Back-Up DVDs with Pioneer DVR-531

[adubrovs]

Hi,

Everytime I try to back-up a DVD i get a message saying Cannot Copy DVD. Is there a hack available to be able to back-up DVDs with Pioneer DVR-531?

[gshelley61]

No, there's no copy protection hack for Pioneer DVD recorders.

It's much better to back up your DVD's on your computer anyway. Check out DVD Shrink, it's free software that does this.

[blinky88]

I have a 530 and do not have any problems. Be sure, to copy in Video Mode ..not.. VR and also do not forget to finalise the disc.

I use DVD Shrink to transfer to HDD (single ISO image) and then burn using DVD Decrypter.

[Frobozz]

I have a 530 and do not have any problems. Be sure, to copy in Video Mode ..not.. VR and also do not forget to finalise the disc.

Just to be clear, the Disc Backup mode on the Pioneer doesn't require setting video or VR mode. It fast-copies a disc image file from the original finalized video-mode DVD to the hard drive which then can do a fast-copy burn of duplicate discs. However, it won't copy encrypted DVDs. Those are copy protected so the Pioneer obviously won't copy them.

[sync]

I was unable to copy a DVD made on my recorder back to the hard drive on my 420. The manual says:
"The DVD to HDD Copy screen is not accessible when a finalized Video mode disc is loaded."

[trhouse]

sync,

This is true of the new units like the 531 too. It will fast copy back to the hard drive a VR mode disk which can then be edited on the hard drive. A finalized video mode disc can be fast copied to the hard drive using "Disc Backup" from the copy menu but this method does not allow editing. The backed up disc file does not appear in the "Disc Navigator". Pioneer warns that copying to a dvd-rw will not allow "unfinalizing" if disc backup is used.

A finalized video mode disk can also be copied to the hard drive in one touch copy mode. It does it real time which re-encodes the disk resulting in some degradation in quality.

[sync]

A finalized video mode disk can also be copied to the hard drive in one touch copy mode. It does it real time which re-encodes the disk resulting in some degradation in quality.

That method only copies the title that is playing. It doesn't copy the whole disk if there is more than one title.

[trhouse]

Thanks for that information. I was not aware that it would only copy one title with that method. I did it once and discovered it was being re-encoded so next time, I just did it on the computer.

[blinky88]

I obviously did not read your post correctly, I have never attempted to copy from disc to HDD. I record everything in SP mode to HDD and then select the copy menu and copy from the HDD to disc. I then use that disc in my computer to edit and transfer to -R or +R media. Difficult to understand why you would choose the DVR531 to backup a disc when it far easier to do so on your computer.