Roxio Popcorn 4 is another great DVD copy and Video converter software application. You get two apps in one. It can copy DVDs to blank DVD media (there is a catch); it can convert DVDs to one of the many popular video formats; and it can cross-convert between the many popular video formats.
The DVD to DVD Copy Function
Roxio cannot copy encrypted DVD movie discs to blank DVDs. (That is the catch) It can copy and burn ripped DVD movies residing on your computer (VIDEO_TS Folders) to blank DVD discs.
Many would ask that since almost all DVD movies manufactured today are encrypted, what is the use of the DVD to DVD copy function of Roxio Popcorn 4? To protect itself legally, Roxio has to say that it's software cannot encrypted DVD movies, that does not mean that other free software cannot rip the encrypted DVD movie to your hard drive and you use Roxio Popcorn 4 to burn it to blank DVD, thus DVD to DVD copy.
I have a blog post here, on how to use free DVD ripping software to rip encrypted DVD movies to your hard drive and then you can use Roxio Popcorn to burn it to DVD. I see a lot of people reviewing this software and they leave this very important tidbit of information out. I wonder why? I wonder if they actually purchased the software and used it themselves. Persons reading the reviews of so many are left with the impression that Roxio Popcorn 4 copies encrypted DVD movies. It does not. But as I stated earlier, there is a work-around.
When a DVD movie is ripped to your computer hard drive, the DVD movie data is placed inside a folder with the name VIDEO_TS. Roxio Popcorn can take the contents of this folder (which is your DVD movie), and burn it to blank DVD. Ripping the DVD movie to your hard drive using the free third-party software in my blog post automatically removes the copy-protection (encryption) on the DVD.
Roxio can also take AVCHD, AVCHD Lite, DV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, AVI, MKV, VOB, EyeTV recordings, and TiVoToGo video files and either burn them to blank DVD or convert them to formats to playback on iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox 360™, PlayStation® 3, Wii, PSP Go, Palm Pre, Blackberry and more.
The screenshot below shows how Roxio Popcorn 4 takes an already ripped DVD movie and burns it to blank DVD.
DVD Copy Function
The DVD To Video File and Video File To Video File Converter Functions
Roxio Popcorn 4 can convert DVD movies to the following device format to playback on: iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox 360™, PlayStation® 3, Wii, PSP Go, Palm Pre, Blackberry and more. It can also cross-convert between the many video file formats.
The following screenshot gives you an idea of the types of devices (and video files) you can convert DVD and other video files to playback on.
Video File Converter Function
Some additional functionality is that Roxio Popcorn can extract audio from DVDs and video files and save them to any of the popular audio file formats such as MP3 and it can automatically upload converted video to YouTube.
Upload To YouTube
Overall, a very nice program. Just be pre-cautioned that it does not copy "protected" or "encrypted DVD movies. See my work-around post on by blog for this.