Roxio Easy DVD Copy: DVD Copying Guide

Roxio Easy DVD Copy allows you to copy and convert various video formats to DVD. You can, for example, take AVI files and make a DVD out of them. You can also convert DVDs to iPod format, and even make DivX discs (or to make DVDs out of DivX discs).

This guide will provide instructions on making DVD to DVD copies, either 1:1 copies or converting a DVD-9 to DVD-5 by removing content or shrinking.

This guide is aimed at beginners, so you don't need to know too much about DVD copying before you begin.

Software you'll need:

• Roxio Easy DVD Copy

Installation:

Installation is easy. Just run the installer and after a system restart, Roxio Easy DVD Copy is ready to use. The actual Easy DVD Copy interface is actually just a front-end to access the Video Copy & Convert tool, which is the tool that does all the work. So you can actually just access this tool directly and skip the Easy DVD Copy interface altogether.

Step 1: Copying the original DVD to your hard-drive

While this step is not strictly required, it would be better to work off files from your hard-drive as compared to the disc, because processing could take an hour and so and the continuous disc drive access could overheat your drive (whereas hard-disks are much more used to this kind of sustained processing). Easy DVD Copy only supports un-protected DVDs, so if the DVD you are trying to copy is copy protected, then you will have to find some other means to get it to your hard-drive. Instructions on ripping copy protected DVDs cannot be provided on this website due to legal reasons, and the act is most likely illegal in your country even if you use it for personal/backup reasons.

In any case, copy the DVD to your hard-drive. You should now have a bunch of DVD files on your hard-drive - the folder containing these files is called the "DVD-Video folder".

Start the Video Copy & Convert tool.

Since most DVDs are DVD-9 (usually around 8 GBs) and single layer blanks have just over 4 GBs, Video Copy & Convert can compress the original DVD to make it fit, which will affect picture quality. Otherwise, you can also choose to remove content and then compress what is left (if needed), which will improve quality (for example, you can remove all the extras and only keep the main movie). Decide what you need to do and choose to follow "Step 2a: Copying the Entire Disc" (copy everything, compress everything to fit) or "Step 2b: Copying Parts of the Disc" (copy only selected parts, compress these parts to fit if needed). Using "Step 2b" has the added advantage of allowing to you add your own video files to the DVD.

Step 2a: Copying the Entire Disc

Use this step if you wish to copy everything on a disc (with the option to remove some additional languages/subtitles). If you prefer to copy only selected parts of the disc, then skip to "Step 2b: Copying Parts of the Disc".

In Video Copy & Convert, click on the "DVD Video Copy" button at the top to get to the following screen.

Under the "Source" section, use the drop down menu to select the "Browse for Disc Image/DVD-Video folder" option. The "Media Selector" should pop up. Navigate yourself to the folder where your DVD files are stored, and the video contents of this folder will be shown on the right hand side (in the screenshot below, the title with the longest running time is referred to as "Movie 1", as this is usually the main movie. The other video titles are referred to as "Extras"). Press the "OK" button to load the DVD-Video folder into Video Copy & Convert.

On the bottom of the main Video Copy & Convert screen, you should see a size bar and an option to select the media type. This option allows you to set what kind of media you are going to make the copy on. The options are single layer DVD+/- blanks, dual layer blanks or DVD-RAM.

The "Content Quality" rating shows what the estimated finally quality will be like for the current copy. Since most DVDs are DVD-9 (usually around 8 GBs) and single layer blanks have just over 4 GBs, Video Copy & Convert will actually compress the original DVD to make it fit, which will affect picture quality. The more compression, the lower the quality. To truly make a 1:1 copy, you will need to use dual-layer blanks. But even a compressed disc will still look acceptable on all but the largest screens. The content quality could range from "Good" to "Excellent" or even "Identical to Original".

The size bar (orange in the first screenshot below, green in the second screenshot) shows how much space will be left on the output disc (the first screenshot below shows no space is left and that all 4428 MB on the disc will be occupied, the second screenshot shows a little bit of space left on the 8147 MB blank). If "Content Quality" is "Excellent" or "Identical to Original", then the size bar will turn green. Keep an eye on the "Content Quality" and size bar status throughout to make sure you're not cramming too much onto the disc.

