Copy Your DVDs

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The program DVD X Copy promises to make perfect copies of your DVDs with the click of a button. Find out if it delivers.

By Patrick Norton and Josh Lawrence


Do you have the right to make archival copies of the DVD movies you own? Any parent who's bought three copies of a child's favorite flick probably thinks so. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) believes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act says no. The folks at 321 Studios are on the side of the parents in this case.

Not only are they selling DVD X Copy, a $99.99 program designed to make copying DVD movies to recordable DVD media a "one click" process, they've started a lawsuit in an attempt to secure DVD movie owners the legal right to make backup copies of DVDs.


Most folks who clone their DVD movies do it with free software downloaded online. Does DVD X Copy make the process $100 easier? Watch the show and read our review below.


Our review


DVD X Copy promises to make perfect copies of your DVDs at the click of a button. For the most part, it lives up to its claims, but there are some important caveats.


The first thing we looked at is the software's claim to one-click copying. And while it exists, the interface is not very intuitive at first sight. To find out how one-click copying works, we used the software's tutorial.


The tutorial makes it clear that if you don't want to fiddle with options, you can copy by simply clicking a button that sits at the bottom right of the interface. Even after you click this button, you still aren't copying at a single click. You click once to have X Copy analyze the DVD you want to copy, then click again to have X Copy burn your duplicate DVD.


Despite the helpful tutorial, the GUI design should have dramatically highlighted this all-essential button. Instead, it's lost among the other features of the software.




DVD X Copy Splits Originals

When you pop in a DVD, X Copy analyzes the disc, gives you information on tracks of the DVD, and if all goes well, you can get right to copying and burning.


You do have some options available to you to customize your recording session. For instance, you might want to dictate which chapters go on the first DVD you record and which go on the second. Yes, that's right, you may have to use two writable DVDs to copy your single original disc.


The dual-layer rub


Many DVDs these days are dual-layer discs. Dual layer discs can store more than 9GB of data on one disc; the larger capacity allows DVD studios to use a better quality of MPEG compression on the source movie. The problem is that all commercially available recordable DVD media currently caps out at 4.7GB.


If you're using X Copy, you have to split a dual-layer DVD across two recordable DVDs. This method brings back memories of using laser discs, though the message now is "please insert disc 2" instead of "please turn the disc over."


X Copy automatically splits dual-layer DVDs at the midpoint of your content's running time, but you can choose which chapter starts disc two. In Windows XP, you can even preview the chapter the second disc will start with. You also have the option of burning the second disc only.


You can also choose how the disc will start -- as it normally does, going straight to the menu, or starting with the movie right out. X Copy also copies extras, and you can choose to remove them if you wish. You can even get rid of the menu, but you are advised not to do so.


Burn on


We tested X Copy with a popular DVD we'll leave unnamed. Our test platform was a 2.4-GHz Windows XP computer with 1GB of RAM and a Pioneer A04 DVD-R drive.


Since our original DVD was a nice-looking dual-layer disc, it took two DVD-Rs. For each DVD-R, it took X Copy about 40 minutes to copy the data on the original DVD to the hard drive, and then 40 minutes to burn the DVD-R. The whole job took about 160 minutes.


A problem with X Copy is that the software locks up after you complete a copy and insert a completely new DVD source. The only way we were able to start on a brand new DVD was to shut the program down and restart (we should note that 123 Studio is constantly updating the software, however, and seems pretty diligent about squashing bugs like this).


Conclusion


Our copy was exact, down to the menus, extras, and visual quality. However, there's the annoying "Please insert disc 2" disclaimer that interrupts your viewing. The dual-layer limitation quickly uses up your DVD-R supply; if you're backing up "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings -- Extended Edition," you're going to need eight blank DVDs to copy your original four. Despite this major limitation, the unnecessarily crowded interface, and a few bugs, DVD X Copy does what it promises.