DVD Back-up

05-28-05, 04:26 PM

What is the best free DVD back-up utility. It needs to be able to go past the safe-guard on dvds that prohibit it. DVD Decrypter does this but it puts the output as a different file type. I want to take dvds, put the whole thing on my computer, burn it to a dvd-r or dvd-rw, and play it on a normal dvd player. My reason is that I want to keep my originals in my house the copies in my dads car which has a dvd player.

deftech · 05-28-05, 05:12 PM

You'll find that almost every product that does what you speak of has been taken off the market due to lawsuits against them. Even if it is for your own DVDs, the software is still illegal due to the fact that it is "cracking" the copyright protection on the DVD.

Also, keep in mind that most DVDs at the store are DVD9 (dual-layer). If you're burning onto a DVD-R/RW, there is a lot of re-compression going on to make it fit onto a DVD5 (single-layer) disc. Sure there are dual-layer burners/discs now, but the media is pretty much as expensive as simply buying a second copy of the movie. Anyhow, since the software would be required to recompress the movie..... it is now not only braking the copyright protection, but also altering the data into another form. Because of all this, the RIAA/whoever-else has pretty much put the beat-down on all the guys making this type of software.

So in short to answer your question.... There is software that used to be around for it, but it is not really available to distribute anymore. Even though the process is not COMPLETELY illegal, it's still very gray-area when using the current laws/policies on copyrighted material. Therefore, please do not post any suggestions/links to software that does this. Thanks.