Many people are planning on buying a DVD-R/RW (or +R/RW) with the intent on performing a DIRECT BIT-FOR-BIT copy of any DVD that they have on hand. This is NOT POSSIBLE!

Now I'll explain why this is so.

DVD-R media manufacturers must conform to DVD-R standards (they are up to Version 2.2 now, I believe). From Version 1.0 until now, it was a REQUIREMENT that a particular area of a DVD blank be OBSCURED (ie, embossed, blacked-out, scratched up, or whatever, but this area is NOT recordable). This area is the Disk's "Control Data Zone" in the lead-in area. This is where the CSS keys are kept on a movie DVD. Without these keys, a copied DVD cannot be played on ANYTHING (the data cannot be decrypted and recognized by the players).

However, an UNENCRYPTED DVD can be treated like any other file and transfered back to a DVD-R. To learn how to do this, consult the GUIDES section of this site and others like www.doom9.org.

I hope that this clarifies some misconceptions out there.