alex339, I don't know why you ask, since you are the one that spammed our Forum Mar 19, 08 under the subject 'Why should I convert my PowerPoint presentations to DVD?' trying to hawk this $100 software.

Lots of great help here. I used Tivo Desktop plus to transfer my recordings from the Tivo to the computer. Yes - I know the price of drives is getting low. In fact - I just bought a 500 GB hard drive to swap out in my series 2 Tivo. (Until I know I can do it right, I don't want to mess with my Series 3 and possibly screw it up and definitely void the warranty. Not all my shows are HD, so storing some of the series 2 is fine). My computer had nearly 400 GB of free space when I started transferring shows - and its' almost full now. So with my habits, even a 1TB external drive will get filled up. I may use one to store HD movies and things where the HD matters more. But recording sitcoms, American Idol and my daughter's kid shows doesn't require HD. So I need to get some of these shows off all hard drives since they'll be filling up and get some to DVD-RW disks (I'm assuming that in a couple of years my daughter won't want her Hannah Montana shows, etc). I looked at the computer's dvd player and it didn't say DL or dual layer. I have to figure out how to get to windows explorer and I'll doublecheck about writing dual density. I got the computer in Jan. 2008. I think I will need something like VideoReDo. Not sure if I'd still need DVD Shrink in that case or not. I'll check it out. Urlee - does your DVR also have a Tivo? I really like the Tivo. perhaps I should get a Tivo DVR with builtin DVD burner. That would simplify this whole process - but I think it would cost a lot for the unit and then again for Tivo Service. If I don't have a DL DVD burner in my computer, I wonder if it's worth getting one? Sure could help to get movies and 2 hours shows burned in one dVD. Thanks. Lynn.

buyorsell888 It is hard to say if the hardware will work for sure with vista. One way to check would be to go to the manufacturer's site for each piece that you have and see if they have drivers for vista. Most things like the hub and speakers work with everything. I do have an option that may work out even better. Have you ever heard of Ubuntu? It is a flavor of Linux that is very powerful and easy to use. It is free and will run rather nice on that hardware that you mentioned. I have set up a dozen people on it and all but one stayed on it. She only left it because her motherboard went bad and bought a new computer. A mac. I included a link to either download and burn a copy or to ask them to send you a free cd. If it is your original hard drive, you may want to go buy another one because that might be at the root of your problem, or it could just be spyware or virus problems. I tried Ubuntu after beta testing vista and have to say that I am happy that I decided not to switch to vista. My camera that wouldn't work with windows unless I downloaded the garbage software works with Linux flawlessly. It is also a good bit faster as well. It comes with a fully compatible word office suite as well. Let me know if you have any more questions. What is there to lose except a little time? If you don't like it, then you can spend the money and buy a new machine. I have to admit that it isn't for everyone. Some people have a need to spend money on things to think that it is a worthy solution. Either way, you have an option if you choose to take a look at it. Good luck with your choice Here is a link that might be useful: alternative solution

Thanks, ann_t, for that web index. I didn't have any trouble searching the FC DVD, unlike the OP, but the web index gives a quicker way to review the article titles to determine which one of the search results is most likely to be what I'm looking for. I agree they could have done a better job indexing this, however. It seems to be a lost art these days - sad how many of today's cookbooks are so poorly indexed compared to "old style" ones of the '70's and earlier.