why can't I make a digital recording of a DVD?

Thanks everyone! I guess I'll try an analog copy first and see how it sounds. Like Rwwear, the purpose of the copy is to listen to it on CD in my car- it's a concert video. What's so frustrating is that the owner's manual of the CDR says that under SCMS copy protection rules, "you can record digital program sources onto a recordable CD disc to create a first generation digital copy. You cannot, however record from this recorded CD disc to another recordable CD disc." If the sound quality is not acceptable, I will look at other options.

"you can record digital program sources onto a recordable CD disc to create a first generation digital copy. You cannot, however record from this recorded CD disc to another recordable CD disc."

Exactly. That language basically goes back to the copyright laws allowing a single archival copy for one's personal use.

It has never been legal to make more than one copy of any copyrighted recorded material, even though people have been doing it for decades. It wasn't until the advent of the CD, and the ensuing recordable CDs that record companies and distributors really started cracking down. In the days of cassette and reel to reel tape, the record companies weren't as concerned because they knew the best quality recording was always going to be an original pressing or tape recording, and any copies...and copies of copies were going to get progressively worse in quality each time a next generation copy was made. Of course, with CDRs, this isn't the case.

Bowbow, the sample rate does matter. Your recorder must have a sample rate converter to go from 44.1 to 48K. And if you use a pro recorder instead of a consumer model, you can make as mant digital copies as you want. There are also computer programs that let you record the soundtrack from DVDs.

There's a DVD copy program that I use all the time on the WWW for free. It's been downloaded over 18 million times.

Tvad,

Fundamentaly I agree - there are lots of "excuses" for illegal copying - archival seems like one (given CD's durability).

Yet there are good practical reasons to want to copy some material. For example, a handful of burned CD's with selected tracks that came from original CD's (most often) or the occasional DVD are not doing harm to the industry, provided the owner keeps all the originals and there is no sharing going on. In this case, the owner might have the original in a CD Mega changer and another copy on a compilation in the car. The car copies don't last as they get scratched very quickly (often stored incorrectly, floating about in the box under the arm rest). It is harder to change CD's in a car and hence the advantage of a compilation geared to tastes.

Should this kind of use be illegal - I think not.