Simple scenario, right?

But complicating matters is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which exists to address industry concerns about PC-based media copying. This little beauty prevents anyone from offering technology that circumvents copy protection. So far, the most famous case surrounding the DMCA involves DeCSS, a bit of software that circumvents the encryption that most DVD movies use. DeCSS was written solely so that Linux users could watch DVD movies. That sounds like fair use to me. However, because the software circumvents copy protection, it violates the DMCA and is technically illegal.

Critics have argued—successfully, I believe—that the DMCA is ill considered and in conflict with existing copyright laws. However, it’s still on the books. And if you're interested in backing up your DVD movies (a fair use if there ever was one), you're going to have to reconcile the DMCA with pre-existing copyright laws. And you're going to have to find a solution that works.

The How and Why
Why back up DVD movies? There are plenty of reasons. First, DVDs are easily scratched or damaged, thereby rendering the underlying content useless. Today, hard disks are plentiful and capacious. And with more and more people serving audio content, photo slide shows, and home movies via a Media Center PC or media server, those people are more and more commonly wanting to set up movie jukeboxes. Most PCs can utilize only one or two DVD drives—and thus one or two movies—at a time. It's inconvenient.

Backing up DVDs has its downsides. You must understand that a digital copy of a DVD can never replace a physical DVD. You shouldn't sell a DVD after you've copied it, and you certainly shouldn't copy rented DVD movies. Also, most copied DVD movies result in files that are quite large, occupying several gigabytes of storage if copied at full quality. Finally, copying DVD movies is quite time-consuming. Unlike audio CDs, which you can often copy in seconds, DVD movies can require a few hours to copy. This isn’t a task for people who want instant results.

So, how do you copy DVD movies? In the past, I’ve used free programs such as DVD Decrypter, which can "rip" the contents of a DVD movie onto a hard disk. Then, I would use one of any number of programs to convert the ripped DVD into a more suitable format, such as MPEG-2, DivX/XVid, MPEG-4, or Windows Media Video (WMV). The problem with DVD Decrypter is that it requires you to go through the intermediate step of decrypting DVDs to disk. Another, perhaps more fatal problem is that DVD Decrypter's author has stopped updating the program because of DMCA-based legal threats.

AnyDVD
Since DVD Decrypter's death, I've found a more elegant solution. A company called SlySoft makes an ingenious $39 application called AnyDVD, which resides in memory and unprotects commercial DVDs on the fly. So, when AnyDVD is running and you insert a DVD movie, it appears to the system to be unencrypted. Then, you can use the video application of your choice to copy the DVD contents into a more suitable format. Incidentally, AnyDVD is also good for other uses: It removes a DVD's region information, letting you play international DVDs, and it prevents DVDs with horrible PC-based software (such as PC-Friendly) from automatically starting on insert.

I've experimented with various video applications, but since I'll be reviewing CyberLink PowerDirector soon, I’ll walk you through the process of copying a DVD by using AnyDVD and PowerDirector. First, make sure AnyDVD is resident on your system. Then, launch PowerDirector and insert a DVD movie in your PC's DVD drive. Next, select File, Import to import either the DVD’s entire VIDEO_TS folder or the individual VOB files that make up the movie.

In PowerDirector, you can drag individual VOB files to the timeline and edit them, or you can simply drag the entire movie onto the timeline and prepare to write it to disk. PowerDirector, like any good video editor, gives you a number of options for saving the movie. You can make a Video CD or DVD, for example. Or, you can save it to the hard disk in AVI, DivX, MPEG-1, or MPEG-2 format. MPEG-2 is the native format for DVD movies, so that's probably a good choice. Let’s start with that. A 1-minute MPEG-2 video encoded in a DVD-quality 720 x 480 format takes about 60 seconds to encode and occupies about 56MB of space. Do the math, and you're looking at about 5GB for a typical 90-minute movie. And, of course, the roughly 1:1 ratio of movie length to encoding time means that the video will take about 90 minutes to write to disk. Yikes.

