is it true that a bunch of university kids made ratDVD to experiment with
if so can we rely on it i mean they are not pros yet

I don't think it is the end-all solution, but it is a new toy we can play with, and for some people it fills a void. It is likely they will improve the product over time and with input from the users. Cheers to them for providing it to us for free!

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honestly guys !is copy todvd still free ?

CopyToDVD costs 39.99(USD) for the basic program(with 1 yr of software updates free) or 128.77(USD)for free lifetime updates.

I converted the first DVD of the Trigun series to see what the quality was like with animation. Using DVD Decrypter followed by MenuShrink and then encoding using RatDVD on 95 quality, I got a 1.2Gb file with 4 episodes in it.

The quality is pretty good, maybe not as good as XviD, but I am impressed that I can switch audio streams and have subtitles on and off!!

This has the potential to be excellent... Only criticism - I HATE WMP10!! I'd make the software work with Media Player Classic as soon as possible and then the take up might be even better!

The best thing tamhunter to do is download the share ware of something or trial version and then go http://crackspider.net/ to get a license code to register it and thus get it for free. There are so many pieces of software that we need we can't expect to pay for all of them. I bought NTI and Nero but others such as rippers and PAL to NTSC converters I succesfully hacked from using cracks and serials from there. Make sure your adware and virus stuff is on and uptodate as there are some pretty nasty lurking attachments you pick up along the way but it is worth it in the long run.

My route for RatDVD conversion to DVD_R

Decrypt using DVDDECRYPTER (R.I.P)
Then Shrink using Rat DVD at 95 (I recc. that setting)
Save it to a file.
Then once compressed by Rat I open Rat again and fing my converted file.
Rat then changes its sign to RATDVD to DVD and press convert.
When convert is complter and the file side has beedn converted back into VOB files to roughly 4 gig I burn it on Nero.

As I have said all along this is the only peice of software which allows full interaction with the menu and episode jump selection. It's slow but good well done to them!!!!

once again cheers SIMON ok !

SIMON tried the spider thing , cant fathom it out ok. will try it out again, any tips ?

Tam hunter
What you need to do is get the trial version software make a note of the version numbers e.g Windvd 1.05.09 platinum etc then enter in the search box to see if it brings up any matches. It then gives you a list which takes you to a page you then have to find your exact version click on it and it will try to throw you out three for four times perservere and you will get something.
Caution go only for serials not cracks as they have to be downloaded and that kept my AVG pro busy for an afternoon.
p.s Blue ray dvd is the new format for DVD that might be adopted it can store 3/4 times more data than standard DVD.

Cheers

YET again thanks SIMON, will persevere this tme ok.

Look simon, sorry for all the bother ok.problem is that i have already downloaded copytodvd (dont know what version it is !)
feel like a bit of a twat ! but hey we've all got to learn ok.

you guys out there probably think that i am a right dick !but hey you have got to learn from somewhere ,anything i learn i will pass on,and vise versa ok.
i'm not a bad guy ,just yearning to learn ok.

Hi
Go to help and then about that will give you the version number and no you are not we all have to start somewhere

Si

SIMON tried again with no success(COPYTODVD).
I THINK IWILL HAVE TO LET THE TRIAL VERSION EXPIRE AND TRY AGAIN, it will not give me version number ok.
Thanks ok.
p.s any info on Daemon Tools. i have downloaded it but pretty vague about mounting an image and running it ?

any help ? my mate loaned me a karaoke disc,but when i put it into my dvd player,it comes up as a CD-G.how do i convert this onto disc ? as i would like to copy it for myself.

Tried ratDVD

Very disappointed. Yeah it shrunk Matrix 3 from 7 gig to 1.7 gig (slider at 100)

I consider myself a quality buff, and the resulting quality was pretty grim.

Lots of pixellation, and the picture was a lot darker than the original. So dark in fact that some backgrounds were invisible.

playback was very jerky too - which really ruined the viewing pleasure.

I won't be changing from Xvid. Or at 20p (in UK) per blank DVD-R, I think I can afford one disc per film.

Hopefully when new versions of ratDVD come out, I'll happily stand corrected.


