I can clone bit for bit copies of DVD's using DVD Decrypter. and ImgBurn.

I can also copy VHS tapes and Laserdiscs with a high quality standalone Panasonic DVD recorder.

I like to trade for the best possible quality - most of my stuff is great quality.
I show many videos clips of the DVD's I have on this page. Although compressed to view here, they give you some idea of what the DVD is like.

If we trade I want discs that will play without skips and can be ripped by DVD Decrypter with no errors on them.  If a disc will not play or rip I would expect a replacement and I will do the same for you. 
You MUST agree to this provision before I trade with you. Please see my DVD Burning Tips below. 

I prefer DVD's in the  US format of NTSC. If you have PAL discs please let me know before we trade!

If you do not know what system you have please tell me honestly and I will show you haw to check for it.  I'm probably going to stop trading with Europeans soon because they all tell me they are in NTSC and then they send me PAL discs and I feel ripped off.

If you want something, or care to offer me something in trade, please feel free to contact me.  Even though I may not have a band on my want list I am always open to trades.  The best way to trade is to offer me a list to look at. Please do not send me a list of store bought items unless they are very rare.
I have almost everything that's legit. If it's out there I just buy it so I will only want something legit if it is really rare. So if you're going to send a list I'd rather not see legit items please.
 
 

.
I am currently getting many trade requests every week.
But don't be afraid to contact me as I'd love to share this music with you.

If you have something on my wish list, or really want a DVD
I would suggest naming it in the subject of your email to catch my eye.

• ANY BE BOP DELUXE! But if your versions have these menus on them, these are the ones I already have.
• I'm looking for anything with better video quality.

• YNGWIE MALSTEEN - RISING FORCE - LIVE IN JAPAN 1985- I'm looking to buy, borrow, rent the LASERDISC of this show.

• Strength In Numbers - Austin and Lonesome Pine upgrades
• Seals & Crofts anything by them especially the full Don Kirshners performances
• Joe Walsh - US Festival looking for a GOOD copy of this.
• Kal David - is a great unknown blues guitarist if anyone has anything by him let me know.
• Robin Trower - looking for upgrades D
• Masayoshi Takanaka - Yuten -Takanaka Super Live 2005
• Masayoshi Takanaka - Itten - Super Takanaka Live 2004
• Gary Moore - Blues For Greeny - looking for a high quality transfer. NOT the crappy VHS rip thats floating around.
• Gary Moore - CD+DVD - "Reading Rock '76 / Colosseum II"
• Kenny Wayne Shepherd - House of Blues
• U2 U2-18 Singles DVD from the U2 Dual Disc.
• The Band from Utopia - A Tribute to the Music of Frank Zappa
• Al Di Meola DVD
• Jean Luc Ponty  DVD
• Chet Baker - Live  DVD
• Boston - I'm interested in ANY Boston video! 
• Led Zeppelin - Earls Court, high quality, NTSCDVD
• Emerson, Lake, and Palmer DVD
• U.K. (Allan Holdsworth) DVD
• Doyle Bramhall II DVD
• Be Bop Deluxe DVD
• Meat Loaf live from VH-1 or MTV 
• Van Morrison 
• Dave Mason DVD
• David Bromberg DVD
• California Jam 1 DVD
• Spooky Tooth DVD
• Ten Years After DVD
• Darden Smith DVD
• White Lion - One Night In Tokyo DVD
• Anne McCue DVD
• Lita Ford DVD
• Andreas Vollenweider DVD
• Ultravox - The Collection DVD
• Hot Tuna - Americas Choice Live DVD
• Originally broadcast on PBS in the mid 70's does anyone know anything about this show? 
• I know I saw it, and I know it was great, but I can't find a record of even existing!

Trading with me is easy. 
But there are a few issues we should to discuss.

I use DVD Decrypter to clone DVD's to High Quality DVD-R's.
I trade without jewel cases.

I use DVD Shrink to shrink dual layer discs down to regular DVD-R's.

I expect DVD's that will play without skips and can be ripped by DVD Decrypter with no errors on them.  The first thing I do when I get a disc from someone is to rip it and check it for errors.  If a disc will not play or rip I will expect a replacement and I will do the same for you.

These are my new rules. If you send me a DVD that will not rip you WILL send me a replacement, that you will check before sending it to me.  I will ONLY trade with you if you agree to this ahead of time.
If you do not honor this I will post your name, email, and website as a BAD TRADER.