DivX provides similar quality to MPEG-2 at much smaller file sizes, but the encoding process typically takes longer. That same 1-minute clip, encoded to the same resolution, will take about 1 minute and 4 seconds to encode, but the resulting file is only 17.2MB. So, a 90-minute movie would occupy just 15.5GB. That's much better, but DivX is also a slightly dodgy format, and is not as widely supported as MPEG-2.

What About the Mac?
I'm also investigating ways in which Apple Macintosh users can rip DVDs to their systems. One good solution is Handbrake, an open-source application. However, Handbrake can rip only to H.264/MPEG-4 and XviD, which are both high quality but somewhat non-standard. The H.264 ripping is particularly high quality, but also slow: It took over 9 hours to rip a 90-minute movie to my 1.33GHz PowerBook's hard disk in this format! That's unacceptable, although the resulting movie is only 850MB and looks gorgeous. If anyone has better Mac-oriented advice, I'd love to hear it.

Moving Forward
Ripping DVDs isn't as convenient as ripping audio CDs, but this discussion might be soon be irrelevant. In the coming year, major motion picture companies are expected to begin offering mainstream Hollywood movies in DVD-quality digital download formats the day they're released to theaters. Although information about these services is only beginning to trickle out, we can expect to see Apple iTunes-like movie services that offer both movie rentals and purchases, in Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) format—protected with Digital Rights Management (DRM), of course—soon. Today, services such as CinemaNow and Movielink offer small selections of movies, but future services won't be so limited. High-quality movie services won't remove the need to rip previously purchased DVDs, but they'll at least provide another option. In the meantime, it's possible—if slightly painful—to rip DVD movies today. You just need the right tools.

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Reader Comments
Macs are more betterer than PCs. Who cares if the formats they rip are non-standard, your doing it on a Mac and that's more important. Macks -July 13, 2005 Excellent article, congratulations. I would just add that there are other countries like Germani and France where making backup copies of your media is completely legal and this has been confirmed by Judiciary Courts. Personally I always bought all my music and movies; I have more than 1500 VHS cassettes and 250 DVDs; I also have a Media center PC but until I will be able to store my movies in my server and watch them in my living or in my bedroom thso OS will not get the success it could potentially have. Stefano Colasanti -July 13, 2005 Why is it called iPod if you stick them in your ears? Maxuk -July 13, 2005 Unfortunately not everyone uses a mac and not everyone can dish out the coin necessary to purchase a decent mac so I won't bother pursuing that argument anymore. I use DVDShrink v3.2 to convert a dvd and all of it's contents (movies, menus, trailers, etc.) to .iso format and then burn a copy of the dvd using DVD Decrypter. The quality is excellent the size of the original dvd is brought down from a stratospheric 7 to 9gb to just under 4gb. This works really well if you want to backup a copy of the entire original dvd which helps when you have little kids who put their sticky fingers all over your original disney classic dvd's! If you're interested in just the movie itself and don't want any of the other material on dvd, backing up to video cd format is quite acceptable as well. Use DVD Decrypter to rip the specific movie VOB's on to your harddrive and then (assuming you have installed any & all required plug-ins) use FlaskMPEG or TMPGENC to convert the VOB's to DivX AVI format or VCD mpeg format and then use a current cd burning software (Easy CD Creator or Nero) to burn a video cd from the mpeg files you created. If you like DivX and have a DivX enabled dvd player (they're more common nowadays), leave them as DivX and just copy the files on to cdrom as is. This has worked flawlessly for me and the quality is great as well. Video CD format isn't as bad as some would lead you to believe, most if not all of my vcd's are excellent. UncleRob -July 13, 2005 I'm thinking the DivX format would result in a 1.55GB, not 15.5GB file. Maybe my math is a little skewed, but... bats -July 13, 2005 bats I think you're correct, plus I don't think the current DivX player download would be able to play a 15.5gb file unless you split it into chunks smaller than 2gb each and probably closer to 