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How to backup a DVD movie?

by merrycat Dec 26, 2003

Cause: You spend £20.00 on the favourite movie on DVD, but you have so many friends want to bought it to watch it. So you want to keep the original and give them the copy only; or you just want to keep the DVD in perfect condition in your collection.

Problem: The most popular softwares such as NERO DVD or Instand DVD will not allow you to copy the DVD as they are copyright protected.

DVD video structure

If you open a DVD movie using your computer, you will find two folders: Audio_ts and Video_ts, the folder Audio_ts is empty, under Video_ts, there are three types of files: VOB, IFO, and BUP. VOB files contain the real video and audio data, while IFO is control file which specify how the video and audio data are saved, and how they should be played. The IFO file is so important that the DVD may fail to play if the IFO file is corrupted and there is no alternative, and the BUP file is the alternative which is an exact copy of IFO file.

Backup the DVD movie into your hard drive

Now most of the new computers are equipped with 120 GB hard drive, which have enough space for 20 DVD movie. Backup the DVD movie into your hard drive is simple and easy, just drag the whole Video-ts folder into hard drive. You can also directly play this backup version with PowerDVD: after PowerDVD is started, press "Ctrl-O" to select the "*.IFO" file, and the DVD will play normally.

Backup DVD movie into DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW

Most of the original DVD movies are copyright protected, to make copies is gnerally now allowed, and that's why most of the popular burning software will not allow you to copy them. Many people find it is very frustrating when they spend £100 or more on a DVD burner, they are still unable to copy / backup their DVDs!

But they are plenty of softwares available to allow you to do that. Be aware that there are now a law suit going on between the Hollywood movie manufacturers and DVD backup software manufacturers, and nobody knows what is the final result. Some software will allow you to backup any DVD to a blank DVD-R (or DVD-R) media, some will allow you to coverting the DVD into SVCD or AVI files.