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Sunday, 17 April 2005 |
The Problem
Many customers have complained that they have bought a DVD burner for
their computer, only to find out they are unable to backup their DVDs
due to limitations with their copying software and encryption.
Warning
In New Zealand it is illegal to copy any copyrighted material, even for
personal use, however parliament is considering changes to this law
with an eye to allowing copying a backup for personal use.
What You Need to Know in Advance
When copying a DVD you must bear in mind that there are tow kinds of
DVD - single-layer and dual-layer. A single-layer DVD can hold about
4.5GB of data, whereas a dual-layer DVD can hold 9GB of data.
Until recently most DVD burners could only write to single layer DVDs,
however in the last few months dual-layer DVD burners have become
predominant.
Single-layer DVD blanks currently cost around $2 each, whilst dual-layer DVD blanks currently cost around $10.
Most (but not all) DVD movies that you buy are dual-layer. For those
that are single-layer it is a fairly simple process to duplicate the
movie data, and if you have a DVD burner capable of burning dual-layer
DVDs, and are prepared to pay the extra premium on dual-layer DVD
blanks then it is also a fairly simple process.
It is possible, however to copy a dual-layer DVD movie onto a
single-layer disk by compressing the movie with little, often
unnoticeable, loss in quality.
How to Find Out if the Movie is Single-Layer or Dual-Layer
Download the free program DVD Decrypter and follow these instructions.
How to Backup a Single-Layer DVD
Follow these instructions.
How to Backup a Dual-Layer DVD to a Single-Layer DVD
This is a little more complicated. If you already have DVD burning
software such as Nero you may use this software to burn the DVD at the
end of these instructions, otherwise you may need to purchase some of
the DVD writing software mentioned either at the beginning of end of these instructions.
The Future
In the near future the price for dual-layer DVD blanks will drop
dramatically and for anyone with a DVD burner capable of burning these
disks there will be no need to compress the movie file. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 31 December 2005 )
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