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copy DVD?

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:28 pm
by kidman
How do I make a copy of a DVD?

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:04 pm
by hal_nesbitt
Although I DO NOT condone illegally making copies of DVDs, it is legal to make backup copies of the DVDs that you own, as long as they are for your own personal use and you do not loan them out, have public showings, etc. This can come in handy, as DVDs can be expensive and should be considered an investment. This investement should be protected against accidents such as fire or damage, or if your girlfriend gets angry with you and knocks over your DVD tower and then does a rain dance on them and breaks, oh, say, 73 DVDs.

There are two parts: ripping and burning.

Ripping: There are several software programs that can do this but the best and most famous is DVD Decrypter. You can google it and you should be able to find a copy. (It is free). Insert the disc and it will copy the contents to a "DVD folder" which has the info, or you can rip to a disc image, which will have an ISO file extension.

Burning: One you have the disc ripped to your hard drive, either folder or ISO, you can burn it to disc. DVD Decrypter can burn a disc image, by choosing Mode > ISO > Write. However, a lot of discs will be larger than the 4.7GB standard DVDR disc, so you will need to compress the data. This can be done with DVD Shrink (another freeware program - google it). Once it is resized, burn it to disc with your favorite burning program. DVD Shrink is integrated with Nero, but I prefer Roxio, which also has built in compression, so you can skip the part with DVD Shrink.

Enjoy the movie!