DVD copying

Jack Gordon · Oct 17, 2004

I have a dilemma. I want to exercise my legal right to burn a personal backup of a copyrighted DVD, but the copy-protection on the DVD prevents me from doing that.

Is there a way around that? I remember those "little black boxes" that made protected VHS tapes copyable. Is there similar technology for DVD's yet?

Nexus · Oct 17, 2004

You don't expect to keep the DVD safe?

From my limited understanding and research on this topic, most "copying" solutions simply convert the information into another format... stripping the DVD of its "menuing" and other custom features before re-constituting it again (which is pretty scarey to me). Some let you automate re-authoring them to make up for the lack of a one-to-one copy feature. When it seems the "features" of copiers thumb through all of the DVD's qualities, saying whether or not they are supported... I'm concerned that they need to do this because you never know what you're going to get. DVD's are complicated beasts.

Here's a "shoot-out" from c|net
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3670_7-5024535-1.html

I have friends who routinely use NetFlix to rent and copy stuff they don't even watch. I hope they cut it out. I also have one friend who prides himself on keeping his DVD collection nicely kept and away from scratches and other perils. I think the latter friend is much better off.

If something happens to one of my DVDs, I'd almost rather search for a discount DVD broker online for replacing it, rather than thinking some watered down copy is going to give me the warm fuzzies.

JMHO,
~ Nexus

diederik · Oct 17, 2004

www.dvdshrink.org

croupier · Oct 17, 2004

This should bypass copy protection so you can use any backup software

http://www.dvd43.com/

Jack Gordon · Oct 17, 2004

Don't get me wrong... I am being sincere. I have a 10 month old, and the purpose of this is to be able to bring his DVD's in the car to play on the portable DVD player. Anyone here old enough to have kids and drive knows what happens to CD's & DVD's to go into cars. They rarely escape in one piece. I am just trying to find a sensible solution.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Anthony Ng · Oct 17, 2004

MovieDomains said:
Anyone here old enough to have kids and drive knows what happens to CD's & DVD's to go into cars.

In the old days when I still read books (hard copy, paperbacks), I did have quite a collection of "second copies": one for reading (and sharing with friends/family), the other for "reserve".

Nexus · Oct 17, 2004

MovieDomains said:
They rarely escape in one piece. I am just trying to find a sensible solution. Thanks for the suggestions!

I get it... just one of those things though, a lot of those rippers are hit or miss I think. If the copy-protection breaker works, that sounds like the fool-proof route to go. Blank DVD's are still moderately expensive, and it stinks to wait for a whole copy to be burned just to find out the percentage of failure.

I followed diederik's link. This looks like a nice tutorial:
http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/

~ Nexus

jsonline · Oct 19, 2004

DVD Shrink will do what you need. As far as blank media costing a bank roll, that is not really so. Go check out www.shop4tech.com and look at the matrix brand cd's. 100 packs are dirt cheap and I am yet to get 1 coaster from them ... great blanks all around.