DVD-Recorders - Can You Copy DVD's with them?

[virtual133]

What I am wondering is can you copy DVD's with them. I'm not talking about copyrighted material - I'm talkin about DVD's that I have burned myself (home movies). I wanna use one for DVD Duplication. 8)

[bdf24]

I don't have one myself. But yes I do believe you can copy a decrypted DVD. Meaning a backup of a commercial DVD or homemade DVD's.

[Cobra]

DVD writers will rip DVDs fine, or alternatively you can copy disc to disc "on-the-fly" if you have another DVD-ROM or DVD writer in your PC.

Cobra

[hech54]

For doing only what you are doing.....copying home-made DVDR's....just use your burner.
AND....is you are intending to send your DVD to a family member to have THEM copy it with their DVD Recorder....that will work as well.

[bdf24]

DVD writers will rip DVDs fine, or alternatively you can copy disc to disc "on-the-fly" if you have another DVD-ROM or DVD writer in your PC.

Cobra

I've copied DVD-R's on the fly with no trouble at all. But never a commercial DVD. Would the encryption slow the transfer rate down enough to cause buffer underrun errors? Even if your drive has buffer underrun protection? I'd imagine if you burn at a lower speed there really should'nt be much trouble. I've got a stack of DVD+RW's I'm using up now. So write speed is only 2.4X.

[Cobra]

If you're wanting to back up a commercial DVD then you will need to be ripping it and compressing it so it will fit onto a DVD-R, as they have a lower capacity than the commercial dual-layer DVD-9s. I have been using DVDShrink very successfully. There are many guides on this site that document how this is done.

I suppose that if the commercial DVD were small enough to fit on a DVD-R anyway then a direct copy could be possible. Use a DVD-RW to test if this will work before using a blank recordable.

In answer to the original question, a DVD writer is in every respect a DVD-ROM drive until you launch your favourite burning program, when it has the ability to write to blank discs too. It can perform every function that a normal DVD-ROM can.

Cobra