After you load in the source DVD-video folder, the "Source" section should now show a preview of the video (usually the menu). Now sometimes a DVD might contain multiple language tracks, and you might not need to copy all of them. Certainly, if you are not using dual layer blanks, then you should try and only keep what you need to improve picture quality. If you are using dual layer media, then there's not much point in removing the additional tracks. To remove unwanted language tracks, click on the "Language Options" button. In the new window that opens, you can select which audio and subtitles tracks you want to keep (the "checked" ones), and which you want to remove (in the screenshot below, I've only kept the English audio and subtitles). Sometimes a DVD might even have multiple audio tracks in the same language (eg. DTS and Dolby tracks), so you might only want to keep one of them (but be careful, some 2 channel tracks contain the audio commentary, so you might want to keep that). Press "OK" when you have finished your language selections to close the "Language Options" window.

Once you've removed some languages, you might notice that the "Content Quality", size bar status might have changed to reflect this (in the example I'm using for this guide, the "Content Quality" changed from "Good" to "Excellent", and the size bar status turned green after I removed everything except the English language).

Now we will select a destination. You can burn the output straight to a blank disc, or you can create a disc image or another DVD-Video folder on your hard-drive. The advantage of burning to another DVD-Video folder is that you can test the DVD on your computer first, using PowerDVD or WinDVD (both supports loading DVDs from the hard-disk).

If you choose to burn straight to disc, then under the "Destination" section, use the drop down menu to select your DVD writer drive and then insert your blank media. You can select the burn speed (try to use 4x, as that will guarantee the best compatibility, even if your media is rated for higher speeds) and also the number of copies you wish to burn. There are also some advanced burning options available if you click on the arrow button beside the "Copy Now" button and select the "Advanced Copy" option. A new window will pop up with more burning options that you probably won't need to change anyway. Click on the "Copy Now" button or go through the Advanced Copy options to start the burning process, and then you should have your copy in a while (the length depends on how much compression needs to be done). This guide is now finished for you, so you don't need to continue reading.

If you do want to burn to your hard-disk first, then from the "Destination" drop down menu, select "DVD-Video Folder". Press the "Save As" button just above it and select a folder to save your files (to avoid confusion, create a new folder to save your files in and do not save it into the same directory as your source files - although Roxio will create a new folder for you as to not overwrite your source files, it can still be confusing).

Once you have the Video Copy & Convert produced files, you can then use PowerDVD or WinDVD to load the folder containing these files and play the movie back. If everything works as it should, then you can burn the folder as a DVD-Video disc. There are many ways to do this, both free (ImgBurn: guide) and commercial solutions, but there's nothing to stop you from using Roxio Video Copy & Convert to burn the processed files again (this time, Roxio won't re-process the files as they have already been processed to fit onto your blank media). To do this, basically repeat the steps above and load the processed DVD-Video Folder into Video Copy & Convert, but this time, do not set a language option and burn straight to disc using the instructions above. This guide is now finished for you, so you don't need to continue reading.

Step 2b: Copying Parts of the Disc

If you are reading this, then you've selected to only copy parts of a disc. This is a good way to ensure you achieve maximum quality for the video that you do keep, and you can even use this method to add additional video files to the DVD.

In Video Copy & Convert, click on the "Video Compilation" button at the top to get to the following screen.

Under the "Source" section, click on the "Add Movies" button. The "Media Selector" should pop up. Navigate yourself to the folder where your DVD files are stored, and the video contents of this folder will be shown on the right hand side (in the screenshot below, the title with the longest running time is referred to as "Movie 1", as this is usually the main movie. The other video titles are referred to as "Extras"). This is where you select what you want to keep on the disc. Click on a title (eg. "Movie 1" and it will be highlighted) to add it to the compilation. If you want to select multiple titles, hold down the "Ctrl" button on your keyboard as you use your mouse to select titles. Press the "OK" button to load the selected DVD-Video titles into Video Copy & Convert. If you need to add more titles, then click on the "Add Movie" button again to load them ... you can load in various video types, even movie files not part of the original source DVD.

On the bottom of the main Video Copy & Convert screen, you should see a size bar and an option to select the media type. This option allows you to set what kind of media you are going to make the copy on. The options are single layer DVD+/- blanks, dual layer blanks, DVD-RAM or specify a custom size.

