OK, with days to download these WinX apps rather than 24 hours as std on GOTD, took a look at & tested the DVD Ripper, DVD Copier, & Blu-Ray Decrypter. [I'm Tired...]
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The kind folks at Digiarty have been offering 4 free apps packaged as 3 downloads for a limited time, & today, 9/03, the DVD Ripper package is also featured on GOTD. Taking a look at all 4 then...
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is an update [v. 6.3.5] to their regular DVD Ripping app, packaged together with an optional install of Digiarty's Air Playit [airplayit.com], which offers media serving based on Bonjour [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_%28software%29 ]. [Over?] Simplified what you do is set up your own version of the media servers on-line, a very basic YouTube if you will, that other devices can connect to & get whatever media files or streams served to them. The idea itself is not new, & there are many alternatives, some specializing in serving PSPs [Play Stations], some as part of media center packages, some like TVersity boasting fast, on-the-fly transcoding, some players offer it as an out-growth more-or-less of existing playback features, & so on. Quite possibly the easiest to use, another way to do it is by using Orb.com, where your PC uploads content that's accessible on their servers with whatever other devices you use [Orb Casting].
The DVD Ripper Platinum in a nutshell is a video converter that only accepts DVD input, in this case from a DVD disc, ISO [DVD image file], or a DVD folder you've already copied to your hard drive [VIDEO_TS]. It's good if you want to convert DVD audio/video to a video file with a smaller frame size for viewing on a hand-held or cell, &/or when you want to re-encode that video to a more efficient format. e.g. AVC/H264, so it might take up <1 GB instead of the original 4 - 7 GB worth of DVD mpg2. Using DVD Ripper Platinum it's also easier to add permanent subtitles compared with many other methods of doing the same sorts of conversions, but while quality & speed of conversion are great, you'll lose some flexibility when it comes to audio output formats. I missed not being able to type in my own output video frame dimmensions, which you can do with many of these rippers & convertors, but I liked that trimming the length of the video [to convert] worked without the hassles I've experienced in a lot of the competition. While DVD Ripper Platinum does let you up-size your video, in most cases you won't want to -- hardware does the same or better job, whether it's a PC using something like PowerDVD, or the DVD &/or Blu-Ray player connected to your HDTV, so all you're really doing in most all cases is increasing the file size for little or no reason.
DVD Ripper Platinum itself adds 2 folders & an uninstall key to the registry... the "WinX_DVD_Ripper_Platinum" program folder holds 27 files, 2 folders, & ~59 MB -- most of these converters/rippers can be compressed using something like the PortableApps.com App Compactor to about 50% original size, if you're converned about space &/or portability, but you'd want to save a backup of the original & test the compacted version thoroughly. The 2nd folder is under User App/Application Data & holds configuration info. As far as Air Playit goes lot of apps use Bonjour, so if you have it already mileage will likely vary. Included in the setup file are Bonjour.msi, Bonjour64.msi, vcredist_x86.exe, & vcredist_x64.exe. The Bonjour install files are v. 2.0.4.0, while the Microsoft C++ runtimes are v. 6.00.3790. For Air Playit an "Apple" folder is added to All Users App/Application Data, a "AirOfflineConvert" folder is added to My Documents, you get a new "Bonjour" program folder with 23 files, 20 folders, but only ~600 KB, the "\Digiarty\ WinX_DVD_Ripper_Platinum_API\ Air_Playit_Server" folder holds 32 files, 1 folder, ~31 MB, 4 files get added to Windows system folder, plus the usual roughly 2 dozen files added to Windows\ WinSxS\ by the the C++ runtime install. Recorded new registry entries approach 1900. Note that on the Digiarty site you're asked to activate the DVD ripper before 9/10, & note that Air Playit gets activated separately.
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DVD Copy Pro is a separate download that comes as a zip file containing winx-dvd-copy-pro.exe & License Code.txt. More of a one-trick pony, it copies the content on a DVD disc to another DVD, a DVD ISO file, a VIDEO_TS folder on your hard drive, or to a single mpg2 file -- you can also copy just the audio or just the video, or copy a selected chapter. You'd typically use DVD Copy Pro to bypass the DRM that prevents you from just copying the files like you would on a data DVD. To know if it does better than alternatives you'll have to use it on a lot of discs, & if it works with some where others don't, it's better. That said, DVDFab, an earlier GOTD, will let you skip the intros like movie trailers & go straight to the menu -- on the downside the result doesn't always seem 100% kosher with DVD spec, so if you're planning on editing the DVD at all [PgcEdit, VobBlanker etc.] I'd suggest not using that option, though burned as-is it seems to work in players fine. Note that if you output to mpg2, you'll lose subs etc. -- sometimes I think it's better to copy the DVD on your hard drive to another folder with DVD Shrink set to write only one VOB file... that way you could use video converters that will use those subs.
