This is purely hypothetical and I know I have made a copy of a copy but I was wondering if anyone had any idea how long you could keep making a copy of the copy and then make a copy of that copy etc. before you would start getting some kind of digital breakdown.
Theoretically, the first step from your original disc to the first backup is your biggest jump down in quality (if you're putting a DVD-9 onto a DVD-5, like most of us do). After that, copies of copies and so on will degrade slightly the farther you get away from the original. It really depends a fair amount on the quality of your hardware. I've given people a copy of a copy and they've never complained about the quality, nor have I seen that second level of copy differ any major degree from the first.
The only practical answer I can think of is if you are trying to make a copy of a copy and that first copy has alot of scratches on it. A backup DVD usually doesn't handle scratches as well as those high-quality, factory pressed DVDs do, so that could cause problems too.
I was curious because the reproduction is supposed to be pretty close to the original like a DVD5 to DVD5 with good equipment but somewhere along the line you would have to get degradation. So how good is our present day equipment and how long would this go on working. Maybe kinda like evolution it might even get better than the original. LOL
I didn't think the quality would suffer from burn to burn. I mean, if the original burn was a DVD9 to DVD5, yeah, you'll lose quality because of the compression. But once that DVD5 has been made, and all you're doing is making a copy of it, thus no longer compressing, why would the quality continue to suffer?
Latest AnyDVD to rip > VOBB to blank the unwanted on a DVD > Shrink to compress > ImgBurn to burn = Never starting a thread asking how to backup a movie
The way I see it is step 1 the rip: How much quality can you really lose here? It's just like playing it on Standalone DVD Player(quality wise). Then theres the compression that really depends on your software that you use (Shrink, Recode, DVD-Rebuilder). The reall factor comes into play in two ways the quality of your DVD Burner and the media you choose to use. You burner needs to be fairly decent. And then theres the media, you burn a movie to lets say a Memorex disc. The disc (when i tried memorex) skipped right after a burn. And eventually the cheap dye they use will begin to degrade. So for a quality burn you need a couple things 1. Dependable Software 2. A reliable/high-quality burner and 3. GOOD Media (DVD+/-R)(there is a forum somewere on afterdawn with a list of good and bad media).
