Project Goal

The goal of DVD Copy is to make it possible for a normal user to make a backup copy of a dvd they legally own without needing any special knowledge about the process involved.

Software Requirements

You should try to have the latest version of the software required. Especially Transcode, Mplayer, DVD Author, Vob Copy, Mplex and Libdvdread.

• Python
• Transcode
• MPlayer
• DVD Author
• Growisofs
• Vob Copy
• Sudo
• Libdvdread
• Mplex (mjpeg-tools)

Users of Debian based systems can add the following line to their apt sources to easily download and install the required software.

ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-morillat/testing main

Installation Instructions

1. Download DVD Copy to your computer.
2. Go to the downloaded file in a terminal window (xterm, shell, console, etc).
3. type: tar -zxvf dvdcopy-[version].tar.gz
4. type: cd dvdcopy-[version]
5. type: ./install.bin
6. Follow the prompts from the install wizard and you will be ready to go.

Known Issues

• If the dvd movie feature is not the first feature on the dvd then the dvdcopy wizard does not handle it. This will be fixed when I get time.
• If you make a mistake with a menu option there is no easy way to redo the option you made a mistake with. This will be fixed when I get time.
• The program forces you to use /tmp as the temporary directory, future versions will allow more flexability.
• The subtitles don't get added into the dvd created. I don't know anyone that watches dvd's with subtitles, so this feature will more then likely never be added unless I get a few people requesting it. (There as been a feature request for this feature if you would also like it please comment on the feature so I know how many people are wanting it Click Here).
• On some dvd's mplex will not multiplex the ac3 audio and m2v video together into an mpeg file. This is being looked into and is one of my higher priorities.
• If the users dvd drive is not /dev/dvd then they need to manually change the setting in the dvdcopylib.py file. This will be changed to use a configuration file generated on installation in a future release.

Future Plans

• A Graphical User Interface (Probably in pygtk).
• An installation script that will download and install the encoding and decoding software that most GNU/Linux distro's don't install by default because of patent issues.
• Instead of burning automatically to a dvd make it possible to backup to other formats like divx, mpeg and avi.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank Ben Poole who helped me with the factoring formula and my alpha testers who I haven't asked if I can list on the site yet.

I would also like to thank SourceForge for hosting my project and anyone who has ever contributed to the Free Software and Open Source Community as I get a lot from the software I use.

I Encourage Your Input

This project is still very much in it's early stages so I would like to invite all users for their input on how to make things better. You can do this through the Forums, Feature Request and Bug Tracker.

Looking For

I am looking for someone to create deb and rpm packages, I have never done this before and don't have time to look in to it at the moment. Any Volunteers would be greatly appreciated and welcomed.

If when you use the software you find it works well then I encourage you to spread the word about DVD Copy so we can make it easy for people to backup their dvd's in GNU/Linux.