RE: [Dvdrtools-users] Copy DVD to DVD-r...

[Scott Prive]

DVD-ROM drives are required (by law?) to have hardware-level copy protection. 
The copy protection will refuse to copy data which is encrypted. You can't even 
copy-it-and-keep-it-encrypted... the drive will refuse to copy, or will return 
corrupt data.

The key is to unlock the drive, then decrypt the data. This is required if you 
even want to watch the movie using free DVD players, or make a personal backup.

There are DeCSS and "DeCSS-like" tools for Linux that do this. Check 
freshmeat.net for libdcss, or good search words.

On the Windows side of things, the toolchain is less geared towards "playback" 
and more geared towards "backups", as you might imagine. The tools are 
automated and fully functional, and at this point things like DVD Decryptor get 
their reputation by making everything "idiot proof".

But no one makes a direct DVD-to-DVD-R backup utility that works like a CD 
copy. The DVD data must be cached to hard disk first (unless the DVD is 
unencrypted, which is occasionally true). Sadly, even copyright-free movies and 
public domain silent-film-era films will be encrypted. :-(

Once it's on the hard drive -- decrypted -- and the file structure is 100% 
intact, you can re-burn to DVD-R using "general use" DVD recorders like Pioneer 
DVR-104. The whole "authoring recorders" requirement is not accurate.. it's 
true that "general use" recorders can't record a CSS playback key, but if your 
DVD backup STRIPS out the CSS key, one isn't required for playback on your 
"new" DVD.

Of course, the data might not fit since DVD movies can be up to 9.7GB in size. 
A lot of kids movies and early DVD transfers (Charlie Brown Christmas, 
Breakfast Club) will fit on a 4.7GB DVD-R with no fuss.

If the movie does NOT fit, you can either: 1) split the movie or 2) re-compress 
the MPEG video at a higher compression level.

If you don't want to learn and master the all the low-level DVD encoding 
techniques, just stick to movie-splitting. With either technique, you'd use 
IFOEDIT.EXE (Windows only, not tested in WINE). 

The program is not terribly difficult, but being a "swiss army" tool that does 
a lot, it gives you enough rope to hang yourself with. If your DVD Video player 
supports rewritables, wither backup method will require practice. Info on these 
subjects available at vcdhelp.com and doom9.org. Again, most of this info is 
Windows centric but you can still learn about the file format, requirements, 
etc.

I'm not aware of anything like IFOEDIT on Linux, which is a pity because it's 
great free-beer software that does everything but the DVD rip. The author is a 
nice guy, and *might* team up with a Linux coder who would keep the source 
closed (this is all a personal guess/assumption).

-Scott





> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kris Hermansen [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 1:26 AM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: [Dvdrtools-users] Copy DVD to DVD-r...
> 
> 
> Hey guys.  I am not a memeber of this list but I just have a 
> few questions 
> that I was hoping some of you could answer.
> 
> 1)  Is there a way to copy a DVD really quick and dirty?  I 
> have this Red 
> Hat 8.0 DVD which is about 3.5 gigs and I want to do a backup 
> of it to a 
> DVD-r.  Do I need to use mkisofs or can dvdrecord make an 
> image of the DVD 
> and burn it?
> 
> 2)  Is there a way to do RAW copies of DVD's yet?  I heard 
> that software 
> violates the DMCA if it can read/write the CSS codes on the 
> DVD.  I have a 
> few DVD video discs that I want to backup, but all my Windows 
> apps say this 
> is an illegal operation and refuse to copy these sectors.  So 
> is there a way 
> to do a bit for bit copy?  In comparison to CD-r, there 
> should be a way to 
> read the USER DATA + EDC/ECC + SUBCODE = EXACT RAW COPY.  
> Pretty soon we are 
> going to start seeing DVD discs containing anti-copy code to 
> check if these 
> sectors are present.  If anyone has some in depth 
> documentation on the CD 
> and DVD format specs please let me know how to get them.  I 
> heard that you 
> could purchase these from Sony for an outrageous price, but 
> someone must 
> have these seeing that I am only a lowly college student ;-)
> 
> Kris Hermansen
> 
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