Mindpsill - Technology

I can't explain why when I borrow DVDs from friends my usually dormant sysadmin nature kicks in. All of a sudden I get this urge make a backup of their DVDs just in case. We all know that backups should be kept offsite so from the kindness of my heart I offer to keep the backup copy of the DVD myself. After all they wouldn't want to lose their collection if their house goes on fire.

For some cruel reason some movie companies try to dampen my altruistic spirit and make it very difficult to make backups by adding encryption to the DVDs. Guess they're right when they say that there's no room for kindness these days.

Well, I keep doing my best to help friends, and until today these are the most effective ways to copy DVD's. I'm in no way an expert on this, in fact I keep asking my brother how to do it and the reason I'm writing this down is not to have to spend another hour on the phone with him.

Required Software:

• Clone DVD
• DVD Shrink
• DVD Decrypter

1st attempt: Use Clone DVD to make a clone of the DVD and copy it. This is the easiest way to copy but the least likely to succeed.

2nd attempt: If Clone DVD doesn't work then try DVD shrink. (This never worked for me but apparently it sometimes does)

3rd attempt: Extract the DVD files using DVD Decrypter than use Nero (or any other writer software) to burn on DVD. If the extracted files are greater than the DVD storage size then use Clone DVD to write the extracted files to DVD.

Play the ripped DVD
You can play the ripped DVD without having to burn it using VideoLan. This software lets you to play a DVD from a folder retaining the menu structure and chapter markers of the DVD. (Link found through hackszine)