant viewing as well.

Below are even more stats in regards to my account – how many rentals I’ve completed and much more.

This is just a small look at the main page too. There are so many other cool features built into FeedFlix, you could keep yourself entertained for hours. Here are some of those features:

• Email alerts - create alerts to remind yourself when you’ve been holding onto a title for too long.
• Popular title graphs and reports – see even more graphs and reports on popular titles presently at home, in the past two weeks or most awaited.
• Fun graphs and reports – see what day is the most popular to rent/return, how long users typically hold onto a movie, popular plans and average queue sizes.

The fun behind FeedFlix isn’t really what it’s all about. You really get much more then that. It forces you to get yourself motivated and get much more of your money’s worth on your account as well. Like I said, all that you need is any sort of Netflix account.

Qflip

Another fun product brought upon the release of the Netflix API is Qflip. A web app, supposedly built in 48 hours, that ‘rents randomly’. You put the faith in the internet to randomly select a movie for you, and put it at the top of your movie queue.

After connecting your account, as you do in FeedFlix, you first enter any one word to help select your random movie. Such action, awesome, sad or humorous.

Once you’ve entered your keyword, five completely random movies are selected based upon your likes and dislikes, but having nothing to do with your keyword. Once the five movies are selected, you can have friends, family or complete strangers vote on what movie to rent, based upon your word. Below were three of my five, for the word ‘Humor’…which would you vote for? tough call:

Voting lasts 24 hours, at which time the results are tabulated and a movie is selected and moved to the top of your queue. You can then have results e-mailed to you. Although there isn’t much to it, if you’re looking for something completely new and don’t like any of the recommendations, Qflip works perfect in this situation. Try it out, it’s simple and fun.

It’s good to see Netflix finally releasing their API. I can imagine along with the half dozen compatible iPhone apps that we’ve already seen, we are going to see several more web apps as well. For the amazing product that they have already given us, we are going to get so much more out of it with applications such as these.

Have any other Netflix apps you’d like to share? Have you tried either one of these products before? Please give us your feedback.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Let’s just look at some of the ways to repair damaged CD’s and DVD’s and recover data from those spoilt CD/DVD’s.

Anatomy of scratches

Scratches that are perpendicular (going from the center outwards) are generally less harmful or damaging than the scratches that go along the spiral. So if your CD/DVD has more of the latter ones, then the chances of recovering data from that CD or DVD may be bleak. Nevertheless, Thou shall try till thou art able to Make good Use Of thy media.

Attempt to Recover Data from Damaged CD / DVD

First and foremost try some software apps to make your life easier and attempt to recover data from the disc. You can try more then one application if you didn’t succeed with previous ones. I have had experiences in the past when one of them has done a better job than the others either in the amount of data that is recovered or the speed with which it is recovered. However most of the time CD Recovery Toolbox has come up on top.

Just insert the damaged CD, DVD, HD DVD (if you still use them) or Blue-Ray disc and the software will show you the list of files and folders found on the disc. Choose the ones you want to recover and click next. The process can be very slow mind you so just be patient.

CD Recovery Toolbox has been covered in detail on MakeUseOf earlier. Check it out if you need more details.

Another software solution you can try is Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier. It is also a similar software that is capable of recovering data from damaged or scratched discs. If the recovery is taking too long you can also pause, save and resume sessions at some other time.

If you use Linux you can try ddrescue for recovery needs. It is a command line tool offering plenty of options as you can see below:

Attempt to repair the damaged CDs

If the disc has profound scratches you can try to repair those scratches to make the disc playable again. The best way to do this is to use a whitening toothpaste or some polish (specially those used by opticians) although Brasso also works.

• First clean the surface of the disc with a soft lint-free cloth. You can use a gentle detergent (or rubbing alcohol) if there are some grease spots. Make sure there are no finger prints or dust particles. Don’t scrub too hard as you may do more harm than good this way.
• Now apply some toothpaste or polish on the scratched surface. It is best to start with a minimum amount of either, or else you will have your work really cut out trying to buff away the remainder.
• Now rub gently with a cloth moving from the center outwards.

