Two things, and please bare with me because I still have some noob qualities. I DO read the pins though.

Every backup guide I read seems to agree on using nero to burn the isos - does anyone use anything else? Its just that I don't feel like buying the entire nero suite, and the trial version isn't available right now (checked the website). I heard something about dvd decrypter? Lately, I feel like freeware always works better than commercial stuff, go figure. I love avg, I got rid of norton, I love spyware blaster, etc, you get the picture.

Secondly, I realize a lot of the games are dual layer, and some of the guides mentioning raping/ripping the sections outta games to make them fit on 4.7 single layer burnable discs. A friend just got a new comp with a dual layer, dual format dvd burner; could we use this to avoid trimming down games?

YGPM

DVD Decryptor does work very well and yes, ya gotta love the freeware(donate-ware rather I may be mistaken but I believe DVDDecryptor burns DVDs with the Nero Burning ROM. It should be available as a free download however.
Hope this helps,
DS

As far as using dual layer goes, yes you can use dual layer dvd+r disks and not have to rip sections of games. But dual layer media is very expensive (around $5 per disk) so you might want to stick with single layer.

It should be noted that $5 per disc is only if they are on sale. Only two manufacturers currently make D/L media. Ritek and Verbatim(Mitsubishi Chemicals) and they don't make them in bulk quantities so the cost is usually prohibitive. I really do recommend DVD Decrypter. I have just found that it is the most consistant app when it comes to burning XBOX ISOs to DVD. I have tried the other programs out there and had mixed results. As for using D/L on a regular basis, I wouldn't worry too much about it as there are only about 6-7 games that really need a double layer disc. Some D/L games like Halo2 can be made to fit by simply removing 3 unnecessary XBL files. You can't go on XBL with a backup anyways and the files are unique to XBL so they are doing you absolutely no good on the backup. I certainly wouldn't waste a double layer disc on that game. Just follow the pinned guide above for it and it should work fine.

Jester, any insight into the future of DL media being mass produced, coming down in price any time soon?

IMHO that all hinges on the new D/L DVD-R format. In order to make the format work D/L DVD-R has to be able to come out at a cheaper price (offer something D/L DVD+R doesn't). In order to come out at a cheaper price they will have to mass produce (or at least produce in larger quantities). Anyways, if D/L DVD-R come out cheaper, then D/L DVD+R will have to follow suit and we will have the two formats competing again. Yeah, I know it's a stretch but it's possible, that and D/L isn't doing really well for the above reasons.

Sorta a side track, but you seem in the know about disc storage stuff...

Heard anything about this new storage format, blue ray? I heard it will dwarf dvds...put all your xbox games on one disc, no more swapping! Keep the originals nice and safe.

and i dont beleive bluray is all readable ith a reg. DVD drive.. please corect me since im (more than likely) wrong..

I use alcohol 120% google it, very useful program to have! it's a 30 day trial..so If you dont buy it before the 30 days are up, you'll have to hunt through your registry and remove it before you can install it agian.

BluRay and the competing HDDVD will not (of course) read in a standard DVD player.