Making Copies of DVDs

RichMitt wrote on 2/15/2005, 4:07 PM

Once I have my wedding movie burned satisfactorily to DVD, we will want to make copies of that CD. On my computer I have both a CD/DVD read-only drive and a DC/DVD read/write drive. Can I make copies the same way I copy CDs, with my Roxio disc copier? Or do I have to burn each copy individually from the original avi or mpeg-2 file (avi file if I use an external DVD recorder or mpeg-2 file if I do the burning on my computer)?

Comments

ScottW wrote on 2/15/2005, 5:38 PM

I've not used Roxio, but if it does what most disk copy programs do, there's no reason you can't just make copies of the original DVD.

mario1978 wrote on 2/16/2005, 8:05 AM

Whatever program you're using to author your DVD should give you the choice of creating a .iso file rather than burning the DVD directly. The .iso file is an image of the DVD contents. You can then burn DVDs using the .iso file. I habitually create a .iso file, and then burn from that, rather than burn directly. (When PCs were slower, and buffer underrun protection wasn't a feature, it was more reliable that way. But it's still convenient when you get the DVD right, and then want to crank out some additional copies.)

RichMitt wrote on 2/16/2005, 8:58 AM

Thanks for the suggestion, Mario. I'll check that out. But my immediate question is if there a problem with copying DVD's in the same manner as one would copy a CD, from drive to drive, as long as both drives have DVD capabiiity?

ScottW wrote on 2/16/2005, 9:12 AM

Yes, you can copy from DVD to DVD. I do it all the time. The only time you can't do this is with a commercially produced DVD that has CSS (which just requires a few extra steps).

btw - DVDAS does not let you create an ISO image file.

RichMitt wrote on 2/16/2005, 12:58 PM

Thanks, Scott.

bkthiess wrote on 2/17/2005, 1:56 PM

Test your copies before you send them out. I used Roxio's "Disc Copy" and the result could not be played. (I found this out AFTER I mailed it out. ) I copied the same disc using DVDdecrypter to create a hard disk image of the DVD, then burned it again in DVDA. That copy worked fine.

IanG wrote on 2/21/2005, 5:45 AM

The problem with copying DVDs is that they should be in UDF format, which isn't supported by all DVD writing apps. Most newer DVD players, especially the cheaper ones, don't care.

Ian G.