Pinnacle InstantCopy is a point-and-click DVD-copying application that makes
it easy to back up DVDs and CDs without worrying about what's going on under
the hood. Its deceptively simple interface masks a flexible feature set and
a broad range of disc-copying options, from backing up DVDs to duplicating audio
discs or console games. InstantCopy isn't nearly as fast as InterVideo's competing
DVD Copy program; it can't back up copy-protected DVDs (a feature that may not
be legal), and unless you can make an uncompressed 1:1 copy, its output always
loses a little picture quality. But in most other ways, it's a powerful, novice-friendly
tool for backing up your delicate and expensive collection of DVDs and CDs.
InstantCopy's interface is a skillful blend of ease of use and functionality.
Its main screen simply lists your computer's playback and recording devices.
In most cases, making a copy is as simple as choosing source and target drives,
then clicking a Start button.
It doesn't take long to discover the power beneath the hood. InstantCopy lets
you designate up to 16 simultaneous recording devices for each job, and your
copy source and destinations can be almost any combination of CDs, DVDs, and
disc images stored on a hard drive or a removable storage device. In most cases,
InstantCopy will use your choice of source device and recording media to figure
out the type of task you're trying to perform. But you can override its default
selections by clicking a Details button that displays a wealth of additional
options. Pinnacle manages to organize the potentially overwhelming number of
jargon-laden selections into logical, tabbed dialog boxes that let you perform
functions simply by clicking check boxes and choosing items from drop-down lists.
Most users will be content with the basic copying tools found in InstantCopy's
main screen, but the Details section offers plenty of advanced settings for
enthusiasts. You can manage a slew of disc-reading, disc-burning, and error-handling
options; conserve disc space by removing unwanted DVD features such as foreign
languages, commentary tracks, DVD-ROM content, and subtitles; and even restore
deleted navigational functions, such as the ability to fast-forward through
copyright warning screens.
The Details section also provides preset Profiles that let you automatically
set multiple recording parameters with a single click. The several-dozen standard
Profiles configure the program for output formats as diverse as Karaoke-CDs,
PhotoCDs, and mixed-mode CD-Extra discs. You can also create and save your own
profiles.
The biggest hole in InstantCopy's feature set is its inability to duplicate
copy-protected DVDs, which account for the overwhelming majority of discs that
most people want to back up. Pinnacle deliberately omits this function, since
it's not yet clear whether circumventing a DVD-Video disc's copy-protection
scheme is ever legal. (For more information about this issue, check www.protectfairuse.org.)
The company does, however, coyly note that InstantCopy can burn discs from any
unprotected DVD image file, regardless of how that file was created.
We ran into several limitations that were not apparent from the program's product
literature. InstantCopy can perform true, uncompressed (1:1) DVD-Video backups
only if the entire title fits on a single piece of blank media. (The program
always, of course, makes perfect copies of DVD-ROM discs.) In all other cases,
DVD Copy compresses DVD-Video to fit it onto the target DVD or CD, which always
causes some degradation. The video on our test disc was squeezed to about 60
percent of its original size in order to fit on a 4.7GB DVD, and the difference
in picture quality was glaringly obvious on a 57-inch Hitachi SWX20B rear-projection
TV and a Panasonic CP-72 progressive-scan DVD player. The degradation would
be far less noticeable on a more forgiving setup or on most computer monitors.
We also found that InstantCopy can't currently handle DVDs that contain only
PCM audio tracks, which is true of many homemade discs. Pinnacle plans to correct
this bug with an update this fall, but in the meantime, it shouldn't affect
the program's ability to copy commercial DVDs, almost all of which have Dolby
Digital-encoded soundtracks.
InstantCopy's performance is satisfactory, but it's still slow compared to that
of its closest competitor, InterVideo's DVD Copy. Where InstantCopy took slightly
more than two hours to copy an unprotected 8GB dual-layer DVD-Video disc to
a single blank DVD, DVD Copy did the same job in 1 hour, 20 minutes. Our 2.5GHz
P4 testbed was configured with 512MB of PC800 RDRAM and a 7,200rpm Western Digital
Caviar hard drive, and we copied content from a Pioneer DVR-A05 to 4x Verbatim
DVD+R media in a Sony DRX-500UL DVD-rewriter.
In addition to the usual driver downloads and patches, the Pinnacle Web site
contains an adequate, searchable knowledge base of product FAQs. The site also
lets you set up a personalized support area, where you can monitor outstanding
support queries. E-mail support is prompt--a support question sent late on a
Friday evening received a reply early the next morning--but unhelpful. The answer
consisted primarily of links to Pinnacle knowledge base entries, but none were
relevant to our problem.
Pinnacle InstantCopy
Company: Pinnacle Systems
Price: AU$99
Distributor: Pinapplehead Distribution
Phone: 1800 657 601
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