14 DAY TRIAL // DVD copying software is of great value nowadays. Developers realized that a DVD disc will not preserve intact the stored data forever and proceeded to releasing all sorts of applications specially designed for the purpose of backing up DVDs.
This kind of application is so popular that the only concern of the user is choosing the right one for the task at hand. Features, options and price are the main criteria for making the right choice. The range of products being very broad you can make your pick with no problems. In this case, as in many others, the higher the price does not necessarily mean that the quality will also rise to the standards.
I have seen softwares that did absolutely nothing out of the ordinary and yet their price was intriguingly high. Anyway, I think you all have the leaders on the market in the case of DVD copying. For me DVD Cloner III (from DVDCloner), and Elaborate Bytes' Clone DVD or 1st DVD Cloner are among the best on the market.
WinX DVD Copy from Freetime MediaSoft Inc is also playing in the league and is designed to give you the best results when backing up a DVD. The price is $35.90 and the trial is extremely limited as the users can test the software only four times.
The interface is as simple as can be so that every user can find his/her way around. In fact, besides the settings in the main application window you only get to choose the files you want to backup from the DVD video.
There is nothing outstanding about the software and if you consider the repetitive spelling mistakes dropped in the main window you cannot think of anything else than that the program was released hastily without a proper verification. I am talking about the three "Brows" buttons in selecting the Source and Target Video-DVD Folder and for defining the temporary folder path.
As soon as you select the Source for the DVD, the main window will display the info about it: aspect ratio, number of audio channels, video type etc. Unless you make any change in the Settings menu of the program, the Target section of the main window will display the same information at the bottom.
The Copy Mode option of WinX DVD Copy allows the user to choose what should be backed up from the DVD video inserted in the DVD drive of the computer. Thus, you can choose to make a full disc clone ("clone" is a bit improper said as if you insert a DVD9 disc it'll be shrunk to a DVD5 one), clone the main movie content (same story here) or split the DVD9 into two DVD5 discs. Selecting the last of the options will result in creating two folders ("Disc 1" and "Disc 2") for the two splits.
Burning the DVD video is supported by the application and - to be frank - the operation went OK. The duration of burning a DVD5 was 14'28'', which is pretty good and normal. Of course, I would have liked to set the writing speed myself, but many other similar softwares lack this option as well.
The Settings menu is simple and clear. After selecting the source of the DVD, you can get in here and customize the resulting copy. Thus you can select the target DVD size (4.7 is the largest), the video, the audio channels and the subtitles you want to save. As you well know, every such software works with a temporary folder. You can set the program to delete the temporary files as soon as the given task is finished.
A DVD9 to DVD5 "cloning" was executed in 29'06'' according to my timer which would be a pretty good time if the result was also a DVD9. The resulting copy of the DVD was of course not too good in what concerns the image quality. But when I tested the "Split into two D5 disc" option the result was impressing enough as the quality of the original disc was preserved.
The Good
The ease of use recommends it for all users. Its flexibility allows the users to choose what audio and subtitle files to save from the original DVD.
The Bad
Apart from the fact that it is not capable of copying a DVD9 into one single folder, the software also lacks in the ability to display the chapters and titles of the video. This way, the user cannot get rid of the unnecessary "extra-luggage" of the DVD.
67MB of RAM during the copying process and almost 110MB used during burning. That is a little too much for me, despite the fact that my machine is strapped with 1GB of RAM.
The Truth
The application works fine and is stable enough so it won't nag you with crashes and writing on DVD-RW worked fine.
Speed and the fact that it cannot copy a DVD9 into a single folder are the only problems from my point of view.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
