Making Backup Copies of DVD’s

Someone asked me about making DVD backups the other day, so I thought I’d share how to go about this here.

The biggest hurdles to overcome when making backups of commercial DVD’s are the file size when copied, the encryption on the disc, and the legality of doing so.

I’m not going to get into the legal implications of this here, except to say that copying commercial discs is not allowed, and it’s ridiculous that I can’t copy DVD’s I own as backups. For example, if I were the copying sort, making backups of my son’s DVD’s would be a great application of this sort of thing. They could theoretically get all scratched and gummed up because his grubby little two-year old paws would eventually end up all over them. In a situation like that, I’d much rather use a throwaway DVD-R. That could hypothetically save me considerable expense, and after all, I do own these discs (in this purely hypothetical example).

My father-in-law, who is not a U.S. resident, uses Slysoft AnyDVD for his backups. He says that the program is fast, but the backups tend to be of poor quality, presumably because of the file size issue. If I were to compare one of my hypothetical backups with his backups, I bet it would be of much higher quality, because the software that I would choose if I were the backing up sort would handle compression.

So if I were to choose ripping software, I would choose something like the freeware DVD Shrink, current version 3.2.0.15. DVD Shrink is able to remove encryption, and then compress the file to disc so that it can subsequently be burned onto a single DVD-R. It also has pretty good reauthoring features, so I could choose to leave off the foreign language track or bonus features if I were so inclined.

DVD Shrink’s official web site is here, but software can’t be downloaded from it. Rather, there is a forum that links to the various download locations. If I were to download DVD Shrink, I would make sure that I downloaded it from one of the locations referenced in that forum, and nowhere else. If I were to do it, of course.

A good quick start tutorial can be found, and more in-depth task-based tutorials are available.

Once this hypothetical file were on my PC, I would then go about burning it to a DVD. A very capable program that could be used to burn these types of files is the free ImgBurn software, luckily available fro download directly from their site. The current version is 2.4.0.

If I were to go about making backup copies, these are the programs I would use. They are very capable and make high-quality backups. But due to the decryption, compression, and drive speeds, they would take some time to copy a full DVD, perhaps along the lines of 30 minutes to rip and 30 minutes to burn and verify. Or so I would reasonably expect.

In all seriousness, while I do think it’s ridiculous that I can’t backup movies I own for my own personal use, I am strongly opposed to intellectual property theft of any kind. I would never consider it, and I discourage everyone I know from doing it. Fair use on the other hand is. . .well, fair.

LEGO Digital Designer

Tell me LEGO doesn’t know their customers. LEGO’s Digitial Designer software allows you to build a 3D model of your dream creation, and then order the parts needed to make it a reality. Once built, submit your creation to their product gallery. If you’ve ever had a fantasy of creating an Oop!-like LEGO sculpture, this looks like the best way to do it.

I wonder how the revenues of the simple Lego starter kits compare to some of their advanced sets. I’ve always assumed that the sheer quantity of those starter sets are heavily favored in the revenue mix, even if their margins aren’t as high as some of the advanced sets. But LEGO most definitely does not ignore the loyal hobbyists.

This software just made it to the top of my spare time to-do list.

LEGO.com Factory and Digital Designer software