Ptwenty

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I think it's becoming clear that they have a way to go before ratDVD produces acceptable quality. I hope they do!

It is forums like this that provide them with the feedback they need to improve their product. Hopefully they welcome our comments. I know we certainly appreciate FREE software!!!

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It takes *ages* to uncompress a DVD. I'm still waiting to see what the quality is like (OK so I got a cr@ppy Athlon 2100XP)

You people who post to usenet...
Stop flooding alt.binaries groups with your rat's. Get your own group!!!!!!!

Ages? What do you compare it to? It is faster than any MPEG-2 encoder I have seen. To convert an Xvid with TmgEnc (high qiality settings), etc. takes a lot longer...

My question is, when you convert it back to dvd5/9 is it identical to the original?

If it was this would be similar to zipping or rarring a file, but with a greater amount of compression

The reason I need this answered is because my goal to use ratDVD would be to compress DVD9 images and store them on cheap media, then when dual layer discs are affordable and reliable to uncompress and burn.

The concept of watching the ratDVD seams to be the main goal with this project, but over here I watch my movies 99% of the time on a standalone. If my question is to be answered with a yes, then this is a miraculous product worthy of a donation/registration (yea I've been doing that with freeware recently :) )

so if anyone can ansewer my question, you are an angel.
the question again is: When you convert a ratDVD back to original DVD5/9 is it the same as the original?

Korina922

I'm afraid the answer is no.

When you convert a film from one format to another - some quality is lost.

To quote an example I heard from someone else : Imagine the book Lord of the Rings (1000 or so pages)

Someone could write a 100 page summary of it and cover the main story and make it readable. While the 100 page version will tell the main story, there's nothing you can do to the 100 page shortened version to convert it to the original book.

What you will get when you do ratDVD to DVD-R is an expanded (padded out for mpeg2) version that is slightly less quality than the backup you made. Because everytime you convert it, you lose tiny amounts of quality like I said.

So you lose quality when you make a ratDVD file, and then you lose a tiny bit more when you make that into a DVD.

It depends on how fussy you are with your video quality.


Ptwenty

so......how would i convert ratDVD to DVD so i can watch it on my home stereo system? Anyone help with this?

@loopymofo

I have not followed this thread in a long time, but I believe your question is spelled out on the ratDVD website. There is a complete guide here on afterdawn as well I believe.

I would normally try to add the link for you, but I'm short on time today. Maybe this will work:

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_tools/ratdvd.cfm

Although this software is a bit slow it beats DivX out in feature very easy. Plus all you need it one click and it does it all. Check it out at http://ratdvd.ca

It doesn't take as long to film the live content as ratDVD does to process the resulting video into a .ratDVD archive. I gave it a third chance earlier today (others during past 6 months) and after 4 minutes it was still in the opening credits at 1% (3.0 Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM, 800 Ghz FSB HT). Since I saw this program championed here, I have to speak out. If there's a punchline, I didn't pick up on it.

There are other stellar options out there (Divx Creator, Dr DivX, DVDShrink), programs like this one only serves to better each of the value of those freebies to the collectors who use them.

My question is do we really need this??? All this is gonna do is confuse tech noobs. And also how many of you actually have a DivX dvd player? I do and its great to just burn a disc of DivX episodes of a tv series to a single disc .insert and watch. I personally like that alot better than 7 or 8 dvds for a tv season quality looks fine to me..heck with menus and bells and whistles.....DivX IS the mp3 for video. And hey their is alot better audio codecs then mp3 out their. Are they used??? nope.. aint the "popular" choice. Hey laserdisc was a good thing and besides disc flipping was actually a great thing..I was watching star wars on it years ago...Why didn't it takeoff??? what really gets me is why mini-discs didn't take off. I mean here you have a disc that is rerecordable like a cassette and digital like a cd...and the most important thing was the disc was inside a square plastic case thus protecting it from scratches....I will always believe it was money involved why that wasn't big(also lookup GM and the electric car.......but in the end the RIAA got their's and have absolutely no control of the mp3 revolution.... As a fellow artist I have been both blessed and burn by digital technology on the internet