I had a dilemma not a long while ago. I had to edit 2 +hours of video and distribute about 100 DVD's. Now Im a student that is learning how to use all of this DVD business..So Ill just write how I did it and maybe it will help someone.

I edited my project in Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0 (its not called Vegas Movie Studio + DVD and its one of the best programs for the money) now 3.0 doesn't have a built in DVD authoring soft , it instead comes with Sonic MyDVD 4.0

Anyways I split my movies into 2 with about 1 hour and 15 min on each DVD. By splitting my project into 2 my computer was much more able to handle such a large project. Each movie was outputted to an MPEG2 file.

Then I took that MPEG2 file and put it into my DVD authoring software. After both master dvd's we done I still had to make a bunch of copies.

After downloading about 10 programs including Nero, which didn't work for me,I eventually found one. I would have to say Pinnacle Instant Copy is a great program. After a 10 Min setup I can burn a DVD every 30 minutes with my 4x Burner. I liked the simplicity of the program and the fact that the TRIAL gives you 14 days of UNLIMITED copying. Now of course I could have saved a bunch of money and bought a
dual layer DVD burner, but nah I keep my spending down.

Anyways now I already made about 50 Disks and have another 50 to go. I hope this helped someone. If not , o well...

ps. im pretty sure i could have just made an image of my DVD and burned it from there but alas I did it my way.

Good post but few things I notice might be of use mentioning.

1. You actually saved not only money but also time by NOT going the Dual Layer root. The media is more than 2-3 times expencive so 2 normal medias are cheaper than 1 DL. Writing is also troublesome in some cases as well as the compatibility is lower - you might have problems with clients later.

2. If you made the DVDs - just copy the files in a VIDEO_TS folder and use your DVD recording software - no need for extra cash for DVD coping software! I use BS Gold that came with my drive without any problem.
If the DVDs are copy protected this is not the place to discuss it I guess.

no no they arent write protected, they have footage that i filmed myself with my camera

yeah the DVD sofware i had was very very slow and InstantCopy is great. Others that i tried sometimes started to reencode the DVD which was stupid and unneeded

What you mean slow?
Once you've got the files on your hard drive you can't burn them with unsupported speed of your DVD burner! This depend also on the brand of the media you use.
Just make Disc1 and 2 with empty VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders in them. Then copy all the files from the DVD you have into the VIDEO_TS folder. Open the burning software for your drive, drop the 2 mentioned folders in the appropriate window. Check if settings for DVD video are correct. Burn and verify with Nero Speed ->Scan Disc if it was successful!

Next time just burn, burn, burn - no need to copy anymore...

will do