Burning DVDs

First off....are you absolutely positive you have a Phillips DVD+RW drive and not a DVD/CDRW combo? You would know since the DVD+RW drives are an extra 300-400 bucks.

Secondly, Dell will not sell ANY system with two of the same type drive in it. (2 DVD's or 2 CDRW's).

Lastly, you cannot copy a DVD that easy. They are copyrighted and it is illegal to copy them.

"Inspiration is the Mother of Invention. Desperation is its Father."

System 1:

Inspiron 4100
1.2 GHz-M
14.1 SXGA+
1 GB Crucial RAM
40 GB Toshiba ATA 100 5400 rpm
30 GB IBM ATA 100 Media Bay
8x Combo CD-RW/DVD
16 MB ATI Radeon
10/100 Ethernet
Compaq IPaq 11MPS Wireless Ethernet
Windows XP Home
Bright Yellow and Blue Herringbone Color Kits
Office XP Professional

System 2:

Dimension 8200
2.4 GHz
768 MB RDRAM
40 + 100 + 60 GB HD's
Promise ATA 100 Controller
Adaptec Duo Card (Firewire/USB 2.0)
80 GB Firewire
16x DVD
HP 200i DVD+RW/+R
32x Que! USB 2.0 CDRW Drive
128 MB Geforce4 TI4400
SB Live!
17" Samsung TFT LCD Monitor
Linksys 10/100 USB Ethernet
Hauppauge WinTheater Stero TV
WinXP Home
Office XP Professional

Yes, I'm sure that I have the DVD-RW because I paid the extra $349 that it took to get it. I saw another post where someone was able to successfully copy DVDs by updating their Roxio software. I tried to update from the Roxio 5 to 5.3 (which is what this person suggested) but it said after the download that my installation had failed. And I understand that DVDs are copyrighted and this is illegal, but VHS tapes are not legal for copyright but it is done all the time on dual deck VCRs. I'm absolutely positive it's possible to rent DVDs and burn them (I have friends with extensive collections); I'm just not sure if my system is capable of it. Thanks for the help.

ThreeD20: You misunderstood the post about Roxio. What they meant was that they could write Data to DVD-RW media. NO ONE sells software to copy a DVD because mpeg will sue them out of business the same day they find out about it!

That you and I do not agree with it, does not change the fact that it is illegal to make a copy one thus you aren’t going to get any support for doing it.

Okay, that leaves me with two questions (that I posed last time):
1) Why is it possible to rent movies on VHS and copy them when the same copyright rules apply to VHS as DVD? I don't know if it's legal or not, but I know it's possible and is done on a regular basis.
2) How can my friends have extensive collections of DVD movies that have been ripped? Are they downloading them from some other source? I just assumed they used the same method that they use to burn CDs.

If anyone has any advice on methods I could use to burn DVDs, I would appreciate it. I am not worried about legal ramifications; I can make my own decisions on what I believe is ethical. I simply want to know how to burn DVDs, because I know it can be done. Thanks.

ThreeD20,

Yes you can copy rented VHS movies. The copy protection is easy to overcome. If you copy the movie it is an illegal act.

Yes you can copy a movie DVD. This copy protection is not easy to overcome. It is called "cracking". If you copy the movie it is an illegal act.

Yes you can even copy protected PC Games. It to is called "cracking". If you copy the game it is an illegal act.

Yes you can copy books. If you copy the book it is an illegal act.

Ask your friends how to do it or search the “Pirate Sites” of the internet. What Chuck and Jim are telling you is that no one here will tell you how to perform an illegal act. To use Dell Talk, we have all agreed to abide by Dells terms and conditions for the use of the Forum. And one of the conditions is not to assist with the solicitation of illegal acts.

Thanks Skybird, that's all I wanted to know. I was unaware of the stipulations of Dell Talk. Thanks also for bringing them to my attention. It was not my intention to violation the Dell conditions nor to cause anyone else to violate them. Sorry for the trouble.

Don't worry, people here interpret the Dell bylaws in their own way--they think discussion of piracy issues consitutes copyright infringement, in which case the New York Times would be infringing on copyrights everytime it wrote about file sharing. But in any cse, while renting a DVD and copying it is a violation of copyright, making a copy of published works that one owns for one's personal use (or select other uses) is generally considered to be, in intellectual property jargon, "fair use." For obvious reasons the film industry disagrees, but this is a legal gray area. So if this is of interest to you I hope that no one will be offended by my tellign you that you can find info on ripping DVD's and converting them to MPEG at:
http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/index.html

But the main problem with this whole enterprise is that it is extremely tedious and problematic. My main goal was to extract scenes from DVD's to use in academic presentations, but I threw up my hands after a few days and decided VHS was good enough.

Dimension L550r
Win98 SE -- 384 MB SDRAM -- 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV HD -- 40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus HD -- Samsung SD-608 DVD-Rom -- ATI All-in-Wonder 128 32MB PCI -- Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V -- Aztech MDP3880-W 56k PCI Modem

(and a PowerBook 5300c, 40mb/10gb, OS 8.1)

I just bought a Philips DVD+RW/CD-RW combo drive with my Dell 8200 series pc. I was disappointed to find out that the drive CANNOT burn to DVD-R's. It can only burn to DVD-RW. I called Dell within 30 days and I am getting a refund for the drive. I will purchase one that can actually burn DVD-RW disks and DVD-R's. Dell should make this more clear to buyers. I'm sure that they are going to get a lot of them returned.

So what do you do if you want to copy personal DVDs?

I have a DV Camcorder and create DVDs - will I be able to copy them?

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@andydrew10 wrote:

So what do you do if you want to copy personal DVDs?

I have a DV Camcorder and create DVDs - will I be able to copy them?

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As long as you don't have software that places copy protection on them, rare, it will not be any problem to copy them.

This thread had nothing to do with your question. It was in reference to copying DVDs that have copy protection.