Copying DVD - is it exact?

If I copy from one DVD to another, shouldn't the copy be identical?

I copied a DVD-RW to another DVD-RW. But the copy does not play properly on my DVD player. It sticks at the main menu. Same happens if I copy to a DVD-R (now = coaster).

I've used several methods of copying:
- DVD to DVD (in the same DVD drive)
- DVD to HD and back to DVD again.
Both gave same result. This is a disc I authored myself, so there are no copy protection issues.

Am I missing some basic point he, as this just doesn't seem logical. Is there any program that will copy reliably please?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

Thanks. I'll have a try with DVD Decrypter, although I'm out of my depth a bit here. Where does ISO come into it please? I thought that was for data files, not DVD video files?

DVD Identifier reports:

Disc & Book Type : [DVD-RW] - [DVD-RW]
Manufacturer Name : [Ritek Corp.]
Manufacturer ID : [RITEK000V11A]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,298,496 Sectors = 4.71 GB (4.38 GiB)]

As you may have seen from my other post, that same empty disc is being rejected by NeroExpress as having insufficient space!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

DVD Decrypter has another function. It can be set verify what it writes,



I would try higher quality disks from Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim.

Many thanks for those follow-ups, especially to Lumis for spelling it out. That worked! After many previous wasted hours I now have a DVD-RW that plays correctly on both PC and external DVD player.

So that I can fully grasp this, does the writing phase of this process end up with a different result to burning all those files inside the VIDEO_TS folder please? That folder is output from authoring in NeroVision Express, and I'm pretty sure I made my original DVD-RW by using NeroExpress to make a DVD Video from the folder. So in theory I'd have thought the result should be identical?

Presumably, when I use NeroExpress|Copy Entire Disc that is using an identical process to Decrypter? (I'm just trying as I write this, and I see the message 'Creating the image for burning'.)

Is Verify normally recommended, despite presumably roughly doubling the time?

Much appreciate the help; lot's to learn

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

As a footnote I should report that NeroExpress did not work. It finished making the image on HD then ejected the original and asked me to insert an empty disc. I inserted the same DVD-RW I'd just successfully made with DVD Decrypter. NeroExpress warned me that it wasn't empty and asked if I wanted to erase. I said yes, and it did a Quick Erase. All well so far. Then, slightly surprising, it ejected the disc; I'd have thought it would automatically continue to the burn. I loaded it again and then got the same pesky message I've reported in my separate post, namely:
"There is not enough space to burn the compilation onto this disc."

Which just doesn't make sense! (The DVD is about 1 GB BTW.)

Anyway, the mesage is clear: use DVD Decrypter. But I hate unsolved puzzles...

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

Verify is your choice, I like to verify the first few burns with a new batch of media to see how it is. I can watch the verify rate and get a feel of how it burns.

One other caveat. Nero verifys always run slower than the DVD Decrypter verifys. Both play fine so I haven't decided if it is a Nero overhead type of issue or what

My normal porcedure now is Author, use DVD Shrink to turn into an ISO, Burn with DVD Decrypter.

Thanks, very helpful. Finding an 'optimum working procedure' is a top priority for me, as there seem to be so many different ways of doing things. I'm going to try and follow your procedure precisely. Although I installed DVD Shrink recently I'm unfamiliar with using it.

I assume your authored output is in a VTS folder? I've got as far as opening such a folder and DVD Shrink quickly analyzed it. Then I used Backup, yes? But after a while I got a similar message to the one NeroExpress was giving me. It says: "There is not enough space to burn the compilation onto this disc." Yet the folder is a mere 1 GB! And DeCrypter burned that very DVD-RW fine, as I reported earlier. So, whatever is going on, it's not confined to Nero. Any ideas please? I can provide more info if necessary.

BTW, I take it that if you just burned your VTS folder directly (e.g. with DeepBurner Pro, or NeroExpress), that wouldn't work? But I can't say I yet understand why not

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

Originally Posted by terrypin

But I hate unsolved puzzles...

I know what you mean. I had Nero 6 last year on this computer along with DVD Decrypter and Veritas RecordNow ( now Sonic ) which is very similar to Neroexpress. Thinking that Neroexpress would be newer and better, I started using it and found that when I tried to make an exact copy it sometimes would refuse, but the old RecordNow would never fail to do it with exactly the same disks.



I removed Nero and am continuing to use RecordNow for exact copies or I use a Pioneer 531H hard drive recorder which can also make exact copies of non-copyrighted material.

Yes, as they say, go figure!

In this case though, it looks more and more like some sort of media problem. (Although why Decrypter wasn't similarly affected I don't understand.)

FWIW, on loading the DVD-RW disc into IsoBuster, I got this:

"During mounting of the disc only a session/track layout could be found. No file-systems nor files and folders could be found. Assuming you are looking for certain (missing) files, we suggest you run the option: "Find missing files and folders"

Could someone help me interpret that please? Is that why NeroExpress and DVD Shrink (but not DVD Decrypter) have been wrongly reporting the disc as having insufficient space?

The message also says:
"Assuming you are looking for certain (missing) files, we suggest you run the option: "Find missing files and folders"

I haven't a clue as to whether I should pursue that!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

Maybe the original disc wasn't properly finalized?