I'm sorry, I'm just getting too many bad discs, 25-40% of what I get have unreadable errors on them.
I know I'm sending out good material and it is simply not fair.
I'm tired of being taken advantage of so I have to implement this new rule.

I rip discs with DVD Decrypter and I now burn with ImgBurn. 
ImgBurn is good because you can verify your burn with it. 

I REALLY you suggest you use ImgBurn to burn and verify the discs you send.
I verify a good deal of the discs I send.  Just click the Verify box when you burn.
It will save a lot of trouble in the long run.

I WILL NOT be happy if you send me discs that will not rip.
I cannot stress that enough.  I get many discs in trades that won't rip.  I will always replace a disc I send you if it will not rip.

No offense but many traders from Europe do not seem to understand that we have a different video system here in America. 
There are basically two systems, PAL and NTSC formats which is what we use here in America. Please let me know if your discs are PAL it BEFORE we trade!

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT - NO PERFUME, COLOGNE, OR SCENTS ON THE DISCS AT ALL!!! 

I CLONE all my DVD's and make EXACT bit for bit copies.  But some of you are using Standalone DVD recorders to trade COPIES.

Standalone DVD recorders are great.  A standalone DVD recorder is one of those set top boxes, not the kind of DVD burner you have in a computer.

First of all, if you have a DVD made already you should be CLONING it in a computer rather than just COPYING it, and losing quality, with a standalone DVD recorder.

There is a huge difference between copying and making a true bit clone that is and EXACT clone of the original.
 

I have a great Panasonic DMR-E100H Standalone DVD recorder with a 120 GB Hard Drive in it. It allows me to record a TV show or a VHS tape to it's hard drive to it's hard drive, edit the program, and then burn a DVD.  It works pretty good.

But many standalone DVD recorders are "on the fly" recorders meaning that they simply burn what video signal is coming into them at the time.

The problem with this is that sometimes if there is a data loss or a slight disc problem many times you end up with discs that have errors on them and cannot be ripped with DVD Decrypter.  Even my Panasonic with the built in hard drive will sometimes put errors on the disc. 

So I check EVERY DISC I MAKE ON IT with DVD Decrypter to make sure that it will rip to the computer. This is rare but I still get about 5-10% of discs that won't rip and I have to remake the disc all over again.

Because I have the hard drive in the DVD recorder this is easy to do and I just redo the disc and again rip it to make sure that it doesn't have errors on it.

Many of you are making DVD's with standalone DVD recorders. The problem is that you are not checking them for errors with DVD Decrypter back to you computer to see if they are error free and will rip.

This is a VERY common problem nowadays.
This is why so many of you are making discs with errors on it, and it's a bit frustrating to us who are making true clones and error free discs.

So if you MUST make a copy on a standalone recorder because you don't have a DVD recorder in your computer (which is almost inexcusable today because internal DVD burners are so cheap to buy) you still probably have a DVD PLAYER DRIVE on your computer and can still check the discs for errors with 
DVD Decrypter.

People, if you want to trade you have to do it right or you're going to piss a lot of people off.  It's not that hard and if you need any lessons or advice I'm here to help you.
The bottom line is that you should be CLONING DVD's not just COPYING them.
I know some of you are poor. I've been there and I feel bad for you.

But it's not that expensive to do it right. If you are emailing me it means you have a computer and you are 90% there.  Get a DVD burner for goodness sakes. 

You can get a burner for $30.00 at Best Buy. It's the 21st century, please, come on in!

Some of you have discs that won't rip with DVD Decrypter. One solution I have found for that now is DVD Fab that will let you ignore errors and make a useable file for burning.  I can then burn a new disc without erros that can be read by DVD Decrypter.  I'm finding this program useful for trading problem discs.

The remade discs will rip and then be able to be played in a DVD player. 
When it finds the spot where the error was there may be a slight skip when the disc plays, but at least can create a DVD that will play in a DVD Player and then it will also allow it to be ripped with DVD Decrypter .
So if you're having problems ripping discs with DVD Decrypter try using DVD Fab.

But remember you should still always check your discs after with DVD Decrypter to see if they can be ripped without errors. Otherwise it will be like us traders spreading a virus around of non rippable discs instead of making clean discs.

If you have a discs that won't rip let me know and maybe I can fix it for you.

Most people I trade with send quaility discs. Most know what they are doing.
But about 25% of the time or more I will get an unplayable or unrippable disc because of bad media or bad DVD burning habits.  I assume you know these basic burning tips, but if you don't I'm here to help.
 

