Copy DVD-R to DVD-R Question

[MachineMan]

I have some Home DVD-R's I made with Ulead Movie Factory2 which are in good working order. Is it possible to make a duplicate by using Nero express Data copy? And can I add other folders with non video stuff so the person I give it to can play it and also access other data on there PC? I tried this and it would not play in my stand alone.

Or do I have to copy it as a DVD video from Nero?? When I do this it won't let me add additional folders.

[SLICK RICK]

You are probably going to get alot of post saying it is so easy and fast doing a direct copy but I have had problems doing it like that. So the 100% succesful way that I have done it is to rip the movie to your hard drive with DVD Decrypter and then burn with nero or whatever you like to use. Since it was already a DVD5 you dont have to run it through any shrinking program, just rip and burn.

SLICK RICK

[MachineMan]

How about adding other folders with no relevant video data? Will they disrupt the playback or just hopefully be ignord by the stand alone player?

[northcat_8]

I agree with Slick Rick on the direct copy. I make DVD's for people, weddings, graduations that type of thing. I always keep a back up incase they break or lose theirs and when I make a copy I just rip my backup with decrypter, I use mode>ISO>Read and just have decrypter make the image file then I just turn around and burn that image file with decrypter and I've never had any problems doing it this way.

Also when making the original DVD I have my DVD authoring program create an image file rather than burning to disc, that way I can burn that image file for as many copies as I need.

I've never had any problems adding other software or folders to my discs. But adding those things require you to do somethings differently as far as getting the image file ready to burn because those extra's need to be written into the image file. Basically what I do is if I need to do that I rip the DVD in file mode. That will give me the VIDEO_TS folder, with all my VOB, IFO, BUP files in it, I create an AUDIO_TS folder and then another folder with the programs or text files whatever extra I'm going to add, then I make my image file including all 3 folders. I've never had any problems with it.

[Gurm]

Yeah, always rip to the hard disk first. Although you CAN make a DVD-to-DVD copy, it is a risky proposition and you might not know it's a bad copy until later on.

And you needn't use DVD Decrypter to do it. "Make image file" is a common option in any DVD burning program.

- Gurm