321 Studios has a good reputation among digital video connoisseurs for its practical DVD back-up and archiving tools. Trying DVD X Copy Platinum convinced me that this latest 321 Studios product is actually their very best effort to date. DVD disks may last longer than videotapes, but they are also vulnerable to surface scratches. That’s why it’s important to back up your work or library.
I installed DVD X Copy Platinum on my HP Workstation xw 4100, which has an internal HP DVD recorder. The installation process was very easy, but be sure to restart your computer afterwards so that the program can recognize your drives. You can fit a whole DVD movie with all its features on one single DVD R (or +R or RW) disc. To accomplish this, you open Platinum’s Advanced window and select the title sets you want to copy. Then you can let the program apply an equal compression rate to each one of the title sets, or you can choose different rates for the selected titles. In cases that I picked the advanced features to compress the DVD movie, I didn’t notice any drop in resolution or image quality. One problem that I did encounter occurred during the writing stage of the DVD: I was getting a writing error because the DVD X Copy Platinum requires a large virtual memory size. So I solved the problem by setting the virtual memory to the maximum size allowed.
The Good News: DVD X Copy Platinum also installs a copy of DVD X Rescue for you. DVD X Rescue repairs your harmed DVD and CD discs and lets you copy them to another fresh disc.
The Wish List: The current version of the DVD X Copy Platinum demands a large memory, making it difficult for the user to perform any other tasks during the recording process. It would be great to see a solution to this problem in the future.
The Bottom Line: This digital tool is a must have for studios or independent artists who deal with DVDs.
Web Address: www.321studios.com
Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence
Final Score: *****
Ease of Use: *****
Interface: *****
Power: *****
Quality and Depth: *****
