Burning photographs to CD and DVD

Osem · 28-01-2009, 11:53

Hi guys. I've recently been to a rather hurridly arranged wedding and discovered that the pictures I took are needed by the bride and groom for their album as theirs are not very good. I wanted to simply save them onto a CD-R and in order to do this simply copied the folder from 'My Pictures' onto the D drive in my computer and followed the brief instructions. Great, easy I thought, great for a novice like me.

Realising that I had a large number of family pictures stored on this PC (most of which are backed up on an external HDD), I then decided to try to copy them onto a DVD-R using the same technique. Unfortunately it didn't work and I later discovered that XP apparently doesn't write to DVD

I have a Nero suite which came free with the computer which I believe I can use for this purpose but the instructions/help provided is rubbish - mostly meaningless to me sadly..... I think, however, that Nerovision Express is what I need but am a little confused. From what I can tell the jpg picture files saved to DVD-R will be turned into DAT files which will then be uneditable. If true, this is fine for pictures which I want to keep exactly as they are but not so good if there are images I may wish to modify at some point when I finally get around to it. Presumably the wedding jpg files I copied onto CD-R can still be edited by the happy couple from the disc I gave them. If so, why can't the files I write to DVD-R be edited? If I am correct, presumably I will still need to keep all the original jpg files somewhere else (either on CD-R or an externall HDD) where they can later be accessed and edited if required.

Finally if Nerovision Express is OK for what I need to do (I really don't want to be downloading new software etc.), does anyone have any tips on how to use it......

I just want to backup the files as easily as possible really - nothing fancy. I started out thinking this would be a simple drag/drop task but it seems not.....

Thanks in anticipation everyone

Scrubbs · 28-01-2009, 11:59

which nero suite have you got?

Osem · 28-01-2009, 12:15

I have Nero: Back It Up - Burning Rom SE - Cover Designer - Express - Recode - Showtime - New Wave Editor - Nerovison Express.

These came pre-loaded on the PC

Just noticed that there's a Nero Express and a Nerovision Express - not clear about the difference. Nero Express is version 6 if that helps.

Cheers.

I should add that I don't want to view these files on TV at this stage - just want to back them up with the option of future editing.

Stuart · 28-01-2009, 13:32

Nerovision express is a limited video editing/DVD authoring application. It is designed to help you prepare home movies for playback on a set top DVD player.

If Nero Express is trying to convert the files to DAT files, the chances are, you've told it you are writing a Video CD. There should be an option to write a Data DVD/CD. Use this.

Osem · 28-01-2009, 14:31

I was using Nerovision Express before I noticed Nero Express - thought they were the same thing at first... OK so if I just want to store jpgs for viewing on a PC and editing later I should create a data DVD?

cookie_365 · 28-01-2009, 14:46

Nero - urggh

If you can't get it to work try ImgBurn instead; that'll copy files to DVD easily and it's free. Or if you don't mind spending a little money Ashampoo Burning Studio is fantastic.

Taf · 28-01-2009, 15:58

CDBurnerXP free and easy... DVDs and Vista too..

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php

Wayfair · 28-01-2009, 16:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

OK so if I just want to store jpgs for viewing on a PC and editing later I should create a data DVD?

Yes,

There will be an option for you to carry on writing to the disc and that is always handy as most people don't have 4.7gb of pics they want to back up every single time.

D_Skids · 28-01-2009, 16:29

I use Google Picasa for managing all of my pictures and it also has an option to create a Gift CD (DVD) which you can then either just store the pictures or even put a slideshow utility onto it as well.
Best of all it is free.

Osem · 28-01-2009, 21:16

Thanks for the help guys - will have a go and report back.

Oh just one other thing - in amongst the jpg files there are a few video files (e.g. mov) produced on the cameras I've used. I don't need to separate these so, can I just leave them where they are and copy these to DVD at the same time?

Cheers.

Wayfair · 28-01-2009, 21:18

Yes you can leave them and copy to dvd the same way as the pics. When backing up pics, apps, docs, infact anything, you just burn as data and the computer will know what it is next time you put the cd / dvd back in.

Osem · 30-01-2009, 13:18

Cheers guys - I've managed it.

My DVD burner is supposedly a 16x write speed model so the first DVD I copied to at that speed. I then tried to check the results by viewing some of the images in the various folders using XP's picture and fax viewer. These were mostly OK but the viewing process stalled on some of the folders - the viewing window opened OK and some of the jpg thumbnails loaded but some remained inaccessible. I'm thinking this was simply due to the presence of the mov. files in these folders which are a) quite large compared to the jpgs and b) can't be read by the XP reader but would welcome any feedback on that.

I've since removed all the various mov. files to a separate folder of their own and copied the original folders onto DVD using 8x speed and the problem seems to have gone away. So all in all I'm pleased with the results.

One final thing though. I've never used DVDs before and the top surface doesn't seem to have the same sort of user labelling area to write the contents on. What's the easiest way to label the DVDs I'v created - they will be going into labelled plastic sleeves but I'd like to mark them in some way to avoid confusion.

Thanks for the help as always!!