1gb if memory serves correctly. I remember reading a post about the file size limitation that the current DivX player has (plus 15.5gb isn't very portable which is the whole deal behind DivX) unclerob -July 13, 2005 DVD Shrink / Nero is all you need. Craig -July 13, 2005 I have DVDS burned from my Digital cable service. since it uses the video source direct to the DVD recorder, it is actually an analog signal copied to a recordable dvd. Can these be ripped and copied any easier than commercial DVDs? I am using XP Pro. Keithers -July 13, 2005 If the dvd's are playable in any type of dvd player after the recording session is over, you can examine the contents of the dvd using your winxp pc if you have a dvd drive installed in your pc. I'm not sure if the burning method you described is actual DVD-Video format or if it's another format like SVCD or VCD. If you can examine the contents of the dvd, look for a VIDEO_TS folder and inside that folder, look for a series of VOB files, if you find them I would presume that you could rip/copy these dvd's easier than commercial dvd's, I doubt your burned dvd's would have copyright encryption built into them. unclerob -July 13, 2005 Using AnyDVD works well, and with a program like CloneDVD, you can strip oof previews, FBI warnings, etc, to get the quality up. You can rip a dual-layer DVD movie into an ISO file and then burn it onto a standard 4.7 gb dvd disk. Once a movie has been copied this way, the encryption is gone, and then you can use any disk copying software you want to make an exact copy. So this answers UncleRob's question. spudgunner -July 13, 2005 DVD Shrink can make an iso file. Then save to hard drive or burn the iso to DVD disk, which can play in any stand alone DVD movie player. If you have Windows Media Center Edition 2005, add the MyMovies plugin. Install Daemon Tools to setup virtual DVD drive. Save the DVD iso to hard drive, and in combo with MyMovies, you can play DVD movies iso on hard drive from within WMCE. SammyT -July 13, 2005 Nice article. I would love hear a little bit about PAL to NTSC conversion. As a present for my wife, I bought a few seasons of her favorite television show. The catch is that you can only purchase the DVDs in the UK. So, they are region encoded, and the show is in the European PAL format instead of NTSC (did I get that right, NTSC?) So, I had to purchase a regionless DVD player that can also do PAL to NTSC conversion. The conversion on the DVD player doesn't work very well, and sometimes the player actually locks up. I would love to be able to read these UK DVDs onto my PC, perform a PAL to NTSC conversion, and then write U.S. region, NTSC DVD's that we can play on a normal DVD player. I don't intend to distribute or anything like that, and I did pay retail prices for the DVD's, so that seems like a fair use, I just don't know how to do PAL to NTSC conversion part. Lets make it one step more complicated: it's a TV series, so the there are multiple episodes per DVD. I hear that makes the copy more complicated. Can you cover a topic like that? J.M. -July 14, 2005 DVD Shrink...Nero...nuff said. Steve -July 14, 2005 DVD Shrink --> Nero --> Done! Juan -July 14, 2005 DVD Shrink --> Nero --> Done! Juan -July 14, 2005 OK enough of that. Let's make it a bit harder. What about making back-ups of Playstation or XBox discs. I have copied the contents of a PsII disc on my harddisk with a program called Alcohol120, but when burning the contents back on a DVD it is not done in the original PSII format and hence the disc won't work. Anyone know a solution? Ryan -July 14, 2005 I've been backing up copies of my fave movies for a while now and although i admit it doesn't give best results due to the way it rips movies i still use DVD Shrink and then Nero due to the simplicity involved. The issue with this set up is that DVD shrink effectively tiles the screen to make the movie fit which in the case of some movies (like Lord Of The Rings) can result in a bit of glitching and loss of movie feel. For those a bit more adventurous i propose you try this ;) Rip the movie to MPEG-2 and re-encode using a program like CCE or as someone stated above TMPGenc and then build your own menus. It's not as difficult as it sounds and can yield results far better than DVD shrink My Two cents :P Simon -July 15, 2005 DVD Shrink rules... I've made backup copies of my 500+ original DVDs. http://www.dvdshrink.org/where.html Mr. Shrinker -July 15, 2005 Hello all: I'm writing back regarding my previous post on converting PAL to NTSC form. I would really like to hear more detail on how to accomplish this. Several readers suggested DVD Shrink --> Nero. I tried that, and I'm sure that it probably does work, but I could use a little more detail. Can anyone fill in the blanks for me? Here's what I've done: 1. Had to RIP DVD to hard disk using DVD Decrypter (could not use DVD Shrink for this task -- it balked because the DVD is Region 2, and my Drive is Region 1). I used teh "rip to files" option, so I ended up with a directory with assorted VOB files. 