The Best DVD Copy Software 123 Copy DVD WOW

The most powerful yet, easy to use DVD backup program available ever.
Burn, baby burn! With 123 Copy DVD's easy to use interface even the newest computer users can make backup copies of their DVD collection in 3 simple clicks of the mouse.

With 123 Copy DVD's simple to use 3 click interface no prior knowledge or skill is required! You'll be backing up your personal collection of DVD's in no time.

Almost every commercial DVD that you purchase has CSS copy-protection. This is one of the reasons you cannot use a standard DVD burning application (such as Nero) on its own to back them up. You need some type of method to decrypt this protection to be able to copy the movie files and make a backup.

123 Copy DVD by itself cannot decrypt CSS out of the box; in fact it is now illegal to do so. A recent lawsuit (pending appeal) against 321 Studio’s DVDXCopy ruled against allowing software manufacturers to include any type of CSS decryption within the software itself. But because 123 Copy DVD does not include the CSS decryption with the product it has (for now anyway) found a way around this ruling.

What 123 Copy DVD does is allow a free 3^rd party update that can be installed via a simple click of a button (via a ‘product update’). This patch includes a CSS decryption file that makes backing up a commercial DVD possible. While the legal ramifications of this are not entirely clear at this time, for now the sale and use of the software is legitimate.

CSS copy-protection is not the only hurdle you will encounter when trying to backup a commercial DVD. Many commercial DVD’s are dual layer (greater than 4.38GB) which cannot fit on the single layer (4.38GB max) media that is the norm today. This is where compression (a.k.a. transcoding) and re-authoring software (such as 123 Copy DVD) come into play.

There are different methods to backup a dual layer commercial DVD; one method is to re-author the movie by stripping out the extra features, menus, or any extra sound tracks that you do not need (for example French or Spanish). Depending on the length of the movie this will either keep the original quality level of the DVD or dramatically reduce the compression needed. The other method is to back-up the entire DVD. Although this will require a higher level of compression and a larger loss of quality, there are some people that do not mind the quality loss in favour of keeping the entire DVD with all of its features intact.

Positive:

· retailing at under thirty dollars it is the least expensive commercial DVD copy software available

· very good quality

· exceptional transcoding times

· simple to use, even a computer novice should have no problems using this software

· does not require any additional cost in a program to defeat the CSS copy protection

Negative:

· no shortcut placement option

· can only set maximum size to 4380 MB when at least 4460 MB would fit and increase quality

· bug that did not allow us to change the DVD±RW drive used for burning (only a possible issue if you would like to use more then one DVD±RW drive)

· can only select slow medium and fast burn speeds instead of being able to select the exact burn speed desired

· no option to cut out unneeded credits to improve quality

· help file is extremely sparse

· no method to split very long movies over two blank single layer DVD’s

Conclusion:

In our opinion 123 Copy DVD successfully accomplished what it has stated.

Although dual layer looms on the horizon, there are still many people interested in the economical advantage of using single layer media. Software like 123 Copy DVD will still be required for some time to come.

The one negative area we would like to see changed the most in a future release would be the burn speed options. Although user friendly; the fast, medium and slow speeds are far too limited in our opinion. We were also concerned with are the bugs we encountered when performing this review. Bugs however, can be a highly system specific issue and 123 Copy DVD was quick to attempt to fix the problem once it was reported. Overall most people should not encounter any of these problems and 123 Copy DVD now has a free demo version you can try that will alleviate any fears you may have with this before purchasing.

Besides the points listed above, most of the negatives have been attributed to the lack of advanced options. Anyone that has been backing up DVD’s for a long time may not approve of the simple interface or the lack of options, but that is not what this software has set out to accomplish.

This program is the easiest to use commercial DVD copy program I have tried yet. With a retail price under thirty dollars, it is also the most reasonably priced. What impressed me the most was how it accomplished these goals without sacrificing quality or speed.

If you are looking for a great price, matched with ease of use, you would be hard pressed to find something better to suit those needs.