While replicating an encrypted movie DVD requires more technical steps than your typical copy-and-paste function on your computer, plenty of good software exists to make the process quick and painless. The tough part, then, is selecting the right software for the work that you need to accomplish. In this article, we’ll review the most common categories of software used to make backup copies of your DVD movies.
While generally believed to fall inside the realm of “fair use,” making backup copies of DVDs you own has never been tested in U.S. courts. That is, although it is not illegal to make copies of DVDs you own, it has never been ruled legal either.
In order for a typical movie and all of the related extras to fit onto one DVD, the content is often compressed. When the disc is decrypted and copied to your computer, the size that it takes up on your computer’s hard drive is often much more than it originally required on DVD. That means that when you go to copy those files back to a DVD, you’ll frequently find that there is not enough room to do so. So in addition to the DVD ripping software and decryption software to get the content on your computer, you’ll need reauthoring software to get the content into a format that can be burned back to DVD.
Your choices are therefore to compress the file on your computer prior to “burning” it — the term for converting a file on your computer into a format that is then able to be copied onto a DVD — or reauthor the movie in some way. Reauthoring usually means removing non-feature items like additional languages and special features.
Considering the available options, here are the 4 primary classes of software that you can use:
Combo software that unites decryption and compression into one step as content is ripped to your hard drive. This type of software removes copy protection and gives you the ability to reauthor the disc’s content so that it can once more fit on 1 DVD.
DVD Decryption Software: This type of software can decrypt the content of a DVD, but cannot compress it. Therefore, the decrypted file is usually of the main movie title only, and not any of the menus or extra alternatives. DVDFab is an example of this type of software.
Recording software: once the DVD files are on your computer, you’ll need a piece of software to convert those files back into a format that can then be burned onto a physcial DVD.
Multifunction coftware: taking a good deal of the work out of the process is all-in-one software, which unites features of two or more of the above types of software into one package. For example, a typical DVD copy program will take care of decryption, ripping, and burning.
When you’re familiar with what’s available, you’re much less likely to paint yourself into a software corner, where you choose the wrong software for the job and are then reluctant to move on. But please do keep in mind that while intellectual property laws vary in different countries, intellectual property theft is almost always unlawful, so don’t make copies of discs that you don’t own. This would most definitely NOT be regarded as fair use!