2. Used DVD shrink to compress the ripped files (I had originally thought that these were single-layer DVD's, but I was wrong, they were very full dual-layers, so the compression was necessary). 2a. The first time I did this, I tried to burn directly to DVD. DVD Shrink did use Nero (I have Nero Burning Rom 6.6 Ultra), but I did not see any options for converting to NTSC format, and the resulting DVDs were still (I think) in PAL formst. Now, I have considered that perhaps the commenters mean "Nero Vision Express", and not Nero Burning Rom. I don't see how to create a DVD with my copy of Nero Vision Express -- it tells me that I need to purchase a plug-in to accomplish that. I am willing to buy the plug in if I know for certain that it will be the solution. Can anyone fill me in on what I have missed? J.M. -July 22, 2005 hey what is the best software to copy dvd's for a mac. Do i need to download it, buy it, or what. I just need some suggestions helpme -July 23, 2005 In the Macintosh, using Mac OS X 10.3.9 I'm using first MacTheRipper 2.6.6, (http://www.ripdifferent.com/~mtr/), a freeware app that removes CSS encryption, Macrovision protection, sets the disc's region code to '0' for region-free by default, and is capable of removing RCE region protection as well, making an unrestricted copy of any DVD movie you own. MTR is also capable of removing UOPs, as well as copying most DVDs that have been damaged or improperly mastered. For copying to a backup DVD I'm using Roxio's Popcorn, (http://www.roxio.com/en/products/popcorn/index.jhtml), that for $ 49.95 will: • Versatile Copier Copy non-encrypted* DVD-Video discs, disc image files, and valid VIDEO_TS folders from hard disk. Compatible with DVD-Video content from popular ripping utilities. • Powerful Video Compression Compress an entire 9 GB dual-layer DVD-Video to a standard 4.7 GB DVD disc, and maintain high video quality and full audio fidelity, (this works specially well!). • Informative Copy Summary Clearly see the video, audio formats and languages to be copied. • Flexible Extraction Copy an entire disc or extract just the main movie, audio and language, (this can help compress less the video for copying unto 4.7 Gb discs). • Full DVD Support Supports multi-channel audio, such as Dolby Digital 5.1, multi-language content, NTSC and PAL video, and widescreen or pan/scan aspect ratios. • Disc Labeler Personalize the DVD backup disc with a label and jewel case cover. Douglas -July 25, 2005 Excellent info, congratulations. I have a problem backing up certain DVDs. Each of the programs you've mentioned before reports CRC error reading several DVDs (2 are backups and one is original DVD). I thought it was a hardware problem but I've tried 3 different DVD readers and the burner itself. The problem persists. Is there any way to bypass CRC errors during reading? If not, when I exclude CRC damaged files from compilation Nero says that current DVD may not be read in some DVD readers, and in fact that's exactly what happens when I use a conventional livingroom DVD ROM reader. Is this a technique for protecting original or not so original DVDs from copy? Any advice? Thanks in advance. Francisco -August 2, 2005 I have a mac. what program can i use for free to burn the dvds reybadman -August 6, 2005 To fix the crc errors use dvddecrypter first them use dvdshrink Apocalypse -August 13, 2005 My older children want to borrow my DVDs all of the time, upon there return some of them have been scratch beyond working or repair. I searched for a solution and this is the program I came up with, (Dvd-Cloner II) http://www.dvd-cloner.com/ It allows me to copy my DVDs just as you might a CD with CD coping software. Just click & copy! Now I just loan my kids the copies instead of the original DVD. I don't intend to, or never have intended to use these copies illegally, I just want to protect my investment! chris -August 21, 2005 hell. i'm trying to figure out if i could make dvd backup or copies with nero express 6(nero vision 2 and nero show time) cindy -November 3, 2005 J.M. yeah, it's done with Nero Vision Express, but that might have been part of your Nero Burning