Rip the DVD to your hard drive first and burn from there. Don't just try to copy a disc on the fly disc to disc. This is one of the most common causes of disc errors. I like to use DVD Decrypter to rip and ImgBurn to burn in the VERIFY mode as it seems to work well and catches any errors.

• When you get ready to burn a disc with your computer turn off ALL your other programs INCLUDING your screen saver.
• When you start the burn don't touch your computer!  The movement of the mouse is enough to rob the system of memory and can cause a burn error.  I used to get burn errors at exactly 3 minutes in and then I realized that was when my screensaver kicked in.  Remember when you're burning a DVD you're moving a massive amount of data and even the fastest computer can be strained.  It only takes 20 minutes to burn a disc at 4X so go relax and have a beer!

• Speaking of burn times, I know that a lot of DVD blanks can be burned at 8X now.  But that doesn't mean you should burn at that speed!  I have a Pentium 4, Dual 3.2GHz, with 4 Gig of RAM.  I could burn at 8X if I want to but every now and then I would get an error on a disc. So I limit my burn speed to 4X which can be controlled by ImgBurn.  Burning at 4X insures that my computer will have enough resources to move the data and burn the disc without errors.  Taking 20 minutes to burn a disc instead of 10 minutes doesn't matter to me.  I'm not that much of a rush.  Especially when I know that 10 extra minutes will insure an error free disc.  Of course if your computer or burner is slower then you can adjust your burning time accordingly. My suggestion is to burn at no more than 4X to make error free discs.

• To get a good error free disc you MUST use a quality name brand blank DVD-R.  I know this is just common sense, but many people are still using those shiny topped shit discs that have an error rate of about 50%.  You can get 100 Verbatim DVD-R's from Amazon.com and other places for about $40.00.  That's less than 50 cents a disc. These are quality discs I've never had a problem with.  If you can afford 50 cents for a disc then you shouldn't be trading.  There's no excuse for using crappy discs. 

I usually use high quality DVD-R's like Imation, Verbatim, Tayio.
Imation's are now easy to find and I'ne been using them with no problems or errors.

I also use other brands depending upon what I can find at the time.

I don't like off brand, plain shiny silver topped discs, or Memorex, discs. which are the most common, and the worst around.
If you send me a Princo disc I will send it right back to you because I KNOW 9 times out of 10 it will not rip.
 

The best way to identify your disc is to put it in the drive and view the 
manufacturer ID with ImgBurn.

I've had more problems with Memorex discs than with any other brand.
Many times you can't even rip from them.

I know many people use them, but I don't think they are very good.
Click Here to see how many bad ratings they get on their recordable DVD's.

I don't really care what brand of discs you send me BUT, once again, I expect DVD's that will play without skips and can be ripped by DVD Decrypter with no errors on them.  The first thing I do when I get a disc from someone is to rip it and check it for errors.
If a disc will not play or rip I will contact you RIGHT AWAY and expect a replacement.  I will do the same for you if there are any problems with what I send..
 

Shiny silver topped discs like these are simply too thin, and offer too little protection for the data on the top of the disc. If you can hold up a disc to a light and see through it, the disc is crap.  Sometimes you can even see pinholes in the disc.

This makes shiny silver top discs very susceptible to being scratched, and the music on them unplayable. I know this, because it's happened to me.

Silver topped discs with some grain to them generally have a protective coating on the top, which makes them ok.

A scratch on the top of a disc can destroy the reflectivity of the metal in that area, and the readability of the data by the laser.  This type of damage cannot be repaired. 

With scratches on the bottom, the laser-reading side, optical disc drives are usually able to read through minor damage.   Sometimes bottom scratches can be "sanded out".   If the scratch is on the top there's nothing you can do, and the disc is ruined.

When I copy a VHS tape to my standalone Panasonic DVD recorder with a built in hard drive in it so that I can precisely edit a program to the exact size requiredand not fill a disc with wasted space.

I always use the best speed / bitrate possible. 

It records with XP (1 hour) and SP (2 hour ) speeds.
I don't like discs jammed with any more than 2 hours worth of material on them.

What's the point of using a great technology like DVD recording to make the material look worse than a crappy VHS recording?

In fact I'd much prefer spanning a 2 hour concert over 2 DVD's to preserve the maximum quality (bitrate) as possible. 
I do understand that's how some discs come and that there is no way to avoid it.