DVD Copy Pro adds a "WinX_DVD_Copy_Pro" program folder that holds 34 files, 3 folders, ~36 MB. A 2nd folder is added under User App/Application Data for configuration info, & again you get one new key in the registry for uninstall. Tried on an older, just bought retail DVD, DVD Copy Pro did work, but it's hard to say much more than that because speed is dependant on your hardware, & it doesn't change or convert anything. If copying is slow BTW, check out MediaCodeSpeedEdit. A newer alternative I haven't tried is the free BDlot DVD ISO Master [bdlot.com]. The old stand-bys AFAIK are still DVDFab & AnyDVD.
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WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter works -- it's not perfect, but I'm not sure what if anything is. WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter copies either the main title on a Blu-Ray disc to your hard drive, or it can copy the entire disc. IN a head to head comparison with DVDFab, copying the complete disc, using a less protected Blu-Ray disc as the source [not on purpose, but that's what I had available], I put the 2 std. folders that had been copied to the hard drive, BMDV & CERTIFICATE, into a Blu-Ray ISO using ImgBurn. I then mounted those ISOs using Daemon Tools [GOTD], & tried both PowerDVD & Cineplayer on them. The DVDFab version worked, though the menu video was breaking up quite a bit -- in my experience I have the same results with Daemon Tools as when burned to disc. The WinX copies did not play. The WinX copy also had an extra, WinX folder, & I tried including that as well without any change. It is possible that burned to disc the WinX copy might play in some stand-alone players, but with *my* player as I've said, what it does in Daemon Tools is what it does on disc in that player.
I wanted to mention that testing first, since Digiarty has released a new version of their Blu-Ray Decrypter since my original download on 8/31. As far as I can tell the newer version fixes a simple bug where all the other sub-folders in BDMV were stuffed into the STREAM sub-folder. I copied the same Blu-Ray disc twice to test both WinX versions [+ a 3rd time for the DVDFab trial] -- putting the folders in their proper place the 1st version copy was identical to the 2nd version's. Since in either case the result wasn't playable, if you got the earlier version I'm not sure if you'd want to bother updating or not. If the copy of the entire disc isn't playable, AFAIK the only advantage to having the complete disc is if you want to extract the other included video, whether for menus or special features etc. The original most often uses Java, & there's no easy way to alter or repair that -- remaking the disc without Java is 'bout the best you can do currently, unless you want to spend a Lot of money. Alternatively of course the WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter will copy just the main file to your hard drive as a m2ts file.
Compared to the WinX app, DVDFab puts that single movie into a Blu-Ray folder layout on your hard drive or into an ISO, & either is playable if burned to disc. Which is better depends on what you intend to do with it. The video on a Blu-Ray disc is very often split between several files, so if you're not going to burn the DVDFab results as-is, you'll most often have to use something like the free Blu Rip to extract individual audio, video, & subtitle files -- the video will be put into an mkv container. That said, the m2ts file the WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter gives you is Not as compatible as mkv, & you might have to use something like Blu Rip anyway. Additional features with DVDFab include selecting just what audio & sub tracks are copied, stripping out HD audio etc., but whether any of those features are worth the added cost is up to you & your pocketbook.
The free multiAVCHD does allow you to put your video into a Blu-Ray disc layout, & there are several tools like BDRebuilder that can among other things make the video files small enough to fit on a BD25 [if necessary] or even a DVD. Blu-Ray video can be re-encoded to 1440 x 1080 or 720p, using Blu-Ray spec mpg2 or AVC, & be burned to a Blu-Ray spec DVD -- in many cases you won't see the difference. AVC takes longer to encode, & whether you use mpg2 or AVC bear in mind that there are Blu-Ray profiles that meet compliance testing, as well as profiles that do not. Run a test 1st, or risk a surprise when Blu-Ray authoring software insists on a re-encode, or if/when a player won't play the discs. If you're planning on going from Blu-Ray to DVD or smaller frame sizes, also test -- it is Very Easy to introduce shimmering wherever there's a horizontal line or edge, &/or moire patterns, & it seems to depend on the encoder & encoder settings. It's a byproduct of the downsize that in my experience gets worse the higher the quality of the original -- FWIW I 1st saw these sorts of defects downsizing DVD size video to 320 x 240 years ago.
The "WinX Blu-ray Decrypter" program folder holds 13 files, ~14 MB, & again you get a folder under User App/Application Data + 1 new registry key for uninstall. Unlike the other WinX apps however Blu-Ray Decrypter saves a MachineCode when you run it & register -- you may find it won't register after their free offer expires. An alternative I didn't look at because it's not 100% compatible on this system is AnyDVD's Blu-Ray version, which unlocks a disc with DRM so it can be used with another app like Clown_BD. That may be your prefered solution -- many people certainly think so -- but all I can do unfortunately is point it out. You can also use the AnyDVD software to copy a Blu-Ray disc to an ISO file -- I've confirmed it works in a VM -- but that isn't a solution for every disc or everybody.