ROM package. It took me a while to find it in my Nero Express installation. judgmentalist@gmail.com -November 13, 2005 i want free trail befor i buy any dvd software like dvdfab i try for a week its good and i buy d software i want to try fist befor i buy any prproduct they sell online. leo bautista -November 19, 2005 Interesting article and comments. Before raising a minor nitpick, I want to say that I ain't no legal expert - just a "fan." The only problem is a small one, I guess, but can raise an interesting question on the need for legal copyright protections like DMCA and whatnot. In your first paragraph, you mention that: <blockquote>According to the US Constitution, the purpose of copyright is to protect any original expression, in any medium, so that the copyright holder can be compensated for his or her work.</blockquote> This is not correct. Article I, Section 8 states that Congress shall have the power <blockquote>"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"</blockquote> I remembered a famous quote from soon-to-be-retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (which I just Googled to find in a 1991 case, Feist v. Rural): <blockquote>The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but "[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts."</blockquote> So, it seems the purpose is "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" and protecting exclusive rights to exploit one's own work is the means to that end. More specific to our case (of transferring DVD contents to something like a jukebox-like media server for convenience and backup purposes) might be the famous Sony v Universal case (the so-called Betamax case.) There, time-shifting was considered a substantial noninfringing use of VTR's and, therefore, Sony was not culpable to contributory infringement in cases of possible infringing uses like copying originals to distribute. "Space-shifting," or the practice of moving data from one medium to another, seems to be the analogous noninfringing use. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_shifting">Wikipedia</a>, it's only legal attempt failed in the Napster case, not on merit, but on relevance - Napster was a network for distribution, not a method of ripping. I've got more to say on the issue, but this is already too long and I'm getting lazy. CCMCornell -November 28, 2005 Oops - No HTML it seems. CCMCornell -November 29, 2005 Good article but a little beyond what I need at the moment. More than worrying about backing up DVD's, I'm trying to find out what I need to convert my VHS collection to DVD. I have a PC w/ winXP, 2.0Gb P4 w/ 512Mb RAM and 60Gb HD (about 33Gb free. I currently have only a CD burner but have been looking to install a DVD burner. But my only real motive at this time is so I can copy my VHS tapes to disc, and avoid bying them retail all over again. First, is this legal (seems like it should be - I bought the tapes)? Second, what kind of interface is out there to get the data from a VCR to the PC and onto DVD? Third, what, if any, special type of software is required? Lastly, and only as an aside, is LiteScribe still too new to even bother with? Sound like a cool feature but I'm worried it isn't what it's hyped up to be. Anyone got any insight into wheather it'll pan out or will it die like beta? Pete -December 30, 2005 Excellent discussions...thanks for the participation! Mark -January 16, 2006 Ok I have a simple Question, I would like to store my Bought DVD's some dual layer disnay etc on a hardrive on my computer to be played when I want for my kids just to protect the disk since i have them in a binder now. This is whether I have a TV out on my computer or a monitor 1)Would DVD shrink allow me to do this, 2)How many dvd's could I save on maybe a seperate 300g hardrive 3)which player would allow me to unpack the shrunk versions? Thanks in advance kampy -February 6, 2006 Hi, I think what I'm trying to do is a bit simpler than this, but I'm still stuck. I've made a dvd from home movies and the whole thing is in PAL, but I want to send it to some friends in the Dominican Republic so they can watch it. I'm not sure which region their dvd player will be - Latin American or USA - but its definitely going to be NTSC right? Is it possible not to tell the dvd you're making which region it belongs to? If so how, and how do I change the digital video from Pal to NTSC? Thanks very much. Xanda -February 7, 2006 My mother-in-law thinks nothing of it to copy a RENTED DVD. She says that its okay because she PAID to rent the movie, thereby giving her the right to copy it. Can