Get the lowdown on the most popular DVD copy software

Despite ever multiplying speed cameras, everyone breaks the speed limit. And much to Holywood's annoyance, the world and his wife uses DVD "backup" software. Sellers of these so-called backup solutions claim to provide a covieniant method of safe-guarding an expensive DVD collection against damage. Whatever your motivation, and whatever you call it, copying DVDs has never been so easy.

Macrovison, the copy protection behind almost all commercial DVDs, was inevitably cracked rapidly after its implentation, so the problem's never been whether you can copy a DVD, it's been making the process easy enough for us computer illetirate folks to follow. But help is now at hand. Where once you'd be faced with numerous DOS based applications, confusing guides and even more confusing error messages, you'll now be making a duplicate with a few mouseclicks. And with DVD burners fitted as standard on almost every new PC, you're just a few steps away from backuping up your collection.

Before we take you through the various applications, it's worth explaining a few bits of technical jargon. Commercial DVDs are normally labelled DVD9 (dual layer), holding 8.54GB of data (about 2 hours of video at the highest DVD quality). In contrast, Standard rewritable DVDs (DVD+R etc) are single layer, DVD5 discs, giving half the storage capacity of a commercial DVD. DVD backup software squeezes the same amount on smaller discs by re-encoding the video and/or removing the "extras", resulting in a reduction in quality that probably won't be noticed by anyone but the experts. This method creates a DVD playable in most standalone DVD players, but there's also the option of creating a more compressed version for PC only playback (using MPEG4). With the Media PC becoming popular, it's a great way of storing your entire movie collection - and avoid fumbling around finding that hidden DVD.

We've taken a look at six of the most popular DVD backup software applications:

• Amigo DVD Ripper 2.8
• CloneDVD 3.0.2.5
• DVD Backup Express 2.6
• DVD Shrink 3.1
• Intervideo DVD Copy 3
• Super DVD Copy 2.2.8