Hi, I just have a quick question. I am considering buying a DVD-RW drive and I was wondering if I will be able to copy store bought DVDs that I have in my collection. (The dvds I purchased legally from the store) and if so, should i copy them to DVD-R or DVD-RW? I have cloneCD and Nero. Thanks for the help, DM

DVD-RAM is the original standard and the most affordable. DVD-RAM drives cost about $500 and uses special discs that won't work in a standard DVD player. DVD-RAM is designed to store large amounts of data — up to 4.7 gigabytes per disc. DVD+RW is the second DVD-recording flavor, the DVD+RW Alliance, which is made of companies such as Philips and Hewlett-Packard adopted the final flavor, DVD-R. DVD-R lets users record discs once, as well as rewrite compact discs (CDs) several times. Its discs are compatible with almost all home DVD players. The Pioneer DVR-A03 is a DVD-R drive. Recording movies or TV shows onto DVDs offers some advantages over videocassettes. DVD images do not degrade over time and the discs are compact and easier to store than bulky VHS tapes. Plus, because information is encoded on to DVD digitally, it's easy to edit using a PC. Still, the process of transferring home video movies to DVD is more complicated than merely popping a videocassette into the camcorder and pushing the record button. Blank DVD-R disks also cost considerably more than blank videocassettes. DVD-R discs run $20 to $30 dollars compared to about $2 for a videocassette. Recording on to DVD has some additional limitations too. The software used to record a DVD, such as Apple's iDVD, limits recordings to just one hour because of concerns about savvy consumers duplicating copyrighted television programs and premium movies. Movies sold at retail or rented through a video store can't be copied because their data is scrambled by a copyright protection scheme. As for duplicating distribution DVD Movies, the only method of which I know is to RIP the DVD files and write to VCD format. try: http://clonead.cjb.net/

A DVD R disk is only about $5.00. I have ordered a 5 pack of verbatim discs through pricewatch for $16.00 (shipping included). There are many software programs that say they copy a dvd movie. Most have mixed reviews about how well they work. Google search "dvd copy."

I recently purchased a Sony DVD+R +RW -R -RW CD-RW CD-R drive. I haven't tried copying a dvd to dvd-r yet. I have read that you should not use DVD+RW and DVD-RW for copying DVD movies as the resulting DVD would be unreadable by most DVD players.