123 Copy DVD- movie backups made easy

 

Testing:

We began by backing up copies of the following movie to the hard drive:

⋅         Legend (dual layer)

⋅         The Matrix (dual layer)

⋅         Bedazzled (dual layer)

⋅         Office Space (single layer)

Since we wanted the entire movie, we selected complete DVD and left all the languages intact. We selected a path to rip the movie to and clicked start.

In each case the process ran smoothly and we had the complete DVD decrypted and on the hard drive for viewing or further processing at a later stage. Please note that ripping times can vary greatly depending on your system and drive used to copy the movie (for example a DVD-ROM drive will generally rip faster then a DVD±RW drive).

 

Copy DVD:

For the Copy DVD section of this review we used the same movies:

⋅         Legend (dual layer)

⋅         The Matrix (dual layer)

⋅         Bedazzled (dual layer)

⋅         Office Space (single layer)

To ensure the greatest compatibility possible, we tested with the following selection of media at least once. All media burnt fine at its maximum rated speed using the fast burn speed option. When burning DVD±RW media we opted to use the slow format option, as it is known to do a more thorough job of formatting the DVD.

DVD+R

⋅         Taiyo Yuden 4x (YUDEN000T01)

⋅         CMC 8x (CMC MAG E01)

DVD’“R

⋅         Ritek 4x (RITEKG04)

⋅         Ritek 8x (RITEKG05)

DVD+RW

⋅         Philips 4x (PHILIPS 041)

⋅         Ricoh 4x (RICOHJPNW01)

DVD-RW

⋅         Ritek 2x (RITEKW01)

⋅         Optodisc 2x (OPTODISCK001)

 

Using the following methods we successfully copied each movie without incident.

⋅         Copy to Hard Disk fully, then transcoded and burnt using the Copy DVD files from Hard Disk to DVD

⋅         Transcoding using Copy to Hard Disk and then burnt using the Copy DVD files from Hard Disk to DVD

⋅         Using the Copy DVD option to transcode and then burn in one step

Whether copying to the hard drive first and then burning afterwards, or going straight from the DVD, all copies finished successfully on all media types and played back fine in 3 tested set top DVD players.

We were very impressed with the transcoding times. They were very quick at an average time of 17 minutes for the dual layer movies when using Feature Film only and one language (again please note transcoding times are highly dependant on your system speed).

Burn speeds varied of course depending on the media used, but they all fell well within the expected time frame (~30 minutes @ 2x, ~15 minutes @ 4x and ~8 minutes @ 8x).

The quality of the movies also impressed us. The movies were played back on a 17″ CRT and a 46″ Philips widescreen HDTV with progressive scan enabled. With the exception of Office Space (which is only single layer), when copying the entire movie in its entirety there were noticeable signs of compression throughout. However, it was nothing worse than we have noticed using other entry level DVD copy software. But where 123 DVD Copy really shined was when copying only the feature film and one language. None of the movies tested showed any noticeable signs of pixilation or compression unless you sat very close to the screen and paused the movie looking for it. For the short amount of time required to transcode the DVD the quality was outstanding.

Time to wrap things up…

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