DVD Burning Software

[Scott]

Does anyone know of a good DVD Burning Software (Free is better)?  I'd like to burn DVD's that I buy and save the original (rather than see it scratched up by kids who do not put them back in their cases)

[SippinTea]

   Waiting around to see the replies...

[LarryTheCucumber]

DVDs are encrypted, and supposed to be un-archivable, but thanks to DeCSS you can now break the encryption on DVDs you purchase.

in the article I quote below, the author starts by introducing 2 programs to decrypt the DVDs, then presents several programs to actually do the copying once the encryption is cracked.

please note that the guys in gray suits do still frown on you copying your own DVDs, even though you have a perfectly legal right to do so.


......excerpted from      http://www.antidrm.hpg.ig.com.br/

======================================================

There are two programs out there that are by far the best choice. One is DVD Decrypter. It's free and you can download it here or here or here or (I think) here.

The other is SlySoft's AnyDVD. It's not free (although you can use it for 21 days before paying). Since it's developed by a professional team of programmers in a software company in Germany, it's more reliable and is constantly being updated. If you write the company with questions or complaints, they will write you back and help you. In other words, it's a real commercial product, not a bunch of code some hackers slapped together and set free on the internet so that other hackers could modify it. Definitely worth the 30 dollars if you ask me.

I could give you step-by-step instructions on how to use these programs, but they're dead simple. Just download one, install it, and it just runs in the background (and make syour DVD drive behave a little differently). That's it.

Ok, now your computer can access the files on the DVD. So now what do you do?

There are two things you can do. One is to create a movie file that you can watch on your computer, iPod, PSP, etc - such as a DivX file, .mov file, Mpeg-4 file, .AVI file, etc. There are lots of programs out there that do this. My personal favorite (again, not free but well worth the 20 bucks) is AoA DVD Ripper. It can rip any section of the movie (in case you just want to record a certain clip) or the whole movie, and you have the option to add subitles, director's commentary, foreign-language dubbing, or any of these things included in the DVD. You can make files in any format; Mpeg4 (which plays in the iPod and PSP), DivX (which looks very very good (almost as good as the DVD) but allows for very small files - Fits a 2-hour movie in a 700-meg CD-ROM), Windows Media Player Video, etc.

When creating a video file, what format should you use? The default format of AoA DVD Ripper (and other programs) is Mpeg4 (MP4), which can be played on iPods and PlayStation-Portables, as well as by iTunes and Quicktime. But for the sake of watching the movie on your computer or burning it to a CD that can be played on your DVD player, you're better off encoding it into a Divx AVI file instead of Mpeg4. I highly recommend that you download the Divx codec. This will allow AoA DVD Ripper (or other programs) to create a movie file that looks almost as good as the original DVD video, but that is only about 700 megs (0.7 Gigs, compared to a DVD's usual 9.4 Gigs) so that it can fit into one CD. Many DVD players today will play Divx video files, so even if you don't have a DVD burner, you can have AoA DVD Ripper (or some other program) make you a Divx video file that you then burn onto a data CD and watch on your DVD player! I think this is really awesome. But to do this you must download and install the Divx codec. Once you do, most DVD-ripping programs will be able to make Divx video files, or you can use the Divx converter (included in the Divx installer) to convert video files into the Divx format. Divx files tend to end in .AVI and are playable on Windows Media Player if you have the Divx codec installed.

The other thing you could do (instead of making a video file) is copy the whole DVD - menus and special features and all - into a recordable DVD. (Naturally, you need a DVD burner for this). You can then watch in on the DVD player that plays on your TV, which is nicer than watching it on a computer. But there's a problem: Most commercially available DVDs are dual-layer, so they fit 9.4 Gigabytes of data, while most recordable DVDs are only single-layer and fit 4.7 Gigs. So you need a program that can re-compress ("shrink") the DVD video files' total size from 9.4 Gigs to 4.7 Gigs (which can be done with minimal loss in quality - you don't really notice it). This program must also be able to create an "image" of the DVD: A file that contains the data structure of the disc, so that it can be reproduced onto a new disc. This is called an .ISO image, or an .ISO file. And finally, once you have that image file, you need a program to burn the .ISO image onto a blank DVD.

What programs can be used to make a compressed image of your DVD? There are two good ones I have found: DVD Shrink, which is free, and SlySoft's CloneDVD, which is not free (but can be used for 21 days before you have to pay). Just put a DVD in the drive, fire up one of these programs, and with the push of one button, they'll read the DVD, re-compress the video, and output a nice 4.7 Gig .ISO image file. (To be honest, the reason why I prefer the paid one to the free ones is that DVD Shrink just refused to work on my computer, but the SlySoft one worked very well. Free rippers like RipIt4Me and DVD Fab Decrypter still rely on DVD Shrink to get the DVD image file down to a size where it can fit in a 4.7 Gig recordable DVD). Remember that these programs won't work unless you have a decrypter (DVD Decrypter or SlySoft AnyDVD) running in the background - except for RipIt4Me, that one actually rips without needing a decrypter running in the background. All these programs allow you to play with the settings so as to remove special features, menus, deleted scenes, subtitles, previews, or any other content you don't really care for. But in general I find that the default settings (just copying everything in the DVD) work best.

Say you've used DVD Shrink, RipIt4Me, or CloneDVD, so now you have an .ISO image file that is small enough to burn on a DVD (typically that's 4.7 Gigs or less). How to burn it to a DVD? If you have CloneDVD, it will do it for you, with the push of one button. Very easy, works well. But it costs money. The popular free alternative is called ImgBurn and can be downloaded here. It actually works very well.

[Scott]

Sippin' when you get kids, you will understand the frustration when you want to watch an old I love Lucy or The Newsboy (LIVE) only to find out that your kiddies have scratched it up.

[SippinTea]

I feel your pain, Scott! Remember I have three younger siblings...   One of which is 14 years younger than I.

That's why I've been lurking to see the replies.

[M‡¢ĦÆŁ Ҝ]

I used to use DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter for all of my archiving needs.  However, those two programs have failed to keep up with cuirrent encryption.  The program I found that works the best is not free.  DVD Fab cost around $40 but you get a lifetime of free upgrades with the one-time purchase.  I have yet to find a DVD that DVD Fab can not archive.

EDIT:  HERE is the link to the DVD Fab web site.  If you buy today, they are selling their software for $30 off.  I have DVD Fab Platinum--regular price is $79.95, current sale price is $49.95.