What can DVD burners "burn?"

[Ilmater]

Having been only slightly interested in the technology since it can't f^%#ing make up its mind and pick ONE standard, I'm not that familiar with it. My cousin was thinking about getting a DVD burner in a new laptop so that he could burn DVDs and bring them along on car rides for the kids to watch without having to worry about scratching his good DVDs. Not illegal stuff here. I was wondering how difficult this would be (he's not completely technically inept, but he's not a rocket scientist either). Are many DVDs copy-protected? Is there any software that's still commercially available?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[redass1876]

if you have a program like DVD X Copy, it is the easiest thing ever, you put it in, start the program, it reads the DVD, asks for blank disk, and then copies it in about 8 - 10 minutes on my 8X burner... and if you use RWs, you can just change the movie on the disk at a later time as well but they burn a little slower

 

[Ilmater]

So there aren't a lot with copy protections then?

 

[redass1876]

i have never found one, and my DVD burner came with a trial copy of DVD X copy, and i have never had a problem, and i burned new ones suchas Bad Boys II and League of Extraordinary Gentelmen, just to test it, and they worked fine, only difference is it only copies the movie, it doesnt copy the menu or special features

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
So there aren't a lot with copy protections then?

There are, but they're easily circumvented.

You can copy DVD's using DVDShrink & Nero, far cheaper than DVDXCOPY. You can even keep the menus, though for best audio & video quality you should re-author it without the extraneous crap. You can cut a lot of space by eliminating unneeded audio tracks (probably won't be using DTS in the car, DD 2.1 will be fine), menus, trailers, etc.

Viper GTS

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: redass1876
i have never found one, and my DVD burner came with a trial copy of DVD X copy, and i have never had a problem, and i burned new ones suchas Bad Boys II and League of Extraordinary Gentelmen, just to test it, and they worked fine, only difference is it only copies the movie, it doesnt copy the menu or special features

Does it copy the Progressive Scan and 5.1 sound?

 

[redass1876]

i believe so, at least about the sound, but never checked the scan, sorry

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Wingznut

Originally posted by: redass1876
i have never found one, and my DVD burner came with a trial copy of DVD X copy, and i have never had a problem, and i burned new ones suchas Bad Boys II and League of Extraordinary Gentelmen, just to test it, and they worked fine, only difference is it only copies the movie, it doesnt copy the menu or special features

Does it copy the Progressive Scan and 5.1 sound?

I can tell you that it HAS to copy the progressive scan. It's just the way the video in a DVD is. You couldn't NOT copy that feature. Don't know about DD 5.1, but it sounds like you can pick a soundtrack.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Wingznut

Originally posted by: redass1876
i have never found one, and my DVD burner came with a trial copy of DVD X copy, and i have never had a problem, and i burned new ones suchas Bad Boys II and League of Extraordinary Gentelmen, just to test it, and they worked fine, only difference is it only copies the movie, it doesnt copy the menu or special features

Does it copy the Progressive Scan and 5.1 sound?

Yes.

Viper GTS

 

[WobbleWobble]

You can choose if you want the Director's Commentary, subtitles and stuff using DVD Shrink. You can also choose to rip everything onto 1 disc. But you do have to compress the video a bit, but I don't even notice loss of detail when I do so. DVDShrink now rips and burns (if you have Nero installed).

 

[CraigRT]

They can copy anything.. the only downfall is what type of media they can burn, and that's single layer DVD's.. you can't just "copy" a DVD normally (some you can, but not most)
you usually have to shrink the video so that it will fit on a single layer DVD-5 (4.7GB disc) to work.. but other than that, they are great, my DVD burner is great at playing DVD's, burning for video... it's great for copying CD's (40X CD-R speed) and it has all kinds of features. I haven't had a thing yet this thing can't do! (Plextor PX-708A)