The Ultimate DVDR Forums

Just over a week ago I was asked to try out DVD95Copy PRO and submit a review of my findings and thoughts.....So here goes.

Having used many other products over the last 2 1/2 years I did not know what to expect from this one as up until 3 weeks ago I had not even heard of it. I downloaded and installed it without any trouble what so ever (and this should be the case for any software).

The one thing about DVD95 that I was surprised with is that the Decrypter is built into the program. Some would say that this is a good thing but my concern here is that DVD95 might end up in the same boat as 'dvdxcopy', 'dvdshrink' and 'dvd-decrypter' unless they are based in some corner of the world where the copyright laws cannot be enforced.

That said I asked Digi (the author) about updates etc and he has said he plans to keep the program updated as and when it needs updates for the decrypter to handle newer movies (and these updates are free).

I have been using DVD95 for a week now and it handles everything that I throw at it (even a new release in the UK - The Pink Panther, which I am currently unable to do a movie only backup with my usual program of choice.)

After the initial installation I found DVD95 very easy to use and the user interface is not cluttered with more options that you know what to do with.

When you start DVD95 the first screen you are presented with shows all the titlesets that are on the dvd. you can deselect any of these if you don't want them on your copy, You can also change the compression ratio of each title individually. Also if you click on the aspect section of each titleset you get a preview window which plays that titleset for you. So far I can only get this to work if the movie files have been ripped to HDD. You also get your usual boxes to select your source, destination, burn speed and the location of your temp folder. You also have three further buttons. One to select single/dual layer media, options and the start button.



.

Within the options screen you can select your prefered audio, whether you want DVD95 to burn automatically or ask if it can burn, which one of the three burn engines you want to use (internal(which is actually DVD95burn and can be downloaded as a seperate tool), the VSO burn engine (copy2dvd) or the Nero burn engine. You can also choose the type of copy that you want ie - full disc, movie only 1:1 etc. I have used all three burn engines without any problems.



.

Once you have chosen your options and click the start button you will be presented with the transcoding screen. This shows you the information you would normally expect to see - progress of current titleset and overall progress of the dvd.



.

Here you can see the burning window for the internal burn engine. Not much to see here apart fom the current progress with elapsed time and estimated time until the burn is complete. (When using the Nero burn engine you see the same burn window as you do with the internal engine but in your DVD96 logs it states it is using the Nero engine. These logs contain some very useful information but I also think there is too much in there.)



.

Once your disc is finished burning you get asked if you want to burn another copy. Some other programs only do this if you remember and set that option on.



.

If you choose to use the VSO burn engine (you will need to have VSO's copy2dvd installed to do this) you get a bit more info during your burn.




As said above I have tried various movies with DVD95, some of them loaded with 'bad authoring techniques' , episode dvds, Disney movies and even some older ones and everything worked as it should.

I don't think this program will be at the top of my list of backup tools but it is a very good overall package. It does what is says it will do and as long as Digi keeps on top of any updates needed then this is a good tool to add to your arsenal of programs.

The PRO version costs $39.99 and gives you all the features of the other packages sold on the DVD95copy web site. As an added bonus if you buy PRO at the moment you can also get DVDFab Platinum and DVD Region+CSS for free. The DVDFab packages use the same burn engine as DV95copy.



PC Specs

Self Build
AMD Sempron 3000+
1GB DDR400 Ram
Win XP SP2
Pioneer 109/NEC 4551 and BenQ EW164B

Alex

very well done review thank you to say the least you have all done an outstanding job on this very nice thank you all tiny!!!

Bubbles: By now you probably know and have already tried to get the preview screen working by having AnyDVD operating in the background. As long as I have AnyDVD enabled, the preview work when I click the aspect ratio next to the titleset. I disable all of the feature removal (protection) settings of AnyDVD because they are not needed. But it will function in either case.

The removal of preview from the back up, appears to cause play back problems ins some of my stand alone players. It is similar to what had happened with 1Click Pro. The back up would not play to menu or movie. It would sit in the tray until the menu button was pressed.

To compensate, I set AnyDVD to either jump directly to main movie or title menu. The one I chose depended on whether the original DVD would play back in the computer ROM to the setting picked with AnyDVD. So far every DVD has done one or the other. But if the original DVD does not play back in the ROM (as selected in AnyDVD), then the back up will not either.