Copying DVDs

[Justin Dyer]

I know this is a basic question, guys. But the last time I did tape trading was when everyone was doing it using VHS. You just hooked together VCRs. Now I have converted most of my collection to DVD. To make a long story short, I'm working out a deal with someone because my city doesn't carry Temptation. How do I copy from one DVD to another? I tried putting the DVD in my computer and copying all its contents to a file on my hard drive. But it won't let me copy that folder to a new DVD. Do I have to purchase a program like AoA DVD Copy? (I use AoA DVD Ripper to get stuff from DVD to AVI format for editing using Windows Movie Maker 2, and I'm happy with it.) Thanks for the help.

Justin

[Matt Ottinger]

Are you talking about making a copy of an entire DVD, or are you talking about taking certain files from one and certain files from another and compiling them to make an entirely new DVD?  Because the first is fairly easy.  Most modern computers will have some sort of basic copying software.  And the second is pretty complicated, no matter what software you have.

[clemon79]

Yeah, I'm guessing you have Windows XP, which doesn't have native DVD burning support like it does for CD's. (Vista does, but I haven't had much luck with it, so I use Nero instead. Maybe it'll get better when Service Pack 1 ships.)

So you need software. A little Google work turns up:

http://www.deepburner.com/

You can get the free version...it doesn't do direct disc-to-disc, but you can make an ISO of your source disc and then burn it to your destination one.

Also I found these two:

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
http://www.burnatonce.net/downloads/

...though I don't know very much about them. But they appear to be safe and well-thought-of.

Also, take a look at this, which might give you other ideas if none of these three work:

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/dvdcdburning.shtml