Create Backup Copies of Video DVDs
NOTE: since writing this, it’s gone out of date and some of the links are dead. Updating it is on my to-do list … but in the meantime if you have any tips on this to share, please send them to me or put them in the comments. Thanks!
The scenario: you just spent $24.95 on a new DVD for your kids. You pop it in the player, sit on the couch with them, and they have fun watching it over and over again. You, on the other hand, fall asleep. Time passes, and you wake up with your youngest one shaking you. “Watch again!” she says. “Want to watch again!”
Then she hands you two halves of the DVD disk she mysteriously destroyed while you were napping.
Goodbye $24.95.
Now, without getting into a legal debate [I'm in the camp which believes any laws prohibiting the circumvention of copy protection are invalid because they violate pre-existing fair use laws] I’m going to outline how you can do this, for the explicit purpose of protecting your investment in legally purchased DVDs.
The following programs are free, and they work together:
First, go to www.ripit4me.org and download the main piece of software, RipIt4Me. This is a small program that coordinates and controls three other programs. Download and study it. It goes a long way toward making this complex process simple.
When you run this software it will, in turn, instruct you to download and install the following free programs:
Once you have these software applications installed, RipIt4Me takes control of them and makes it a easy process. This combination gets around most known copy protection schemes (at least, it does at the time of this writing) and enables you to make copies of your legally purchased DVDs, so that you’ll put wear and tear on the cheap copies instead of the valuable originals. Also, you’ll be able to use single layer discs, and not the more expensive and finicky dual layer blanks.
Now, even though RipIt4Me simplifies the process, it still takes some reading and there is a learning curve. If you’re not that technically inclined, you might consider buying a commercial DVD copying solution, such as those produced by SlySoft.com. SlySoft is supposed to make some of the best and easiest to use tools available, and they offer free updates to keep it current, so that newly released copy protection schemes don’t render it useless.
These software titles, both the free and pay versions, also have the added benefit of being able to make good copies of some DVDs that are otherwise damaged. As in, if you’ve got a scratched up and skipping disc, these give you a good chance of resurrecting a playable copy from it.
Unfortunately if your little girl has already snapped the disk in half, then you’re out of luck no matter what software you have.
