Help please! How to copy DVDs to CDR?

[belljul]

OK - I know the answer's out there somewhere and this is a really basic question...

Can I copy a DVD using a CDR drive? What format does the copy come out as and can I play the copy on my DVD player? (My DVD player can't read VCD ) Surely it has to be either a DVD copier for the sheer size of data held on a DVD??? Otherwise, could I have DVD format copied onto a stack of CDR disks (albeit I would need some 10 disks per movie?)

Is the above possible? If so, what software do I need and where to get it from - I have Nero 5.5.3.1

Sorry to aska really basic question but I know that some kind person will know exactly what I need to do! I'm itching to get copying!

Thanks in advance!

[mattward2k]

It is possible to recreate the file system and format of a DVD onto a CDR, but its whether your DVD Player will read it that's the problem. That's a bit of a pain that you're DVD Player doesn't support VCD's - don't usually see that.

Copying 1 DVD onto 10 CDR's ain't the best thing to do, purely because its a waste of money and you'd get bored of having to keep changing the CD's all the way through a film, plus the menu would mess up when you tried to select a chapter that wasn't on the disk.

To recreate the filesystem of a DVD you'd need a piece of software such as DVD Junior - it allows you to recreate menu's, include title's, create chapters within titles and create several audio streams as well as subtitles. But its really more for creating your own DVD's to distribute to family etc.

Best thing to do is to create a VCD and watch it on your PC

[belljul]

Thanks for the quick response! Do you know where to download the software? (DVD Junior). Does this copy to a DVD writer only or will my CDwriter work (and how much will I get on it?)

Hope you can help!

[mattward2k]

You can get DVD Junior from http://www.authoringware.com - it is the only one they offer as a demo. As far as I know it will write to DVD-R and CD-R - tho I've never tried it as it can't seem to find my CD-Writer so I just tell it to pre-master the files to the hard disk and then I use NERO to do the rest.

As I said before its generally not a good idea to write a DVD to a CD as you can't guarentee it working or looking good, its just too much of a change and it'll be totally messed up.