DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)(page 9)

Copying DVD to another DVD disc

Let's imagine that you have a movie on a DVD disc that you wish to copy onto another DVD disc. In this case, the DVD X Copy software can be the right tool for you.

DVD X Copy is the software from 321 Studio, which allows you to copy your DVD disc onto a DVD blank - which, by the way, is illegal to do. It is also being advertised as "All the software you need to BACKUP, COPY & RESTORE your own DVD Movies". Since copying of DVD discs is illegal and requires 'breaking' the copy protection, the company has plenty of legal problems at the moment, but the product is already available from various sources, including Amazon.com.

In the 321Studio.com website, the company talks a lot about the fair use and the DMCA-98 (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998). In fact, it almost seems that the company just successfully uses the issue to attract attention to its product and to improve sales. It is quite possible that the company feels strongly about the above issues, however, instead of distributing its products free of charge (like some other real opponents of DVD copy protection), 321 Studio charges a substantial sum of money for its software. However, this goes beyond the area of technology of which USByte.com is more concerned with.

The program uses the so-called "One-Click technology", which makes copying the DVD disc similar to copying the CD disc: You just insert your DVD Movie and a Blank DVD R/RW disc and click "COPY NOW" to begin copying your DVD movie. This can be done in 1 of 2 ways:

1). If you have a DVD Recordable Drive AND a standard DVD-ROM Drive, you may insert both the BLANK DVD R/RW disc and the DVD movie you wish to backup/copy. In this case, the movie will be played by the DVD-ROM and recorded by the DVD-Recordable drive.

2) Or, you can insert your DVD movie and click COPY NOW until DVD X COPY asks you to insert a blank DVD R/RW disc. In this case, the program will first copy the movie onto your hard disk drive.

In practice, one can COPY/BURN the DVD using nothing more than the DVD X Copy software, a DVD-ROM and any DVD Burner including DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R or DVD+RW. An updateable list of the DVD burners compatible with this software can be found here.

DVD X Copy is currently compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP Operating Systems. It isn't yet compatible with Windows 98/ME. It will NOT run on Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 at all.

The time required for copying the movie depends on the computer you use. Some newer computers can copy a DVD movie in one hour or less. Older computers may take longer, depending on the speed of their processor and DVD burner.

The minimum requirements for using DVD X Copy can be summarized as follows: - Pentium III 500 MHz with 128 MB of RAM or better - Windows 2000/XP - A DVD recordable drive connected to your computer (+R or -R) - 10 GB or more of free Hard Disk space - Blank 4.7Gb DVD-R(W) or DVD+R(W) discs (for recording)

The main features of the product are summarized next:

DVD X Copy software:

Easy "One-Click & You're Done" Software
Copy most DVDs in about an hour
Backup your entire DVD movie collection
Copy Menus, Trailers, & Special Features
Perfect DVD Video & Audio Quality (similar to the original)
Restore Scratched or Damaged DVDs
Free Live Technical Support
Price: ~$85-100

More information about the recommended configurations and also about the known issues and problems are available here.

The Q&A page can be found on the company's website: here.

There are few additional comments we want to make:

1. The software description claims that DVD X Copy is capable to "Restore Scratched or Damaged DVDs". This isn't quite true. If you DVD disc is damaged and becomes unreadable or develops some play-back anomaly, then it will be duplicated EXACTLY by the DVD X Software. What the software makers probably wanted to say is that by creating a copy of your DVD disc you can avoid losing the content if you damage (scratch, break, burn, lose, etc.) the original disc.

2. The software creates the exact copy of the original, including the Menus, Trailers, Special Features, etc

3. During the copying process, DVD X Copy takes some additional steps to appease its Recording industry critics. It inserts electronic controls into copied DVDs to prevent them from being duplicated further. It adds some digital watermark to the copy disc that can trace the source of any file transmitted over the Internet to the software's owner. And it inserts a disclaimer at the beginning of the recorded DVD, telling the viewer that the disc is just a backup copy intended for personal use only.

4. Please be aware that the copying of copyrighted materials is illegal and you do it at your own risk. Usbyte.com does NOT promote the illegal transfer and/or copying of any copyrighted material and all risks and responsibility are assumed by the individual party involved in the activity.

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