I see these ads that claim to be able to copy DVDs to
CDRs? What do these utilities really do?

They are simply making what is called a VCD. It is a format of the movie that is of lower quality than a DVD, but if made right, will be better than a VHS tape. There are many freeware titles out there that will do it for you and many tutorials to help you do it too. No reason to spend money to fo it.

Visit www.cdrtimes.net too. Another great place....

(in reply to Peter Lu)

G'Day Peter,

One of the easiest pieces of software around today to copy DVD to CDR is Doom9's DVD2SVCD Bundled software from: http://212.88.77.140/. This software is many of the 'Freeware Titles' that Tron refers to. When using DVD2SVCD there are minimum PC requirements, such as a PIII 600+ computer, especially when using the Cinemacraft 2.50SP encoder. A high quality rip as good as an original DVD including subtitles can take over 15Hrs, when using variable bit rate/three pass+ encoding. Whereas a low quality rip with constant bit rate/single pass can be done in under 6HRS. In either case, depending on the length of movie you could be looking at two or three CDR's. Doom9 have an excellent Forum here: http://rilanparty.com/vbb/index.php?s= Just be sure to read the FAQ's and 'Lurk' before you post for any help!

One other item worthy to mention. If you intend to free up your PC's DVD player and go for a standalone DVD player, remember to take both an MP3 CD and an SVCD along with you to tryout, otherwise you may well end up being one very disappointed customer. Trust me, in the meantime...

Keep smiling!

SiD

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(in reply to Peter Lu)