Why can't we just COPY a DVD???

[thehutt]

Why can't I just put a DVD movie in my DVD player and copy it to my DVD-R?

I can do this with any CD....including copy protected software.

So why do I have to go through the ripping and everything else?

Are DVD's that different? I thought it was still just a disc with a bunch of pits...or lack of....just closer together.

Will this ever be possible?

-Andy

[vitualis]

Because DVD are designed from the ground up to stop this.

Most video content on commercial DVDs is encrypted. The keys are located on a part of the DVD that is not assessible by software, only with hardware authentication (I think).

Thus, if you directly copied a single layered DVD onto DVD-R and left it encrypted, there is no way to put the keys on the DVD-R... That is, your copy wouldn't work.

The only way to copy the DVD is therefore to use a "ripper"... In other words, to decrypt the video content. You can then reburn the decrypted VOB files as is... It won't be quite a 1:1 copy, more like a 1:1 copy where the encryption was removed.

Regards.

[musher70]

spent all that money on a dvd burner like the rest of us
and just though easy cd creator or such would do all
the work huh?........spend lots of time here and your
queries will all be answered..........

[kitty]

I used a color xerox machine - copied my DVD perfectly including cover art I can't play it of course but that's about as close as we'll get to thehutt's method.

[thehutt]

spent all that money on a dvd burner like the rest of us
and just though easy cd creator or such would do all
the work huh?........spend lots of time here and your
queries will all be answered..........

Well, actually no But that would have been a plus

The big reason I bought it was to take SVCD's....Let's say the Star Wars trilogy that I have and put them on 1 DVD. I thought I would be able to just dump the mpegs onto the DVD and bickity-bam I would have 3 decent quality flicks on one disk!! My hopes were shattered when I noticed that when I dragged my 700meg mpeg into the software program and it made it DVD compatable and the file jumped to 3.8 GIG!! There are ways to convert the files...or so I have read here but it is pretty time consuming and probably not worth the effort

[fantomlord]

Well, actually no But that would have been a plus

The big reason I bought it was to take SVCD's....Let's say the Star Wars trilogy that I have and put them on 1 DVD. I thought I would be able to just dump the mpegs onto the DVD and bickity-bam I would have 3 decent quality flicks on one disk!! My hopes were shattered when I noticed that when I dragged my 700meg mpeg into the software program and it made it DVD compatable and the file jumped to 3.8 GIG!! There are ways to convert the files...or so I have read here but it is pretty time consuming and probably not worth the effort

"bickety-bam"?

[thehutt]

yeah....bickity bam!!!

'as quoted from Jay in the movie Mallrats

like if I do this and then I do that....then....bickity bam.....this is what happens.

[fand]

imo there is a huge inital learning curve to the dvd-ripping process.

and then it becomes very easy. at least to the point where

if ( all_files_after_rip > 4.3 gigs )
{
do_transEncoding();
}
do_dvdAuthor();
BurnDVD();


sorry, in one of those programming mood swings ;o)

k.

[shagrath]

but what about a DVD thats not protected and its below 4.3 gb, can I use the latest nero and my dvd+ burner to make a direct copy ???? will that work???

[jzmax]

Oh man, you must be really new to this. Anyway, you can easly copy a DVD movie to a DVD-R, the only thing you need is DVD Decripter[/color]; this program allows you to make a ISO image of the DVD an burn it on DVD-R. I think there is even a guide of how to do this in this site, in case you cant figure how to do it even thoght it is really easy.
I hope this helped you.

[thxkid]

Only one way of doing this the way you want to, its called a Home DVD recorder, the Panasonic DMR E-20 I have does this perfectly with any source and I do mean ANY source, I have made copies and backups of anything I want including my 3 star wars triology Laser Discs box set, back purposes only though for testing, I decided to forgo the $299 to $399 for a DVD Burner for the $699 home unit glad I did, it makes mirror DVD-R's of what ever I do in the 2 hr mode, really great ones in 4 hr. mode. the 6 hr mode is useless, looks like very good VCD's, the 1 hr mode is fantastic but see no real use for it. Has a built in tuner, timer and also uses DVD-Ram for rewritables. It is as easy to use as a VCR.