The "Content Quality" rating shows what the estimated finally quality will be like for the current copy. Since most DVDs are DVD-9 (usually around 8 GBs) and single layer blanks have just over 4 GBs, Video Copy & Convert will actually compress the original DVD to make it fit, which will affect picture quality. The more compression, the lower the quality. To truly make a 1:1 copy, you will need to use dual-layer blanks. But even a compressed disc will still look acceptable on all but the largest screens. The content quality could range from "Good" to "Excellent" or even "Identical to Original".

The size bar (orange in the first screenshot below, green in the second screenshot) shows how much space will be left on the output disc (the first screenshot below shows no space is left and that all 4428 MB on the disc will be occupied, the second screenshot shows a little bit of space left on the 8147 MB blank). If "Content Quality" is "Excellent" or "Identical to Original", then the size bar will turn green. Keep an eye on the "Content Quality" and size bar status throughout to make sure you're not cramming too much onto the disc.

Now that we have loaded in the videos into this compilation, they will be shown on the left hand side. First, use the purple up and down arrows to make sure their ordering is correct (the order listed will be the order they are shown on the DVD menu and the playback order). You can also select a title and click on the "Rename" button to rename the title (this title name will be the one displayed on the DVD menu, if you choose to make one - in the screenshot below, I've renamed my titles "Main Movie", "Documentary" and "Trailer"). Now is probably a good time to save your compilation - from the "File" menu, select "Save Compilation As" - this will save the options you have selected so far so that you can continue working on this compilation at a later time.

You can also click on the "Preview/Trim Movie" button (to the right of the purple arrow buttons) to edit/cut out parts of the video title that you don't want. It's the same process as any movie editor ... just set a start and end time of the portion of the video you want. There is a job shuttle to make selection easier, as well as the option to set the movie thumbnail.

Now you will have to select a destination. Under "Format", select "DVD", because that's what we are trying to make (as you can see Roxio Video Copy & Convert supports many output formats, like DivX, 3GP or even iPod formats ... perhaps a future guide will cover these options in more detail). Press the "Options" button just below to change the output options.

Here, you can change the disc's name. More importantly, you can also choose whether to create a menu or not. Several menu templates are provided for use, and if you have multiple video titles, it is recommended that you create a menu. You can also choose whether to go to the menu or to play the first title when the disc is inserted. Again, if you have multiple titles, you can also specify whether the titles will play in sequence or return to the main menu after each title has ended. You can also set a "Video Format" option, although it should normally be automatically selected for you. US DVDs are NTSC, while most of Europe and UK/Australia use PAL - check the "Always convert to preferred video format" to make sure all titles are converted to PAL or NTSC even if they were in another format originally. Press "OK" to close the options window when you have finished.

If you selected to use a menu, then a menu preview thumbnail should show up just below the "Options" button. Click on the "Select Style" button to change the look and feel of the menu.

Here in the menu editor, there are several pre-made styles/templates you can use, or you can make your own from scratch. The menus won't be very advanced. Go to the "Smart Objects" section, and you can click on various objects in the preview on the right hand side to change their text properties or resize and move objects. You can also change the color or load a different background image. You can't make animated menus and things like that, but you probably don't need to. When you are satisfied with your changes, you can use the "Save as Style" button to save this style for future use. Click on the "OK" button to load the new menu into the compilation.

Just one last option to select. From the "Output to:" section, you can select to burn straight to disc or to a DVD-Video folder on your hard-drive. The advantage of burning to another DVD-Video folder is that you can test the DVD on your computer first, using PowerDVD or WinDVD (both supports loading DVDs from the hard-disk).

If you do want to burn to your hard-disk first, then select the "File/Folder" options under "Output to:". Press the "Save As" button just above it and select a folder to save your files (to avoid confusion, create a new folder to save your files in and do not save it into the same directory as your source files - although Roxio will create a new folder for you as to not overwrite your source files, it can still be confusing).

Once you have the Video Copy & Convert produced files, you can then use PowerDVD or WinDVD to load the folder containing these files and play the movie back. If everything works as it should, then you can burn the folder as a DVD-Video disc. There are many ways to do this, both free (ImgBurn: guide) and commercial solutions, but there's nothing to stop you from using Roxio Video Copy & Convert to burn the processed files again (this time follow Step 2a - Roxio won't re-process the files as they have already been processed to fit onto your blank media). To do this, basically repeat the steps under Step 2a (not Step 2b) and load the processed DVD-Video Folder into Video Copy & Convert, but this time, do not set a language option and burn straight to disc using the instructions provided. This guide is now concluded, thanks for reading.