Fast DVD Copy: A DVD Backup Solution for Mac

[WiseWeasel]

It seems like there's a new program called Fast DVD Copy that was released today. The $100 (!) application backs up DVD movies onto DVD-R media, including shrinking dual-layered discs onto a single layer. Looks like this one's truly for the newbies, and to top it off, it doesn't watermark the DVDs it makes with information traceable to your identity, like DVDXCopy does. Looks like we have something to point the noobs to without having to explain the whole rip-shrink-burn process to them. I'd be interested in knowing how well this works, but not $100-interested, if you know what I mean...

[Macnewbie]

You can download a trial version of it here: http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/en/download.php

It says it will let you copy one DVD in trial mode.

[MikieV]

I love FAQs that contradict themselves:

Can I copy DVDs from different zones?

Yes.

Followed by:

Can I copy a DVD from a zone that is different from the zone of my SuperDrive?

No, you can only copy DVDs from the same zone as your SuperDrive.

I can only assume this is a round-about way of saying the software will work anywhere in the world (not just USA), but only on DVD's bought in that particular computer/superdrive's region-zone.

But, it sure looks funny as written. Makes you wonder what other qestions/answers shouldn't be taken at face value.

I also like this, from their FAQ:

Can I copy protected or encrypted DVDs with Fast DVD Copy?

Virtually every commercial DVD movie that's ever been sold contains encryption. In some isolated cases, Fast DVD Copy may be unable to successfully copy a DVD movie. In most cases, however, you will be able to copy DVDs protected by CSS and Macrovision.

CSS and Macrovision - protected by the threat of DMCA prosecution (in the USA) - is easily bypassed, but RCE - a marketing-ploy without the protection of legislation - is tough to get around?? :P

I wonder if the "flag" being discussed to prevent copying of HD over the Internet will fall into the CSS/Macrovision (easy to bypass) catagory, or the RCE (limited bypass available) catagory.

Mike

[tnelson]

LOL, the product crashed while I was reading the License agreement. Seems repeatable, if you stay at the License page for any length of time, Poof!

Of course it may have something to do with other applications I was running, or low memory, but who knows.

Tom N.

[SERBIAN]

I like "ONLY 99.95$" sticker on their site most...Too much, in my humble opinion...

[Macnewbie]

I tried it. It bombed. Results are below.

My System: Power Mac G4 Dual 1GHz, 1.5GB RAM, Pioneer DVR-107D internal burner with v1.10 unhacked firmware, OS X 10.3.2

Fast DVD Copy version 1.0.1

DVD: Minority Report, region 1. (DVD size: 7.85GB)
Recordable Media: Accu 4X (actually burns at 4x in the DVR-107!)

TIP:
Fast DVD Copy does not like it when DVD Player launches upon insert of the DVD. If this happens, it will display a message saying to close DVD Player. At that point you have to restart Fast DVD Copy. So if your system is configured to launch DVD player automatically, insert the DVD and then close DVD Player before launching Fast DVD Copy.

Results:
It took about 30 minutes during the "Reading" stage. During this time it was using between 17% and 26% CPU, but with occasional spikes as high as 80%. During the compression stage it bombed with the failure message: "This DVD-Video cannot been requantized because it has too much bonus data. The resulting DVD will not fit on a DVD-R."

Well that was a waste of time. It appears, at least, that the failure did not count against the single burn trial period.

[Macnewbie]

And the reviews on versiontracker.com aren't good:
http://www.versiontracker.com//dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22793

[AntnyMD]

When underinformed users imply worth to a price tag, they are ripe for milking. One hundred dollars for something to copy DVDs seems like a steal when one hundred dollars for a settop DVD recorder is still unheard of.

However, if for your one hundred dollars you get something that doesnt work, and you can't get a refund (not saying you cant but I'll bet you can't), how much more valuable does a place like DVDRhelp become?

For $100 you can download a free ripper, buy DVD2OneX and a stack of DVD-Rs! Use your brain for something else other than to fill out your skull. Do some research. Save some time, cash and frustration.

[badtz]

does it take off RCE encryption also?

[WiseWeasel]

They don't say in their FAQ. They do say it won't rip DVDs from other regions than the one the drive is in, though. Try sending them an email to the developers and ask them.

[galactica]

why would anyone in thier right mind actually pay for this!
I tried the demo, it crashed for me every time i click anywhere on the app

[badtz]

WW: Can MTR rip DVDs from regions other than the Superdrive's region?

just curious

THanks! [will email developer]

[MacTraderBoy]

Well after deleting the first version and downloading it again it worked. I was at 3 hours when I gave up on waiting for it and went to dinner. I put a blank in my external 8x burner and when I came home it was finished.

