The wife wanted to send her aunt a couple DVDs we made of the kids when younger.
W10 seems to make this a real PITA
Looking for suggestions on how others do it.

It used to be so simple

Clone DVD is what I used to use but it may not even be around anymore. Easy drive to drive copying.

Yeah that one looks a little risky (to me) now.
I was hoping I missed something obvious in windows .. the disk is not protected so I should be able to just copy it, but that seems elusive in W10. I mean, I created it to begin with!

When I copied the Video_TS folder it won't play in the DVD player, though it will on computer, so it needs something I am missing (obviously)

I've been using Nero Burning ROM for years, but I don't think it's free. There may be a trial version.

Microsoft seem to promote this product.
It states that it runs with Windows 10 version 15063.0 or higher

Hi Bob,

I've used "Nero" for years, though not so often these days.
I believe there is a free version which might suit.

Trevor - We posted at the same time with the same advice!
I think there is a free version still, but with a limited feature set.

ROG, Yes. Great minds...

Looking further at the Microsoft product, I don't think it will 'clone' DVD's, so it may require the original video format (AVI, MP4 etc). Not sure.

It might actually be easier to send the kids over and tell them to do the same things they did on the DVDs.

rharv:

I found myself doing the same search about 10 years ago when my favorite CD burning software disappeared.

After some Googling, I discovered a PC magazine article that mentioned Ashampoo Burning Studio as one of their recommended programs for CD/DVD burning and copying.

I had never heard of Ashampoo (it's a German Windows software company)

I've been using it for the past ten years and it works very well for burning and CD/DVD copying.

It's $29 and you can find it here:
https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/5810/burning-software/burning-studio-22

They also have a free version, but I have never used it so I can't say how well it would work for copying a DVD.
https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/7110/burning-software/burning-studio-free

The software works well, but I'll warn you that Ashmapoo does tend to send more than the average amount of promotional emails.

Good luck
John

Just curious, is Nero Burning ROM a play on words? Rome? Did they think that through?

I'm very sure that it's a pun of some sorts. I think the founder might have been musical. A fiddle, perhaps?

It was intended to be a pun by the developer. Nero Burning ROM has been around forever.

From Wikipedia:

Nero Burning ROM is a pun in reference to Roman Emperor Nero, who was best known for his association in the Great Fire of Rome. The emperor allegedly fiddled while the city of Rome burned. Also, Rome in German is spelled Rom. The software's logo features a burning Colosseum, although this is an anachronism as it was not built until after Nero's death.

Yep, that'll be the same Colosseum:

I can relate. I am an Akronistic too! (Let's see who gets it...)

Akron .. not even a challenge ..

For reasons I won't go into, I actually still use an almost 15 year old version on Nero Burning ROM (v8) and it works just fine on the latest Windows 10. Handles CDs and DVDs, but not Blu-ray. Nero also let's you create virtual audio CD images (.nrg files) that can be mounted virtually and played like s regular CD. ISO files work for data CDs, but not audio CDs, so Nero folks that gap.

I'm not sure, but VLC Media Player might. It's open source and free.

It's open source and I use it to play DVDs that Windows Media Player no longer supports. There are a lot of other features I haven't yet explored.

It might be worth investigating.

Insights and incites by Notes

VLC will "pseudo" copy DVDs, but you have to rip then and then write them. Clone DVD does bit copy drive to drive. IF I still had it I'd send it to you via Google Drive. Let me look at more computers and see if I still have it.

Even ripping/writing would suffice. I do that with audio CD's all the time.
I have VLC and do not see this option for DVD (haven't checked for Audio CD)

Anyway at this point I'll just ask the guys at work .. we have people that work in video & IT that will likely show me something simple I missed.
I was hoping I just missed something stupid .. copying an unprotected DVD shouldn't be this hard.
If I do a generic 'copy' of the disk, it plays on other computers, but not on the DVD player I am testing with, though the original does.
At least I have it copied in one form.

Thanks for the help everyone.
If I find a simpler solution (or find out it's my fault) I will post back.

John
I have a Nero License around here somewhere, but it's from back in the XP days.
I guess that's an option, though finding it would not be fun.
Also have a DVDFab Platinum license somewhere .. but again I thought I just missed some stupid-simple setting
This should not be this complicated

I have that option on version 3.0.14 of VLC.