someone help me prove to her that this is illegal? She also thinks is okay to make copies of her own movies and distribute them to other people to watch, (borrow). She says, "Whats the difference between that, or copying songs off the internet from websites that make you pay to do so?" Help! Wanna know -March 3, 2006 DVDShrink has been crapping out lately on some new discs I've been trying to backup, now I use DVDFAB Decrypter first, then DVDShrink to compress and burn it it in one go. Name (required): -March 24, 2006 Hi every1 howz it goin? I'm look for a free software to burn a dvd for Mac. can any1 help me? Please!!!!1 James -April 8, 2006 J.M. if you're still interested in copying PAL to NTSC shoot me an email at icecapc@hotmail.com W.J. -April 11, 2006 Did she get mad at yall lastnight? Deez_Nuts -April 27, 2006 Your Comments (required): Name (required): -May 30, 2006 If you own the media, you have the right to protect it, including backing it up. If you rent it, you are only allowed to view it for a certain time period. BubbaGumb -June 23, 2006 Copy right laws does begin with common sense. If you create a media, multiply it, sell it, you reap the rewards. If your buddy copies your media, multiplies it, sells it, he reaps the rewards and you are at a loss of your sales of your media. Thats not nice and equal to stealing from you buddie. Got it! BubbaGumb -June 23, 2006 i have dvd shrink but i cannot back up some of the movies that i bought it tells me that it has the wrong structure also that it css protecteted. also can back up games that i have with dvd shrink if not can you recommend a software. steve -July 20, 2006 This comment is for Macks: Though Windows does crash alot I have also worked with macs and they crash as well. No OS is perfect though I would say that Linux is getting there even though I am not much of a user. AMD -August 19, 2006 I've noticed that many DVD's won't copy correctly. I use decrypter, then shrink. Nine times out of ten the disks will not play. Am I doinf this in the wronmg order, or are there some settings I'm missing. Does making an ISO then using shrink work better? Barry -August 30, 2006 Good stuff. But unfortunately the font size of this chat is to hard to read. Ultimately I don't think a lot of people will be bothered to read it..IT'S JUST TO SMALL (that's better). Hope that was helpful. TechnoDude -September 24, 2006 Xanda it's best to burn the DVD as region 0 or region all/free so anyone can play it regardless of region/country, as for the ntsc to pal or pal to ntsc I can't help you as I am a novice at DVD stuff and am just starting to learn, the best way is to google it..this link may get you started http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=221928 good luck lb -October 20, 2006 For all those who say "DVD Shrink+Nero is ALL i need", let me tell you, you are wrong for some cases. DVD Shrink does not support recent security protection systems meaning that you wont be able to copy that DVD, errors will come out during ripping (memory overflow, etc), I cant state which movie does that, either "The Mummy" or "The Mummy Returns" (depends on the Region of the DVD) or some recent Disney movies (again, depends on the Region of the DVD), try it for yourself. @Barry: Probably the DVD you tried had Copy protection based on unreadable sectors (giving you header warnings on DVD Decrypter), the bad thing is that there are alot of "unreadable sectors" copy protection variants. Best way to Copy a Protected DVD is AnyDVD(latest version, which removes some Copy Protection based on unreadable sectors depending on software version)+ DVD Decrypter or CloneDVD(depends on the methods you like to have the vob files on your HD and the ripping method)+DVD Shrink + CloneDVD (yes, again but for burning vob files instead of ISO file in case you used file mode output in DVD Shrink) or any burning software to burn de ISO file. I too like to collect DVD movies and have my own backup of them, so I deal with alot of these problems. There are alot of more programs really useful for decripting/converting a DVD, not only the ones I mentioned, but it all depends on the needs you have. sorry if my english is totally understandable, this is not my main language, BUT I do know of what I'm talking about. Juancho -December 14, 2006 sorry if my english is *NOT* totally understandable Word missing :P Juancho -December 14, 2006 I've been having the same issue converting PAL to NTSC; I download a lot of live concert footage (jazz, generally) and want to view it on my DVD player, but cannot get it to recognize anything I have so far burned. I've used VOBDVD and Nero's recoder, neither of which has worked. Here's my newest (untested) info on ways to try converting: 1) If you want to create a National Television System Committee (NTSC) DVD, which is the North American video standard, replace scale=720:576 with scale=720:480, keyint=15 with keyint=18, and -ofps 25 with -ofps 30000/1001. If you don't have a wide-screen TV, you should encode your file with an aspect ratio of 4:3 by replacing aspect=16/9 with aspect=4/3 2) http://software.