My Panasonic standalone recorder also has something called FR speed otherwise known as Flexible Recording.

That means if a program is 90 minutes long you don't have to use the SP (2 hour) speed, you can use the FR speed and it will use all the bits available on the DVD-R.

The bitrate of a XP (1 Hour) speed DVD will be around 9 Mbps.
The bitrate of an SP recorded DVD-R will be about 5 Mbps.

But the bitrate of a 90 minute program recorded with FR, flexible recording speed will be about 7.5Mbps.

Of course if SP (2 hour) speed is used on the 90 minute program the bitrate will drop back down to 5Mbps, thereby WASTING some of the available information bits still available on the disc, and it will result in a poorer quality disc.

Nothing bothers me more than to see wasted bits (quality, space) on a disc.
I like high quality recordings, I hope you do also.

Of course once I make the master DVD from a VHS tape I simply clone it with
DVD Decrypter.

If I'm speaking Chinese to you with all this jargon, please ask me about what you don't understand.

I will assume that to most of you are semi-pro's, and that this is all elementary information.

I was a newbie to DVD recording once, and I understand it can be very confusing.
If you need help just ask.

I'm not a pro at this, I don't claim to be, but I make pretty good stuff.

If you have nice handwriting you can write on the disc.
I don't, so I'll leave them blank.

Many people ask me how come I have so many "A" ratings on my DVD's.
That's because they truly are "A" ratings.  While many traders list A ratings as a 
matter of course, I believe most of mine are some of the best available.

While some things are so rare like the Be Bop Deluxe DVD's, it's hard to find any better quality I am always looking.

For the VHS and laserdisc transfers I try to find the original store bought tapes and make transfers from them. After I find a great version of something I will many times re author it with a menu and songlist. 

I have sometimes paid a lot of money looking for the original VHS tapes or Laserdisc and I try to record them at full bit capacity, meaning not to compress them or record them on a lesser grade of speed. My DVD recorder is an expensive one, with a built in hard drive, and that allows me to use up all the bits on a disc instead of having to choose a 2 hour speed to fit a 90 minute show on it. For many longer shows I like to make a 2 DVD set out of them rather than compress them and loose quality.

I am also always upgrading what I have. While a 2nd, maybe even a 3rd Generation tape still might get an A rating depending upon it's rarity, my goal has always been to keep improving the quality of what I have to get the best possible quality.
I may consider going to an A+ rating to delineate what is actually from a master VHS tape or Laserdisc.

While I can't control what others send me, but I may trade for an item over and over again just trying to find one of better quality. I've been known for the same item close to 10 times looking for better quality and sometimes I do find one, like the recent Genesis DVD's that blow away all previous versions.

So I believe my ratings are honest and my stuff represents some of the best possible quality out there.  Please ask if you have a question about any particular DVD.

People are rarely disappointed in what I send them.
I want to share my music, please don't hesitate to contact me.  Thanks, Shred

I'm being forced to start making a list of Bad Traders.  I have gotten many DVD's with errors on them that won't rip from people won't replace them.

That REALLY pisses me off!  There's no reason for it.  If a disc doesn't rip please replace it for me, I will do the same for you although it is very rare that someone complained that my DVD's have ever been unrippable.

I know I've said it about 5 times on this page already but PLEASE:
I expect DVD's that will play without skips and can be ripped by DVD Decrypter with no errors on them.  The first thing I do when I get a disc from someone is to rip it and check it for errors.  If a disc will not play or rip I will expect a replacement and I will do the same for you. I'll understand if you have problems cloning discs and I'll help you if you need it, just ask but please don't ignore me after a trade if there are problems.

There's one guy who sent me a bunch of Marshall Crenshaw DVD's that are total crap.  Unrippable, skips all over the place, full of errors.  I sent him lots of good stuff.
You know who you are and you should replace the discs instead of ignoring me you pinhead!

By the way I will NEVER rip anyone off in any way. That's a promise.  If you're not happy with our trade please let me know and I will fix it.  Life's too short to go around ripping people off.

For the most part you traders are GOOD people and I thank everyone of you who helped me get started when I had little to trade.
Kevin, John, Andre you know who you are, you're great dudes.

Over the years people have sent me their original DVD's and VHS tapes to copy and I ALWAYS return them with a copy of the DVD I made from them. 
If you need something put on DVD please feel free to email me.
I can also transfer Laserdiscs to DVD.