I would like to introduce the members of the “Ultimate Forum” to the backup program; Magic DVD Copy.
Author’s Site:
The first thing I noticed and was glad to see is that this program, even though it has it’s own built in decrypter, works flawlessly with
AnyDVD running in the background.
This review of Magic DVD Copier was done using the “Split to 2 Discs” option. The movie for this backup was T3.
After the installation the first screen you will see is the welcome screen telling you that you have 5 full uses of the program before you will have to register. (pay no attention to the verbiage on the screen below, it reflects the number of trails remaining for me).
The author has posted the following for those who are interested in extending the trail up to 20 uses by using the following registration information:
User Name: trial
Register Code: B678A04F2C5ED3102682
While the program is open on your desktop you can find program information by clicking on the button in the upper left of the program window.
Configuration setting are to found by clicking on the settings button in the upper right of the main program window:
Once you have made you selections in the settings; you are ready to start. As soon as you put the DVD to be backed up into the source drive the program will automatically identify it. Next you must use the drop down box in the “Target” window to select the destination, this can be your DVD Burner or output to an ISO file. (you will have to decide to either keep menus for the second disc or not the effects of which are noted below.)
Note: When doing a “split to 2 Disc” copy I suggest that you uncheck the option of “always keeping DVD menus when splitting” I found that if you select this option when you insert the 2nd disc into your stand-alone you will be prompted to insert disc one again. You can press play again on the 2nd disc and the movie will continue. I did a second back up and this time unchecked this option and the second disc will start without any prompts and play perfectly, you will still have the ability to advance by chapters however, you will not have any of the main menu options available to you on the disc.
Since I had already chose to use the copy mode of “DVD9 to 2 DVD5” I clicked on Go! To initiate the backup process.
The program will transcode the entire disc and output to the “temp file” you can select to have these files deleted after completion or allow them to remain for a second burn or viewing with a software player from the file location.
The output files are in DVD Format and you will find VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders for each disc.
After the transcode process the program will ask you to select the write speed based on the blank media you have inserted into the target drive; you can select “auto” or select your desired write speed. I used TY X8 +R media.
The writing process will begin and you will see a progress bar with the elapsed time and the remaining time for this write.
Once the 1st disc has completed you will get a new window asking you the second disc,
A nice feature of this program is that you can insert a different type of DVD media and the program will allow you to select your burn speed based on the capabilities of the media you choose.
Once again as the write of the second disc is performing you will see the progress bar.
When the write process completes for the second disc you will get the “Congratulations” window. The Backup is complete and your discs are now ready for play.
When viewing the movie you will at the end of the first disc get a still image asking for the 2nd disc to be inserted in your player.
Conclusions:
While there are other programs which allow you to split to 2 DVD5s, I found this to be easier than the processes required in Shrink; produces a higher quality backup than
DVDFab or DVD95copy.
This software will allow you to burn your projects with either of the two internal burning engines or you may select Nero if you have it installed. Should you desire to burn with different software you may do so by selecting the Video folders from your temp file (hopefully you selected that they not be deleted). You can also select to burn with ImgBurn if you had selected to have the output by ISO.
One of the internal writing engines is by VSO, I was not able to determine the second internal engine and must assume it is one written by the author for this program.
Should you need to refer to the programs log files you will find them within the program folder on your HD.
Both Discs played back perfectly with all menu options in tact on the 1st disc only. (See highlighted note above regarding menu options to the 2nd disc).
While I have only tested this software in this mode (split) I am impressed with its ability to perform as presented by the author. I will be testing it further using the “whole disc” and “movie only” options.
I am not ready to proclaim this software a “Keeper” yet, however, if I am equally impressed with the backups under the remaining two options I for one will buy this program and encourage the author in continued development.