If you did a good job, you will actually see the scratch diminishing, or if it was a faint one, it might just disappear.

The success with this method varies greatly. It is hit and miss. I have had an equal amount of successes and failures. Sometimes it works allowing you to even read data from that part, other times it is of no use at all.

Some Tips

• Try recovery in a CD/DVD writer as opposed to a reader. Writers are generally more precise and can see the tracks better.
• If possible try recovery on the same drive that was used to create the disc. Chances of a good read have been found to increase if you use the same drive or at least the same manufacturer.
• If nothing helps you can go to music stores and show them your disc. Such stores usually have a CD refinishing machine and may be able to do a better job.
• As soon as any of the above methods works, don’t think even twice and just create another copy of the disc.
• Buy good quality media.
• Take good care of your CDs

If nothing helps

If none of the above helps then maybe it’s time to use the disc as a coaster. However you can put them to some more constructive uses also, like create a spectroscope or a shuriken throwing star or a mobile phone holder.

Do you know some other clever ways to get data back from a damaged CD/DVD?  Or if the disk is ruined, do you have any novel ideas for what to turn the disk into apart from a coaster? Here is your chance, share it with the world in the comments section.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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I am going to be packing ‘em up and putting them away for storage.

But that shouldn’t mean I can’t have access to any movie I own at any given time…

Right?

Well for a long while, if you wanted to rip DVD’s that meant you needed to know how to decrypt your DVD’s and then you needed a little geeky know-how to convert those “vob” files and other crap to something playable.

Times they are a’ changing because this little free application called bitRipper includes a de-crypter and a converter in one package. That means throw the DVD into your DVD drive and click START RIPPING!

It is that easy. It’s easy enough for your mom to do it. For real!

If you don’t believe me, go check it out for your self. Grab the installer direct from here or visit the author’s homepage here.

My download did not require a registration code but the author does include this on the download page:

If your download requires entering username and regcode, please use the following ones:
User name:

Registration code:

bitRipper also has advanced configuration modes available where you can get at some settings but the two best features are the included DVD decrypting and On the fly writing.

On The Fly DVD Writing does not require you to use almost 5 gigabytes to rip your dvd before burning the AVI. That’s right it converts video on-the-fly, copying data and writing it to your AVI file at the same time.

bitRipper was originally commercial software when I first came upon it but it is free now and occasionally updated. The author points out that he has added these features in the recent past:

• Ability to control the ripping process system priority
• Internal video bitrate calculator to fine-tune the compression level
• Authorization support for protected discs
• Episodical discs support (multiple DVD tracks containing multiple parts)
• Support of the most of video export formats including AVI, MPEG, DivX
• Reduced installation package, maximized stability and reliability

bitRipper is an amazing find and a regular part of my DVD ripping activities! Give it a shot.

What do you use to rip your DVD’s? Something as easy and free? Put me on it in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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FAVC is a frontend for a handful of other free software. It includes:

• AC3Fix
• Aften
• Avisynth Plugins
• Avs2avi
• Batchmux
• DGPulldown
• HC

(Encoder)

• ImgBurn
• MediaInfo
• Mencoder
• mkisofs
• MKVtoolnix
• MuxMan
• QuEnc
• SubtitleCreator
• twoLAME
• Wavi

What I like about this software is that it very simple to use on first glance, but then there are a lot of configuration options available to use.

Once you hit “Generate DVD”, it first analyzes the video files you have added. It then automatically generates a batch file that it uses to generate the disk. After that, it runs the encoding.

The end result is a DVD – either the VIDEO_TS folders and if you choose, the .iso file that you can burn directly to the disk through the software, or with your own software if you should choose.

FAVC is great, free software that will help you to play those media files on your DVD player if you don’t have a device that supports MP4 (Apple TV), or AVI/DivX (XBox360, PS3, or DivX supported DVD Player).

Do you use anything similar to make DVD’s that you can recommend?

(By) Dave is an IT Manager by day and technology consultant by night. He is interested in all things internet but is specifically interested in system administration, network security, history, and backpacking. He lives near Philadelphia with his family. See his blog @ systembash.com.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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