How to copy any DVD to DVD±R(W)
Determining the Method to Use
After you have these two programs installed and the settings have been applied to InstantCopy, insert the DVD into your DVD-ROM drive. Open up DVD Decrypter. Set the mode to read ISO by choosing "ISO" -> "Read" from the "Mode" menu. The information frame on the right will show you something like what you see below.
You will have to take note of the size of the disc in order to tell what to do next. Near the bottom of the frame, this disc says Number of Layers: 2, and the size is shown as 8,524,060,672 bytes (7.9 Gb). This is too big for standard DVD±R(W) discs, which hold 4.3 Gb. Two things of note here: Since I will be using a DVD-R disc, I will henceforth use that term. Since my drive does not support the DVD+R(W) format, I can't guarantee this HOWTO will work if that's what you choose to use. However, this method has worked for me several times in making high quality backups of DVDs.
The other thing I would like to note is that single layer DVD-Rs can hold up to 4.3 Gb of data, using the standard 1024 bytes in a Kbyte, 1024 Kbytes in a Gbyte. Marketing for these media, however, state that they can hold 4.7 Gb. This is not the case! You will need to ensure your movies are less than or equal to 4.3 Gb before you burn. Luckily, InstantCopy does almost all the work for you in this area.
Now that you have determined how many layers are on the disc, you can tell what path you'll need to take. If your disc is single-layered (less then approximately 4,617,089,843 bytes), you only need to use DVD Decrypter to copy your disc, so you can continue on to ripping to ISO. (This process will take roughly 30 minutes at 4x.) Otherwise, you'll have to rip the files and re-encode the movie, which will take between two and three hours to do.
Determining the Method to Use
After you have these two programs installed and the settings have been applied to InstantCopy, insert the DVD into your DVD-ROM drive. Open up DVD Decrypter. Set the mode to read ISO by choosing "ISO" -> "Read" from the "Mode" menu. The information frame on the right will show you something like what you see below.
You will have to take note of the size of the disc in order to tell what to do next. Near the bottom of the frame, this disc says Number of Layers: 2, and the size is shown as 8,524,060,672 bytes (7.9 Gb). This is too big for standard DVD±R(W) discs, which hold 4.3 Gb. Two things of note here: Since I will be using a DVD-R disc, I will henceforth use that term. Since my drive does not support the DVD+R(W) format, I can't guarantee this HOWTO will work if that's what you choose to use. However, this method has worked for me several times in making high quality backups of DVDs.
The other thing I would like to note is that single layer DVD-Rs can hold up to 4.3 Gb of data, using the standard 1024 bytes in a Kbyte, 1024 Kbytes in a Gbyte. Marketing for these media, however, state that they can hold 4.7 Gb. This is not the case! You will need to ensure your movies are less than or equal to 4.3 Gb before you burn. Luckily, InstantCopy does almost all the work for you in this area.
Now that you have determined how many layers are on the disc, you can tell what path you'll need to take. If your disc is single-layered (less then approximately 4,617,089,843 bytes), you only need to use DVD Decrypter to copy your disc, so you can continue on to ripping to ISO. (This process will take roughly 30 minutes at 4x.) Otherwise, you'll have to rip the files and re-encode the movie, which will take between two and three hours to do.