I have a 1ghz Dual Processor with 1.5GB of RAM and it didn't go over 70% of my processor capacity once. This app is definitely not fast but you could leave it overnight if you have a reader and separate burner.

Word on another site is they are already working on update and it will have small bug fixes but mostly it will have ways to keep it from be cracked. I would suggest that if you aren't having problems with it, you wait until they have good speed increase instead of being tempted by small fixes that are really excuses to block hackers (like iBlog does).

[MacTraderBoy]

warez link edited out

offering links to kracks for this app!
HOW DARE YOU

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning.
/ Moderator galactica

[WiseWeasel]

WW: Can MTR rip DVDs from regions other than the Superdrive's region?

Yes. It doesn't depend on the drive to unlock the discs (like DVDBackup does, as well as OSEx in certain modes), so you can rip DVDs from any region without having to change your drive's region.

[MacTraderBoy]

I just tried my first copy on my DVD player and it didn't recognize the DVD.

[galactica]

what, the krack doesnt work

[MacTraderBoy]

I apologize. I didn't consider warez because it didn't make the app free or anything like that, it just changed the demo so that you didn't have to hassle with giving the company all your personal info before you could take it for a spin.

And it does work, it was just my DVD player. Evidently its to old to recognize DVD-Rs because I tried it in my neighbors and it is perfect.

[galactica]

how were you able to get the app to even stay open?
i click any accept buttons or anywhere on the app itself and it quits out with errors.

seems shady if the demo doesnt even run!

[MacTraderBoy]

Well since I am running a copy that is not approved of, I doubt my comments would be welcome. I do know the version I downloaded from the developer's site gave me problems and the one I got elsewhere didn't.

[galactica]

interesting ....
well i finally got the demo to work... 50 min later it said enter dvdr
so i did, then it just spit it out and said "error"

what a waste!
preformance like this on a demo, it will be amazing if anyone actually buys this!

[motherwell]

took 123:11 to do all 3 steps. I will stick with the usual method of MTR, 2One, etc. because:

1. The idiot proof method is for idiots. The one button method is simple and nice, but it is only one button. Mac OS X is simple and nice as well, but it also has a shell (lots of power! you know what i mean)

2. Yeah arguably this app is for backing up DVDs, but who REALLY does that on a regular basis that they need to spend $100 for? I would think the MPAA or whoever would consider this to be piracy tools and stop them.

[harleyman35]

when i clic on the app to open it it crashed all time, i downloaded the trial version almost 5 times on the web site and its always the same it won't work
please need a help
my configuration its a PowerMac Quicksilver 933mhz with 512 SDRAM
i'm running into Mac OsX Panther 10.3.3
and 7 Giga free hard disk

[MacTraderBoy]

I think you may need more free HD space, especially with only 512MB RAM. I never let my HD get below 10GB free space.

If you figure you are compressing a 7GB DVD its going to have to store some of the data somewhere. Your HD probably isn't optimized so it has to write and read from all over it and any little glitch can cause a crash on an APP this complicated and early in its development.

[ykz]

i tried the demo on Pulp Fiction because this is a hard one for full disk backups and indeed after filling the .tmp folder of my HD with nearly 15 GB of VIDEO_TS and m2v stuff it said something like "This disk cannot be requantized because it contains too much bonus stuff", it offers the option to cancel or to remove the bonus stuff with the additional warning that the disk might be unplayable. i decided to cancel and to trash. I'm lucky with my copy of DVDRemaster even if it still doesn't offer the "movie-only-feature" but they are on a good way.

[galactica]

I give this app an F!
finaly got it working, results look HORRIBLE, there is no way i would EVER pay 99$ bucks for this....... EVER

Spread the word........... SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

[MacTraderBoy]

I just burned School of Rock with it and still working great in my home DVD player. That is 3 DVDs now that all work.

[galactica]

works.... but what do they look like. Mine was horriblly grainy and "textury" compare to same dvd processed with mac the ripper, dvd2one and then toast, and there is no comparison to the quality of the latter process

[MacTraderBoy]

I thought about that, so I put the original in. I have a 27" Panasonic with the "PanaBlack" tube that was a really good TV 2 years ago. I feed the cheapo Koss DVD player into it through composite video. I can see some degredation in picture but not enough that you would really notice. Certainly not as bad as a a regular video tape. Maybe if I had a HI-Def tv or better DVD player it would be more noticeable.

Maybe it is the size of the DVD your are copying? I don't know what kind of compression scheme it uses so maybe the bigger the DVD the worse the quality

Anyway, it works for me. School of Rock took about 93 minutes but in that time I got dinner made, started laundry, fed my son, all that sort of thing because I once I hit the start button I didn't have to touch it again until the DVD was done. That makes up for it being so slow.

[motherwell]

either way, it is much quicker to use the 3 apps.

The app just needs to be fixed. And free.