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The words DVD and copy together can stir up a little ire among certain parties who scorn DVD piracy. However, the fact is that creating backup copies of media you purchase for personal use is perfectly legal, and we all know how vulnerable to damage loose DVDs, CDs and other discs are, especially around pets or kids.
Fast DVD Copy 3.6 is an excellent answer to your disc backup needs. It copies CDs, DVDs and Sony PlayStation 2 games (although the game console needs a special mod chip to play them) by extracting them and then writing them in conjuction with any OS X-compatible disc burner (we successfully used it with a builtin SuperDrive and external DVD burners). The software is limited to copies only; you can't create a CD from a playlist or create a DVD from a Video_TS folder.
After inserting a DVD, you get wonderful options for creating a copy. Fast DVD Copy can duplicate encrypted, commercial DVDs, and it can compress video to fit an entire dual-layer (DL) DVD onto a single-layer blank disc. In this case, you have the choice of copying every audio and video element of the DVD, or selecting only the ones you want from a comprehensive list. You can turn off all the bonus features or select the individual bonus features and audio tracks you want. Fast DVD Copy gives you much more flexibility in this area than other apps, such as Roxio Popcorn ($50; www.roxio. com), which makes you choose between all or no bonus features.
All of our discs played back perfectly, and Fast DVD Copy read, compressed and wrote discs in equal or lesser time than similar software. However, while the program offers an option to burn DL discs, it never worked for us. Instead, we received an error message early in the attempt and a DL disc that was burned just enough to ruin it for future use. Popcorn, however, burned the same material just fine. Still, for those without a DL DVD burner, Fast DVD Copy 3.6 could be perfect.
-MARKKUS ROVITO
Fast DVD Copy 3.6: 
Velan Software | www.fastdvdcopy.com | $100
Pros: Copies encrypted, commercial DVDs, compresses DL DVDs to fit on a single-layer disc, excellent options for copying DVD extras.
Cons: Did not burn dual-layer DVDs successfully, copy functions only.
Requires: OS 10.2 or higher, up to 17GB free disc space, SuperDrive or external DVD drive, Internet connection
macHOME recommends: A 16x DVD burner
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