Copying DVDs?

Swampwalker - Your fine tuning of the fair use rule is correct as I understand it!

What we have here is DivX or MP 4 technology. It works well but be forwarned....you need to be quite good with computers to use it. DivX is free by the way and can be seen at divx.com. Also, if your home dvd player playes cdv it works.

This has been stated already but needs to be repeated. It is obvious that people do not understand their rights. You can copy anything for personal use. You can not copy anything for profit!

So photocopy, lp copy, cd copy or dvd copy. Just don't rip others off.

Also, in case you are unaware it is also legal to tape concerts as long as the venue or artist has not disclaimed it in advance.

Don't take away more of our rights before big brother or the corporation do!

I saw a small report on the news a few months back about copying movies that are in the theater now to a dvd. It was mostly kids using college computers. I dont know what kind of equipment you need but I understand it is very expensive.

They just downloaded movies off the internet. I dont know where to get the info but they were showing them doing it with current in the theater movies.

As far as legal rights I always thought that if it was for your own use it was legal but a judge didnt feel that way when it came to napster.

Not sure what those spammers have in mind, since I try my hardest to ignore them. There are two formats I know of, VCD and SVCD, which will store video on a CD which can be played back on certain DVD players. VCD format can store 74 minutes or so and SVCD about a half hour. VCD is mpeg1 (lower quality) and SVCD is mpeg2 (higher quality), comparable to about VHS and SVHS quality. I've used both formats, and they are very good options for putting video to CD. But you do have to know what you're doing, as it requires several pieces of software to generate the video, convert it to the proper mpeg with the proper specs, then press it to a CD. If you search google for VCD or SVCD there are lots of good forums and faqs at there to help you do it.

I'm speaking here of playback on a TV. I think there is a way (mentioned above) to store an entire movie on a CD for playback on a computer (probably using the DIVX codec).