copy DVDs

[phishphreek]

Hi all.

I just aquired a DVD burner today.

I know that dvd-xcopy and alcohol 120 are supposed to be some of the best software to copy DVDs. Has anyone here used them? If so would you recommend them?

What other software would you recommend.

I will also need to burn DVDs that are CSS encoded... (no worries... I own them.)

[jinxy]

Not used the two you mention. I'd be intersted in some feed back on those to myself.

I have used Roxio Easy Cd/Dvd Creater 6 and Nero Burning Rom 6.
These two are very similar and both are bundled with media players, Roxio also includes a very basic photo editing suite. Nero has a wave editer.

I personely found roxio to limiting, suport for different media formats was pore. I used the suite for over a year but moved to Nero recently, which i find to be better than Roxio.

Nero seems to be alot less reasorce hungry than Roxio which would take ages to process some stuff. usesing Roxios DVD Builder was quite straight farward but i found it would hang my system if i imported a file it didn't like. This was happening far to often, that is why i moved over to Nero. And so far i have no complaints with the main apllications. Other than Nero Show Time which i don't like very much. I also have some intermittent problems with InCD but i do not use it that much so i can live with it.

If you would like some good info on burning sotware and hardware try the link they have some good info.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/tools

Hope this is of some use to you.

Jinxy

[phishphreek]

Got my burner installed... its a TEAC DV-W58E 8X DVD+RW

It burns CDs much slower than my last burner though. Last burner would do 52x this will only do 32x... Guess I'll just put the 52x in my server.

Well.. to make a long story kind of short...

I have nero 6 ultra. that works fine for most things.
I sure like it a LOT better than roxio. I had more problems than anything with roxio.

However, to backup my DVDs... I needed more.

Alcohol 120% is good for burning and the like.
However, it won't DeCSS the DVD.

You have to use something else... like AnyDVD which will DeCSS in the background.

I tried to dump an image just using Alcohol 120 and it errors out.

I tried to dump an image using both AnyDVD and Alcohol 120... and works fine.

I haven't tried to actually copy a dvd though... I forgot to get discs!!! LoL
I was too excited to get home to install the drive and my new video card...

It sure does take a lot longer than I had thought...

The other software... DVD-XCOPY got shutdown because they did the DeCSS right in their program which violates DMCA. Alcohol 120 won't DeCSS... but they strongly hint around to what can be used in addition with their sofware with a disclaimer not to make illegal copies. (which I'm not). I think that with the DVD-XCOPY software... it had to be activated online anyway. So, anyone who got it before they were forced to stop selling their software... is SOL. They don't accept refunds/returns either. (this is just a rumor I heard though.. not sure if its true).

I just want to make copies for when I travel or to keep at my girlfriends so I don't have to cary stuff around all the time.

I've copied every single music CD that I own to HDs now. Its well over 150GB...
Makes for one hell of a digital jukebox. (take that iPOD!). Not too portable though.
But... everyone in the house can listen to whatever they want, whenever they want without chasing down the CDs. Plus.. most PCs are output to a stereo/entertainment center...

[Spyrus]

Please dont waste your time or money on a program like dvd xcopy. I strongly recommend you use Nero to burn with or Alcohol if you prefer but for the actual decoding and if you want any type of compression it uses an amazing compression agent I strongly recommend you go with a program called DVD-Shrink you can download it here


Very good program easy to use also. hope this helps

Edit: Apparently that link is no good so if you want it I have it just pm me and I can arrange a way to get it to you.

[phishphreek]

I'll have to check out that dvd shrink program.

I just found somewhere to DL it.

There are/were a LOT of dead links though.

Thanks for the heads up.

[jayhawker]

Long time lurker, First time poster; Here it goes:

I own DVD X Copy, but had random problems with it. Probably 3 out of 10 backup attempts would lock up the computer halfway into the burn, making a very expensive shiny coaster. It also installs a warning screen before the movie announcing that this is a backup copy made by DVD X Copy. Not that this bothers me that much, but it is just one more thing I have to sit through before getting to the movie.

After searching around for awhile I found this site http://www.dvdr-digest.com/articles that has very detailed instructions on making dvd backups. It contains links to free programs that give you complete control over every aspect of the copying process.

I now use a combination of DVD DeCrypter, DVD Shrink, and ImgTool classic (all FREE programs) to make perfect backups of the movies that I own. I can remove any extras that I don't want (e.g. trailers, credits, subtitles, director commentaries, etc), and have yet to burn a new coaster.

I think that DVD X Copy just combines these three programs into one neat package, with the advantage of just a one-click backup, but in my experience it had too many random lockups.

I wish I had never purchased X Copy, and had just found the others first; Oh well, live and learn. By using the 3 step process, I have a better understanding of the entire backup process.

[phishphreek]

jayhawker:

Wow... you really wern't kidding! Those are GREAT how-tos!

I was going to hold off till this weekend to mess around more... but I think I will have to do one tonight after I get out of class.

Thanks again for that info.