Dual DVD drive question...

[g4jedi]

I just bought a second DVD burner for my PowerMac MDD. I now have the stock 2X SuperDrive as well as a new NEC 2510A 8X burner (with dual layer burning). My question is this: Is there an easy way to go DVD to DVD-R which would making backing up movies a lot faster? My cousin can do this on his PC using DVD X Copy.

[alkaline]

I just bought a second DVD burner for my PowerMac MDD. I now have the stock 2X SuperDrive as well as a new NEC 2510A 8X burner (with dual layer burning). My question is this: Is there an easy way to go DVD to DVD-R which would making backing up movies a lot faster? My cousin can do this on his PC using DVD X Copy.

Try to use Mac The Ripper.
It's more fast as DVD X copy on PC.

[g4jedi]

No... I need an application that will take the DVD from one drive, decrypt it and burn it to the other drive. I sent an email to the company that creates Fast DVD Copy 2.5 asking if it can do this, but have not heard back from them...

[AntnyMD]

Why not just give it to your cousin? Your cousin seems to be set up perfectly for such efficient piracy .. Why fix what ain't broke?

[g4jedi]

Smart A$$! This is for backup purposes! If you had kids you'd understand. Not that it matters in this forum. Some jerk offs never believe us when we say we're backing these up no matter what...

[babgolis]

I'm not sure what is so difficult about the 2 step burning process. You end up with more control over the finished product. You'll get to skip the "tedious" compression step with your fancy dual layer drive.

I've tried older versions of Fast DVD Copy only to find that my precious dvd-r has been ruined, longer processing time than MTR on my semi-legacy G4 and no burnable file on my hard-drive. Back to square one.

Also, let's play nice...

[g4jedi]

It's not the tedious part I'm trying to bypass, just the amount of time it takes. As far as using the "fancy dual layered disks" to bypass the compression, I won't being doing that until the prices of the DL disks come down. They are about $14 each these days. At that price, I may as well buy a second copy of the movie. Regardless, I was simply looking for a fast way to go burner to burner like you can with DVD X Copy on the PC. No worries... If I have to do it the long way, I have to do it the long way.

[WiseWeasel]

Nope, there is no software to allow you to rip a commercial DVD straight to DVD-R in one step. You need to rip it to your hard drive first. It's a good thing anyways, as one little read error on the DVD you're copying from will give you a coaster, and with DL discs, that's a $14 coaster. At that price, you can bet I'll be ripping to HD first, to be sure that I can copy the entire disc before I start to burn it to a recordable.

[FCPguy]

G4jedi-
Unfortunately for your situation, there isn't a quick work-around to put in a disk and automate it , though if you had the extra time, you could prob. write an applescript to help automate that- but I'm no expert at that.
I also wanted to say that most comments made in here are for helpful purposes, so you should take a little heat from someone if they're giving it. We all make backups here (of our own disks) so I'd say keep it cool. Good luck with this issue

[g4jedi]

I understand. Sorry for venting... it's just that I've seen many people post here asking for help and getting flamed from others about pirating this that or the other. Sorry I was so harsh. I just got a little ticked is all. As you said, I should "expect to take a little heat and accept it".

Anyway, after doing a lot of research and from seeing the responses, it looks like I'll be backing up DVD's the way I've always been doing it. MacTheRipper then DVD2OneX then Toast. I'll just save time by having an 8X drive instead of 2X and not having to eject as often. That being said, it would be cool if DVD X Copy had become available for the Mac before they stopped developing the software. The fact that my cousin can back up and entire DVD (including burning) in less than a half an hour does have me a little jealous. Oh well, once dual layered disks become cheaper, I can at least save that 25 minute process of recompressing.

[galactica]

http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/

thats about the most equivalent

get it now while you can, like 321 studios [makers of dvdxcopy] i suspect this to also come under HEAVY fire from MPAA

321 is being sued royally last i heard by the MPAA so much so they dont make the app any more, and are not offering updates to past sales

basically its a touchy issue. Yes its illegal to copy movies and distribute them! but if you own the movie and are truly making a "backup" which i wager 99 percent of the people are not doing, then whats the harm

but i dont write/make the rules

[g4jedi]

Yup... I knew about 321 Studios' problems. I also suspect that Fast DVD Copy will suffer the same fate. Probably DVD2OneX as well. The movie companies are more "power hungry" than the music and software industries I think. I mean, after all, we have been backing up our music and software ever since the days of tapes. Whatever...

[FCPguy]

Hey G4. I talked to a buddy of mine- and he said that (if he has time... so we'll find out if he'll do it) it is entirely possible to automate those steps into a good applescript, but it would also "take SOME time".
Long story short, if he ever gets around to doing that... I'll post it. Basically you would put in one disk and it would run through a preset bunch of commands. You might have one to rip and re-compress. Another to just rip and burn, and if you have one of those G4s with 2 slots for DVD burners, you could acutally do what you wanted in the first place. It would have to finish the 1st stageo of ripping first, but after it would just take the blank dvd and burn.
Again, there are a lot of "if's" in there, but we'll see. (or my friend is full of it... I wouldn't put it past him this time!! ha ha) Anyways- Good luck!

[g4jedi]

It's funny, because I was just thinking about an AppleScript solution. I could try playing with AppleScript's record function to see if I can at least get a head-start. I do have a dual optical drive G4 (MDD). It's dual 1Ghz with 1.25GB of RAM. Plenty of hard drives as well.

[FCPguy]

Sounds like you fit into those "if" scenerios! That sounds good then. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it works well, he said the hardest part is figuring out the timing and the folders used. (once a movie is captured, you'll have to automate the name of the folder changing to match the movie burned ect.) and then have the diff. steps start once the others have finished.
That's cool. Step one complete... now to figure out how to Applescript it! I'll ask him to hurry, and i'll buy him lunch, but I bet you'll finish before he does Sounds good though

[g4jedi]

FYI: Fast DVD Copy 2.5 does allow disk-to-disk burning with dual dvd burners installed. However, it still processes the files to your hard drive (as I would expect). The main problem with Fast DVD Copy 2.5 is the compression phase. It's MUCH slower than DVD2OneX. It takes almost twice as long to compress. I like the interface and the simplicity of Fast DVD Copy, but it's so slow! So, back to the MTR to DVD2OneX to Toast technique for me. I'm still thinking of a way to use AppleScript to automate the process though... we shall see...

[thoughton]

It's funny, because I was just thinking about an AppleScript solution. I could try playing with AppleScript's record function to see if I can at least get a head-start. I do have a dual optical drive G4 (MDD). It's dual 1Ghz with 1.25GB of RAM. Plenty of hard drives as well.

Someone already tried this (Weasel?) but it turned out that the essential parts of dvd2onexwere not scriptable. Perhaps your friend will have better luck with fastdvdcopy.