Create backup of movie DVDs and burn ISO files using VideoSolo DVD Copy
This article is a review of DVD Copy software VideoSolo DVD Copy. Read to know how this DVD Copy utility performed in our review, what are the feature highlights of this tool and if it does all that is expected from a premium DVD Copy tool.
In recent years, DVDs have become the first choice of movie enthusiasts to get their favourite movies at a cheap rate and on a more permanent basis. After all, it doesn't make sense to always stream movies online or wait for them to come again on the cable. However, DVDs are prone to damage and it makes sense to keep their backups, preferably in a digital format like a DVD folder or at least on a separate DVD disc.
However, it is not exactly easy to create copies of original DVDs since most publishers these days protect their disks using different forms of protections some of which are simple to prevent copying while some go as far as to check your geographical location to see if the media has been distributed lawfully. While these protections are obviously ethical to protect the copyright laws of their legal owners, these also hamper the rights of legit buyers of these DVDs from making backup DVDs or watching these movies on the media of their choice.
VideoSolo DVD Copy is a tool designed to help such owners to create copies of their DVDs no matter what type of protections exists on them. It helps them create folder Video TS files on your local disks, ISO files or even burn a clone of your original disk. Currently this software is available only for the Windows operating system.3 Modes to decide what you want to copy
Full Copy: This mode creates a complete clone of the original DVD with all its titles, audio tracks and subtitles. You just select the mode, source DVD files and the destination path and you get a DVD clone in minutes.
Main Movie: This option to copy DVD discards all the extra titles in the movie DVD except the main one. It will copy all the audio tracks as well as the subtitles that are present in the DVD file.
Customize: This option gives you the full control to customize the output from the copy DVD process. You get to decide which titles to keep, which audio tracks and the subtitles which will go in the disc or DVD folder you are creating.
VideoSolo DVD Copy has the flexibility to let you select any type of DVD source and destination. You can select a source or destination as a DVD disc, an ISO file or a DVD folder.Hands-on review
Since the Full Copy and Main Movie options are quite straightforward, we will try out the Customize DVD Copy option. Whenever you launch the software, VideoSolo DVD Copy will ask if it can load the default DVD disc sitting in your DVD slot. If that is the disk you want to use as the source, give the tool permission to go ahead. If the disc is not automatically detected or is in the form of an ISO or a DVD folder, select that as a source using the dropdown in the Source section.
Once the source is loaded, click on the Customize button. This enables the checkboxes against the titles, audio tracks and the subtitles. Select the ones you want in your output DVD. In the lower section, you can change the write speed, the number of copies you want and if you want a D5 or D9 type of disc. Once this is done, click on the Next button. The next page gives you another set of options to further customize the output DVD.
Here you can remove the DVD menu, set the DVD to directly play from the main movie, play titles in a loop if you are selecting multiple titles and remove region code protection as well.
If you are burning the copied DVD to a disc, the software will create a temporary folder to keep the intermediate ISO files or DVD folders. These can be used independently if you plan to burn the disc sometime later. It will save processing time if you want to run a DVD copy on the same disc again. In the Settings window, you can decide if you want to keep this folder or not as well as select the Exit option once the DVD copy is complete.
Click on the Start button to start the DVD copy process. You will see the various steps involved in copying a DVD. The majority of the time is spent in copying the data from the original disc or writing to a DVD disc. If you are copying from an ISO or a DVD folder or making a digital copy of the disc, half of the time in DVD copy is reduced.
We took a DVD of movie Spotlight which is a D9 type DVD. I selected only the main title to be copied along with English subtitles and audio track. My output format was type D5 and as you can see, it took VideoSolo DVD Copy around 11 minutes to read from my DVD disc and create a DVD folder of the same. The time will vary based on the number titles your DVD has, the size of the titles and as I said before, the source and destination type you choose - whether you are reading and writing to a disc/folder or ISO. One thing we wished the tool had was an estimation of the time it would take for the whole process to complete. While I do understand that it is difficult to give an entirely accurate estimate, but a rough time estimate gives you the freedom to plan your other tasks like if the copy is going to take even a little more than half an hour, I would prefer the task to happen at night time.
Additional features
The first UI screen of the software comes with a video player embedded which you can use to play the video to see a preview. You can also take a screenshot from the tool itself of any part of the video.
Wrap up
All in all, VideoSolo DVD Copy is a simplistic yet effective software to create quick copies of your DVD movies in whichever format you want - disc, ISO or folder. It gives you the freedom to play your movie files on whichever medium you want as the while making multiple copies so that your purchase is safe from any damage that might happen on your disc. Its lifetime license for 1 computer is available at just $10 more than the 1-year license which is priced at $29.95 at the time of writing this piece. It is bargain for the satisfaction it gives by making copies of our DVDs.