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?docid=218457 3) http://www.archive.org/download/tucows_349103_YASA_MPEG_AVI_to_VCD_DVD_SVCD_MPE_AVI_Converter/setup_yasavideoconverter.exe 4) http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=151884 5) http://qdvdauthor.sourceforge.net/ 6) http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4020.html or http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/DVD_Shrink/1050004458/1 7) http://neuron2.net/dgpulldown/dgpulldown105.zip Ben -January 3, 2007 update: tried SVCD2DVD and DVDShrink yesterday, and neither worked. Is it possible I don't know what I'm doing? There are a lot of technical parameters to play with and I think I'm switching them all over so they should work, but no dice so far and I don't have a DVDRW (though I'll be buying one today so no more wasted DVD-Rs. dammit) here's what i want to do: take files downladed as VOB and re-encode them so they're no onger PAL but NTSC and then burn them to a DVD using Nero and then play that on our DVD player at home. As I mentioned before, these are not copyrighted movies, they're TV and satellite music concerts. help! Ben -January 4, 2007 and finally... 2 things: 1) turns out DVD-RW is not what you'd think. You cannot ever actually RE-write info onto a DVD or CD, no matter what the "RW" label might lead you to believe. It simply means that if you use 2GB of a $GB drive, you can go back fill up those last 2GB later. BUT you cannot ever over-write the info that you've already burned on there because it's physically *burned* into the disc. Thank the helpful people @ Staples for that info. 2) Nero's VISION module worked *perfectly* for turning PAL into NTSC, and it's super easy to use AND it plays on our DVD player (hallelujah!). I have since summarily UN-installed all the stupid programs I tried that didn't work. Hope this is all helpful info to someone. Ben -January 5, 2007 Your Comments (required): gosho -February 5, 2007 I thought your article was very informative, and explained a lot, my problem is I only have a cd burner. Have you any ideas on that , I would like to hear your thoughts and if you have any helpful hints. Thanks Pat Patricia Pichler -February 10, 2007 Your Comments (required): Name (required): -March 10, 2007 Ben, stop taking the advice of Staples employees. You most assuredly can write over -RW and +RW media, like it was never written to in the first place, usually at least 1000 times. I have been doing it for years, with no problems. doneitall -May 8, 2007 Your Comments (required): sandra oliver -November 20, 2007 PLAYSTATION BURN:: TO make back ups ofplay station 2 cd`s u must buy a chip that will read the burned copy you can find them on ebay for aprox 50.00 u.s. dollars they are actully called modchip forthe ps2 there is internal and xtrenal chips xman -November 23, 2007 For the best PAL to NTSC conversion on the fly, play your PAL DVD's in a JVC DVD player (designed for sale in the North American market). It must be a stand-alone type, not one of those DVD/VHS combi units. Stand-alone JVC DVD players can be easily region hacked with a hardware modification, available on the internet. Unfortunately, JVC DVD players (as far as I know) can not be Macrovision hacked. CamCruiser -January 20, 2008 Your Comments (required): Name (required): -February 4, 2008 Your Comments (required): Name (required): -February 4, 2008 I alwalys use aimersoft mac dvd copy to backup dvd and copy dvd, ans it works great: http://www.aimersoft.com/mac-dvd-copy.html windbell -March 19, 2008 I've been using DVD Decryptor, DVD Shrink, and Nero to back up my DVDs on Memorex. Everything appears to run smooth while ripping and burning, but I cannot get the backups to play back in any stand alone DVD player. However it plays back fine when I pop it into my laptop. Chris -April 25, 2008 Sorry, I mean I've been using Memorex DVDs for my backups. Will buying higher quality DVDs (Taiyo Yuden) give me better results. I don't want to shell out more money for blank DVDs that won't play back. Chris -April 25, 2008 for mac users> DVD