so I spent 6 hours trying to do it and ended up with 33 minutes of movie-no audio....time wasted I'll never be able to reclaim? lol& grrrr at the same time! thanks, guys!

Bee: it depends on the software, the size of the movie you want to copy.. and what your willing to accept as quality or what you want ripped out.

Most movies are what we call "DVD9".. consumer blank dvds are referred to as "DVD5".. there is a data size difference, since a DVD9 is composed of 2 DVD5's glued together, one being more transparent, allowing for the laser to read both layers. Currently this cannot be done on consumer blanks (a new burner just got developed that would, but they dont hit the market for another 8-10 months). So your stuck with ripping some stuff out to make it fit on a consumer dvd blank. Just as a referrence, a dvd5/DVD-R/+R uses 4.36GB, it can use 4.38, but many people stray away from that, since many blank dvd media's have problems along the edges, and may not burn correctly, so as a safety precaution, many aim for a 4.36 limit.

If the DVD itself is under 4.38GB, then you can do a direct copy, with DVD Decrypter, simply going to Mode>ISO>Read, choose the ROM with the dvd you want to copy, then click where you want the Image file stored, click Start, after its done ripping, change the mode to >ISO>Write, browse and select the image you just made, and click Start, and wait for it to finish burning.

If the dvd is over 4.38GB, stuff needs to be ripped out.. easiest way to do this is just rip out the movie and burn with that, saves alot of time and you dont lose any quality..most movies under 1 hour and 50mins, that are fairly "new", and not "dirty" (dusty/noisy/pixely), are DVD5 in size (roughly).

Here's some quick ways just to rip the movie itself if its under the 4.36 (or 4.38) limit:
Using IFOEdit:
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-menustripping.htm
^^^ I prefer this method

Using DVD Shrink:
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdshrink3-main.htm
Using DVD2One:
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvd2one.htm
Using DVDFab:
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdfab-mainmovie.htm

Most of the above programs are shareware/pay-ware, except for IFOedit and its method, all the tools used in it are "freeware" (free to everybody legally). Links for all the freeware programs are included in the tutorials. I prefer using the IFOedit method, while the others can be subsituted for shrinking the movie/quality.


Now if the movie is too big, over 4.38GB, it will NOT FIT ON A DVD BLANK unless you Re-Encode/Trans-Code or Split the movie in half.

To Re-Encode, theres variety of ways.. some being very technical.. and preferred among the elitists.. for people who dont really obsess over the quality (im a quality nut), you can use variety of tools to re-encode the movie, to fit on recordable dvd's...

Using the above DVD2One guide will show you how is one way.. other tools that do it:
DVD95Copy
InstantCopy 7.0 or 8.0

theres probably a few new programs that do this as well. DVD2One is the FASTEST trans-coder for this, but I dont like the quality. Most of these programs are straight-forward and will record after for you as well. Many have help sites that show step by step how.

How I do it: The Big Three, Re-encoding with CCE on VBR based encoding schemes with Robshot method. In other words, Im insane, and waste over 15 hours to copy one dvd.
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ra-guide.htm


If you DONT want to re-encode or transcode the dvd, and want everything originally in it, but still maintain quality, the only option is to split the dvd9 into 2 burned dvd's. You can either use DVDXCopy which will use a wizard to walk you through it, or you can use a freeware method like IFOEdit:
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-2dvdrs.htm

/end rant

Thanks HDZ! If I were doing it for myself, or was being paid to do it for my friend, I would be all over your 15 hour method But, considering it's somethin I'm doing for free, and will have to teach said friend how to do it, the simple way looks best. Thanks so much for the info, I can finally get this done and out of my hands! I set up his network, built 2 of the pcs in it, and still, he wants more!!!!

damn this thread really needs an update

yah.. there has to be better programs with better comppresion methods or whatever going from dvd9 to 5. Using DVD shrink 3.2 and dvd decrypter right now for windows.