I don't know if there are other users of the 321 Studios DVDXCopy product out there, but I thought I'd post a note about it in case there are.

For those who are already owners, and who have followed recent events, you know that due to court rulings the company can't offer that, or similar, products any more.

The ruling did not bother me much because, quite frankly, I found it to be an absolutely lousy bug-laden product that was so finicky about the other software that it shared the hard drive with that it never worked. At least not for me.

I tried it on at least a half dozen different computers than I own - with all sorts of combinations of operating systems and hardware / software - as well as blank DVDs. All to no avail. I burned over a hundred coasters tring to get it to work. (Persistent devil that I am.)

Well about a month ago the hard drive in my Sony Vaio portable went to the great platter grave in the sky and I had to re-install everything from scratch. On a whim I re-installed XCopy and IT WORKED! Well not the first time - and not without having to do a handful of minor tweaks. But I've now got it configured so that within a couple of minutes (after disabling a few other programs and changing a few other settings) I can be burning a disc.

I'm on the road right now and instead of having to take valuable original copies of DVDs that I own with me on the road, I simply burned a few of them onto re-usable blank DVD-RW's before I left, and enjoyed one on the flight, and one in the airport while waiting for a connecting flight, using my portable.

This is what the "Fair Use" copyright provisions are all about.

After having cursed their product when they were allowed to sell it, I now feel somewhat sorry that 321 lost out to Hollywood.

I'd be interested in hearing if any other Outlaws out there ever got their copy to work.

(For what it's worth I'm using a Sony Vaio PCG F580 portable running Windows 98SE, with a Sony DRX500ULX burner - connected via Firewire. XCopy would not work with any USB device - and only the upgraded replacement hard drive gave me enough space for it to do its job. Given my experience, I can't honestly say that it will work for anyone else.)

Jeff Mackwood

I haven't used DVDX but I use DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink almost daily. The former to rip and remove Copy Protection, then DVDShrink to do what ever compression thats needed and then burn using Nero. I have probably duped over 150 DVD's and never made a coaster. I could not say that for my early CD burning in the late 90's.
Both DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter are small programs readily available for download on the internet.
Richard

[This message has been edited by gwhunran (edited April 20, 2004).]