decryptor, DVDshink running in windows xp on a Mmac :) Handbreak is not capable to decrypte some DVDs... yo -May 7, 2008 iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum software is truly a effect solution for all your DVD burning needs. This DVD copying software is a one-click DVD backup tool with great features and its Free to Download. If you're in the market for an advanced DVD backup software with loads of features and burning options, look no further, this is truly a feature-rich product, and certainly one of the best of its kind. iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum is an all in one tool that aims at converting your DVDs into different video formats compatible with the portable video playing devices on the market. The application will turn your DVDs into M4A, MP4, MPG, AVI, Mp3, WMA, WMV and 3GP. The audio formats included in the supported list prove that DVD Ripper Platinum is also able to extract audio files from the DVD you are feeding. iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum is design for backup your favorite DVD movie to your computer by converting DVD to AVI, DivX, XviD, VCD, WMV, MPEG4 format video files, with almost same quality, but just only 10% size. www.isofter.com www.isofter.com/dvd-ripper.html max0211 -September 19, 2008 AnyDVD has been working like a champ for me. It makes backing up ANY DVD a trivial matter. This software is well worth the purchase price, $39.95 IIRC. And the company is very good about updating and supporting the product. I have received probably 10 updates in the last 6 months, all free downloads. It also lets you strip out un-needed features (like Dolby Digital or DTS tracks, FBI warnings, useless interviews and such) to make for a smaller backup if you like. Great piece of software, I won't waste my time with anything else... -RW- rlw -October 3, 2008 i am completly new to a using a laptop. and i am basically playing. i was told to scan anything i want to burn for safety, but i dont know how. can you help please. pam wyant -October 15, 2008 I am just warning you that Any DVD Gives you only a 30 day trial and then you have to buy it Sean: -October 25, 2008 very good one get a lot of good imformation isidro -December 25, 2008 <a href="http://www.aaa-ch.net/">??</a> <a href="http://www.aaa-ch.net/">????</a> <a href="http://www.aaa-ch.net/m/">??</a> <a href="http://www.aaa-ch.net/area.php?category=2000">???? ??</a> <a href="http://www.akibain.com/">????</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/i/">??????</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/i/">?? ??????</a> <a href="http://chuh.jp/">???</a> <a href="http://pc.chuh.jp/">???</a> <a href="http://www.erogle.net/m/">????</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/chiiki/susukino/">???? ????? ?</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/chiiki/sonota/">?? ??????</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/chiiki/chiba/">?? ??????</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/chiiki/saitama/">?? ??????</a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/chiiki/kanagawa/">??? ?????? </a> <a href="http://www.pure-soapland.com/index2.html">?? ??????</a> <a href="http://avshop.jp/">sod</a> <a href="http://dreamynightshop.jp/">???</a> <a href="http://onstyle.co.jp/">???? ???</a> <a href="http://onstyle.co.jp/">?? ????? ?????</a> <a href="http://ecsta.tv/">????</a> <a href="http://kansai.bigdesire.co.jp/">?? ??</a> <a href="http://kansai.bigdesire.co.jp/mobile/">?? ??</a> <a href="http://kansai.yorutomo.net/i/">?? ??</a> <a href="http://www.eroshima.com/">?DVD</a> <a href="http://www.eroshima.com/mobile/">?DVD</a> <a href="http://valentine-works.com/">?? ??</a> <a href="http://valentine-works.com/m/">?? ??</a> <a href="http://no1-shinjuku.jp/">???? ??</a> <a href="http://no1-shinjuku.jp/">???? ??</a> <a href="http://www.55group.jp/">???? ????</a> <a href="http://www.55group.jp/">??? ????</a> <a href="http://www.55group.jp/">??? ????</a> <a href="http://www.55group.jp/">??? ????</a> joshnguyen -August 28, 2009 [url=http://www.aaa-ch.net/]??[/url] [url=http://www.aaa-ch.net/]????[/url] [url=http://www.aaa-ch.net/m/]??[/url] [url=http://www.aaa-ch.net/area.php?category=2000]???? ??[/url] [url=http://www.akibain.com/]????[/url] [url=http://www.pure-soapland.com/i/]??????[/url] [url=http://www.pure-soapland.com/i/]?? ??????[/url] [url=http://chuh.jp/]???[/url] [url=http://pc.chuh.jp/]???[/url] [url=http://www.erogle.net/m/]????[/url] [url=http://www.pure-soapland.com/chiiki/susukino/]???? ?????? 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