[nfielden]

thxkid, tell me more about your panasonic dmr e-20. did you need to buy a filter for it to be able to copy dvd movies. I mean from a dvd source? I want to use it to copy dvd's, how does it fit on a dvd-r?

[twen]

I think this will answer all your questions, including step by step method and different scenario when the DVD is <4.3G, >4.3G, etc.

I don't have a DVD burner so I can't tell you if it works or not. But I read in one forum someone is actually just rip the whole DVD as "file" instead of "movie" and then burn it. He claims to have all the features work just like the original DVD. Sorry, can't remember which forum though. Tell you the truth, if I had money for a DVD burner I'll definitely do it this way and forget about all the hassle, especially when DVD-R are so cheap now.

This link to DVD copy: http://mpucoder.kewlhair.com/derrow/index.html

This link to DVD-R seller: http://www.cd-recordable.com/index.html

Good luck!

[musher70]

THAT ALL SOUNDS REAL INTERESTING.....But let me ask you this
what kind of compatability is there with that Panasonic DMR E-20?
Because you know panasonic will give up on that dvdram format
in the end for favor of +r or -r,does that recorder do +r,cause i
heard that it might,do ur discs play on other players as well,
including inside of u drive??just like to know thx
WORST BUY had them on clearance for 600$ W/NO REMOTE

[nfielden]

this is as it stands, you can record a dvd to dvd using a standalone recorder, you must have a filter to bypass the encryption, however this only works for the movie part, not for the menus or extras, and does not keep the chapter points.
I have read many tutorials on how to rip dvd's, I would like to know someone who has succesfully copied a comercial dvd-9 with all menus, chapters, and extras to a dvd-r, and how they did it.

[Daveyd]

I for one have a HP 200i DVD+R/RW Writer. I have been pulling my hair out trying to copy DVDs. For one thing, the VAST majority of commerical DVDs are DVD-9s. I have ripped (with smartripper) JUST the main movie and 95% of the time the main movie and just 1 audio track (English 5.1) are STILL over 4.3 gigs. To fit on one DVD+R/RW you THEN you have to run through REMPEG..which on my AMD 2000+ with 512 Meg DDR333 RAM takes over 4 hours!!...THEN you have to run it through SpruceUP or DVDit to author..BUT Spruce up doesnt give you Dolby 5.1 unless you have a serial number. After all of this, you can hopefully burn with Nero and you will have only the main movie and 1 audio track. Ive been tinkering with this for days now and something seems to always go wrong. I wish the would come out with DVD-9 recordables!!! If anyone else has successfully burned a DVD-9 to a DVD+R/RW PLEASE let me know!!!

[twen]

http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=97918&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

thehutt, I found the post that I was talking about by Greyhair. Go talk to him and maybe he can help you.

I forgot to mention earlier, and I don't know how advanced you are, be sure you understand the compatablity issues about DVD-R, DVD+R, etc. in the industry, and what the future might be (actually nobody can be sure, I read in ZDnet that "+" may very well the future) before you go out and buy an 100 bundle discs just because it's cheap.

This "hobby" takes a lot of reading, learning and asking. I'm a newbie myself (only couple months into this), but I've been doing a lot of that everyday. Reading all forums I could find everyday has become my routine like reading the newspaper. And the most important thing is: bookmark them or print them out if they interest you, you'll need them someday.

The key point is: if you want to learn something, start from the basic, there is no shortcut! I always tell my kids since they were young, now 14 & 18, that if you want to do it, do it right, or else forget about it. If you start one thing then stick with it and do your best to perfect it, you may not be able to perfect it but the gains are all in the process!!

Sorry, didn't mean to lecture you or anything, but I just have been seeing a lot of people posted their questions in any forum are just looking for shortcuts when they don't even know the basics. That's very difficult for people to offer their help.