Helene, When I began backing up my DVD's, I did some research. I do not remember where all I went, but I suggest your sister do a Google search. Somewhere I found a site that had acquired most of the available copy software out there and tested them. They had screen shots of the results, along with many details. As I vaguely recall, it pretty much came down to (at that time) DVD X COPY, which costs, and another program that was free or next to it. I chose to spend the bucks for X Copy, which has given me free updates ever since.
It is more than a bit rough to use, with no help file, but every one I have showed the results to can not tell the difference between the compressed copy and the original. As for the compression, commercial disks are double layer, and right now just about all DVD writers are single layer, so a copy has to be compressed MOST of the time. The double layer writable disks are now on the market, and the new writers are supposed to be available next spring. If there are any out there now, I don't know about it. I also don't know if any copy programs are ready to use them. To copy a DVD, one needs to get into files on the disk, which Explorer will not view, so the copy program opens up a disk directory, and one has to play the various "titles" to see what they want to copy. One Title will have twenty or more chapters, so you know you want to copy that one. The other titles give you the program control you may want to make your copy work like the original. Other Titles give previews, absurd interviews and other Value Added features, which are not worth copying which forces increased compression. So one must use their copy program to PLAY part of each Title to see what it is, and check only the ones needed. Then the program copys the DVD to hard drive, compressing all the way. That takes up to an hour on standard disks, usually forty to fifty minutes. Then the copy to DVD disk takes another half hour or more. If one uses their computer a lot, it is good to have a spare computer for this process, because it is so CPU intensive that even a network call can cause problems. Some disks I have had to do several times, taking umpty hours before a writeable version was ready. Often there is a Title which includes the warning scenes, and it has the power to cripple the copy process, so that has to be left off the copy. One good thing here, is that it is pretty much automatic once the decisions about which Titles to include has been made. Set it and forget it, until it is time to change the disk to the writeable platter. The program will wait for you to finish supper before you do that. Please understand that I obviously believe in backing up all CD's and DVD's. Especially if one takes them along when traveling. I had a good friend who did not know about copying, and lost some irreplaceable Session CD's in a airport terminal. Copies, don't leave home without them. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Helene Leavitt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC WORKS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2003 8:35 AM Subject: PCWorks: RE; DVD - re-writable > Hi Mike and Clint. > > Mike, the reason my daughter wants to copy the DVDs.. is that this way. in > case the machine "eats one".. they will not be lost.. (she's got ALOT of > trilogys.. as well.. as full collections. and they cost alot of money). ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
