Copying a full DVD - any degradation?
 

Here is the story. I made a HD video. I lost all of the footage and projects in a drive crash. Now, I have one solitary copy of the video on DVD. So here is the questions:

1) Since I am using this single copy DVD as a master instead of the original files on my crashed Hard Drive, am I losing any resolution?

2) Is there a better way to copy the DVD rather than Nero Copy Full Disk - should I drag the Video and Audio files to a hard drive and copy them over from there instead? Will there be a difference? The only reason I am thinking this is because of the wear and tear on my original DVD copy will take after all the copying back and forth.

Thanks

I am not familiar with the NERO Copy Full Disk. But if you mean merely copying the Master or backup Disc you have now, that is just ok. You will not lose anything in terms of resolution from that DVD disc. Technically, it should be a faithful copy of the disc. That's going to be 720x480 mpeg2 compression.

Now, I am not sure if you you created a DVD disc there where a DVD player can boot up and play, but that is what I am assuming.

However, if you merely used the DVD disc as a data disc and you copied your HD files there for storage, then merely copying it back to your hard drive is the simplest way. If you see .vob files there, in all likelihood what you are talking there is a DVD mastered disc. Some NLEs can edit VOBs (like Vegas) but others can't read it. In any case, if you are talking vob files, the heavy compression already has already compromised it future. It is still usable and editable, but it's no longer HD.

If you just want to duplicate that DVD then there should be no quality loss... it's a digital copy which just moves data from one place to another. If you want to do more editing then that's another issue because you will need to convert back to DV.

I don't know anything about your software (I'm on a Mac), but there should be an option to create an image of the original DVD on your hard drive. Once you have done this you may then burn as many copies as you like without putting the original through any more wear and tear. And of course you would also have the disk image as a backup for future use.

It is a corp. video I created (self booting, runs on DVD player, not data) - I am only using the last copy of the DVD I have since my hard drive went down. Since I am using only this copy of the DVD and it will be spinning and spinning during the copying from one drive to another, should I worry about the integrity of the DVD after so many spins? Should I rather copy the Video/Audio files to the HArd drive and go from there? I hope that clears up my previous post.

The only thing touching the disk when it spinning is laser light except at the hub (the disk is lifted clear of the tray when you close the drive) so I wouldn't worry too much about wear and tear from continuous running in the drive. The risk of damage handling it, putting it in the drive and taking it out, etc, or it getting dirty might be signifigant however. If it were me I'd definitely want a backup so I'd clone it to the hard drive and put the master away in a safe place not to be touched again unless absolutely necessary, then make the copies from the clone. I'd probably even set the first couple of copies aside and put them in a different location from the original as backups of the backup - blank DVDs are cheap.

The best thing to do is make a copy of your original DVD and use this copy for demos, playing it, or coping it, or whatever.

Stelios