Price:
DVD X Copy Platinum can be found on the Web for under $100 including shipping. BestBuy recently had it for $79.99 after rebates.  

System Requirements:
Minimum

Windows® XP/2000/98/ME,  Pentium® 500 MHz Processor or Higher, 50MB of Free Hard Disk Space for Install, 12GB of Hard Disk Space, DirectX 8, DVD-R(W) or +R(W) Drive

321 Studios, 3 Research Park Dr. , St. Charles , MO 63304
636-720-3600.  http://www.321studios.com

Support:

techsupport@321studios.com or call 1-636-720-3703 (24 hrs a day/7 days a week). I have tried to call their tech support several times, but ended without success after waiting for almost an hour.

Information about the fixes that 321 Studios made in the new release can be found on their website.

DVD X Copy Platinum

DVD X Copy Platinum is an extended version of the 321 Studios’ popular DVD X Copy Xpress software. The Xpress software was designed to make a backup copy of any DVD-Video movie to a blank DVD disc of either DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW format. It is now incorporated as a subprogram-Simple Mode-in the Platinum version. If the video movie is recorded on a dual-layer disc with a file size greater than 4.7 GB, the program automatically adjusts the compression level to fit the entire movie content into one single-layer disc. The Simple subprogram, however, does not allow you to choose which title sets you want to backup and which title sets you want to leave out. 321 Studios created an Advanced subprogram in the Platinum version which provides for this capability.

A growing number of new video movies, nowadays, come with extra scenes in addition to the main movie. Some of them may even be recorded on two or more discs. The extra scenes include commentaries, special features, advertisements, previews of coming attractions, and scenes showing how the movie was made and how special effects and computer-generated enhancements were employed in the movie shots. The Advanced subprogram gives you the option to omit the extra movie contents that you may not be interested in copying.  When you click the Select Titles tab in the Advanced window, a list of title sets and titles with numbers of chapters and camera angles is displayed. The list may show a number of title sets; each title set may contain a number of titles; and each title may contain a number of chapters. However, the list does not show any information or thumbnails about the title sets, titles or chapters, Some of them are even blank and do not contain any video scenes. To determine which title sets you want to backup, you have to preview and scan through each title set, either by clicking the Preview Video tab on the Advanced window or by using your DVD movie player software, and then make the selections accordingly from the list. I prefer to use the latter, because it shows much more information about title sets, titles, and chapters than the Preview Video tab does.

The Advanced subprogram also gives you the option of either compressing a dual-layer disc movie into a single-layer disc or splitting the movie content into two single-layer discs without compression. In general, the quality of the compressed movie disc is slightly degraded when viewed on a computer, but the degradation is hardly noticeable when viewed on TV. There is a TDF Library tab included in the Advanced window. It lists all the title definition formats or exact settings you have used and saved on your PC while backing up the movie using the Advanced mode.

In both subprograms the backup process is carried out in three steps: - (1) Reading the movie content into the hard drive; (2) Burning or writing the content saved on the hard drive (compressed or split) to single-layer DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW disc or discs; and (3) Finalizing the disc.  Reading takes up the major portion of the processing time running at an average data transfer rate of approximately 2X (2 times the DVD playback speed) or 2.7 MB/second. The rate is substantially lower than the designed reading speed of my DVD recorder (3X-8X for dual-layer discs).  The extra time required could be due to the de-encryption procedure employed while reading the DVD-Video disc. A DVD movie with a file size of 7.16 GB takes about 44.2 minutes reading time. The compressed or split disc files are saved in a temp folder of the hard drive with file extension of VOB.  The program requires a storage space of 9.4 GB (a full dual-layer disc size) for the temp folder.  The DVD X Copy program does not work with unencrypted movie discs. But you can use other DVD Copy programs such as Nero or Roxio CD & DVD Creator to make copies of unencrypted movies.

Burning or writing the saved files to DVD media is much faster because of the faster writing speed as well as the reduced file size of the compressed disc. I could write the compressed data of 4.36 GB (7.16 GB original size) to a DVD+RW disc at a speed of 4X (5.4 MB/second) in about 13.5 minutes, or burn to a DVD+R disc at a speed of 8X in about 7.5 minutes. After the disc writing is completed, the last step of Finalizing the disc follows. This usually takes less than a minute.  Finalizing writes the lead-out data to the disc, which enables it to be played on any set top DVD player. After the burning process is finished, the program automatically deletes the files saved on the hard drive. Hence, you cannot use the saved files to make a second copy on the DVD X Copy program. I found that I could make additional copies of the decrypted disc by using the Roxio CD and DVD Creator.

Bundled in the DVD X Copy Platinum package is another program called DVD X Rescue. The program is designed to analyze, retrieve, repair, and copy inaccessible data, images, movies and movie clips, and music from damaged CDs and/or DVDs. It provides two types of rescue procedures; one for recovering movies from damaged encrypted DVDs, and the other for retrieving inaccessible files or data from corrupted CDs and unencrypted DVDs. The procedure in the former case starts with analyzing all the files on the disc and copying the repaired files to the hard disc.  This will usually fix the unreadable data that cause skips and other problems when playing the disc.  The copying is then followed by reading and decryption of the data saved on the hard disc, and writing or burning to a blank DVD as in the Simple procedure used in DVD X Copy. The copying takes up almost as much time as the reading.

The procedure for retrieving data from damaged CDs and unencrypted DVDs is much simpler.  You can copy individual files or all the files that you want to recover to a folder on your hard disc.  During copying the program will advise you for each file whether it can be completely or partially recovered.

DVD XCopy is designed to make a backup copy of any encrypted DVD-Video movie. It will not copy decrypted movies. The program is easy to install and easy to use. The program CD did not come with any Users’ Guide which made it rather difficult to learn about the program contents, especially with the DVD Rescue program. The program started up very slowly with the original version 3.2.1. However, after I downloaded and installed the newly released version 4.0.3.8., the program started up much more quickly. The new version also included a Users’ Guide.