why can't I make a digital recording of a DVD?

Thanks everyone! I guess I'll try an analog copy first and see how it sounds. Like Rwwear, the purpose of the copy is to listen to it on CD in my car- it's a concert video. What's so frustrating is that the owner's manual of the CDR says that under SCMS copy protection rules, "you can record digital program sources onto a recordable CD disc to create a first generation digital copy. You cannot, however record from this recorded CD disc to another recordable CD disc." If the sound quality is not acceptable, I will look at other options.

Bowbow, the sample rate does matter. Your recorder must have a sample rate converter to go from 44.1 to 48K. And if you use a pro recorder instead of a consumer model, you can make as mant digital copies as you want. There are also computer programs that let you record the soundtrack from DVDs.

There's a DVD copy program that I use all the time on the WWW for free. It's been downloaded over 18 million times.

Tvad,

Fundamentaly I agree - there are lots of "excuses" for illegal copying - archival seems like one (given CD's durability).

Yet there are good practical reasons to want to copy some material. For example, a handful of burned CD's with selected tracks that came from original CD's (most often) or the occasional DVD are not doing harm to the industry, provided the owner keeps all the originals and there is no sharing going on. In this case, the owner might have the original in a CD Mega changer and another copy on a compilation in the car. The car copies don't last as they get scratched very quickly (often stored incorrectly, floating about in the box under the arm rest). It is harder to change CD's in a car and hence the advantage of a compilation geared to tastes.

Should this kind of use be illegal - I think not.