Can DVD Recorder copy an entire disc?

[coody]

When copy the DVD by the DVD recorder, you have to press the Play button in a DVD player before recording. So you will lose the other bonus features etc. unless you continue to select the bonus features after playing the main movie. Is it possible to copy the entire disc by the DVD recorder so that the copied DVD has the exact same contents of the original DVD? I know the backup software can do it. But, how about the DVD recorder?

[Krispy Kritter]

I wouldn't suspect it would be possible. Having a single box solution like you describe would make it to easy for users to illegally copy discs. I'm surprised you can even play and record a copy protected disc.

[orsetto]

Assuming the source disc is not "protected", you can backup some special features using this method but not all. If you sit and watch the entire transfer as its running, you can start and stop recording after the main program and each special bonus program. When you finalize the DVD each item will show up as an individually-selectable "title". This is not really a feasible thing to do, however. Its tedious, and you'd have to calculate the running time of the main feature + all the bonus programs so you could set the recorder to the correct speed to fit it all, which might be unacceptably slow & crummy with some bonus-rich programs. Also, there is no way to access the "commentary" feature this way- you lose that completely.

Machine-to-machine is a kludge for when you don't have access to a PC or your backup software needs an update. In a pinch, you can make a passable backup of the main feature this way, but thats about it.

[coody]

So, no DVD recorder can do disc-to-disc copy but has to be played title by title before recording starts.

[trhouse]

Yes and no. Pioneer hard drive recorders were unique in that they had a "copy" function which would allow copying a disk without copyright protection to the hard drive faster than real time and then copying to a new disk at faster than real time so no re-encoding was taking place. Once on the hard drive, you could make as many copies as desired. I tested this by taking a non-copyright protected disk with "play", "scene selections", and "language" selections. It made an exact duplcate with all those selections.

Federal law requires dvd recorders sold in the US to not allow this function to work with copyrighted material.

[jjeff]

That's cool. I don't think any current DVDR's w/HDD's do that. The Philips 3575 will only copy HS one way(hdd to DVD) and even that only copies just one thumbnail, no menu's. It also will not copy a commercial DVD(even if no CP). It detects the DVD is burned(vs dye changes) and restricts the copy.

[coody]

Anyway it’s a good idea. It’s worth of testing the DVD HDD recorder instead of keep looking for the DVD R recorder.

[handyguy]

As mentioned, you can't copy anything with copy protection on a dvd recorder. That's why people return them to the store. But if you have a macrovision free dvd source player you could.