Free DVD copying software rant.

Not sure this is the correct forum for this. If not please move or remove.
I come here often tho just lurking and learning.
I see a lot of post asking for free programs to copy DVDs. I've bought a lot of movies for $15 to $80 and have coped some of my favorites. I have used fee programs DVD shrink and DVD Flick. (works well with Windows 7 ) What I don't understand is if you are paying good money for the DVD why not spend a little for good burning software. (anydvd, dvdfab, clonedvd, etc.)
It is like building a $800 computer and installing a $35 power supply.

 

You call it ranting, I call it common sense! Good stuff!

 

I own both AnyDVD and DeFab Platinum. I don't use AnyDVD because DeFab has been far more reliable. I only use DeFab to rip because it does the best job. Then I clean up the files with FixVTS even though Platinum does that because FixVTS works better. FixVTS is free. Then I use shrink because it does that better than DeFab again. I use imgburn because it burns better than Nero or DeFab. Again imgburn is better than both paid for apps. I really only use the for free part of DeFab so I could have kept with the free version. I paid DeFab and imgburn on principle and would pay FixVTS and Shrink as well.

You don't always get what you paid for. You can get top quality be using all free software. In fact, the end result will be superior to yours. Except for ripping, Defab does a bad job. You can't get on your moral high horse and say everyone should be like me.

 

Actually Mez you and I are in agreement. I have Any DVD, Clone DVD, DVD Fab and Shrink.
I always burn with imgburn (donated to) I have Nero 7 but I don't install it any more imgburm is far superior. It amazes me that Shrink still works will with windows 7 64 bit.
It's not that I don't what people to use good freeware it is just when I see a post that shrink doesn't work and some one expands that if thy would use anydvd with it it would.
I agree about DVDfab I find I use it more.
I do like the fact that some one is writing code to build free software and sharing it with us.
I have not been on a big horse in a log time.

 

Everyone has their different methods to copy movies either free or paid at the end of the day you are getting the same product.

 

I'm just joining in this little software "rant" thread for a different reason: the way time seems to stand still where so much DVD-related advice is given on the Internet, as if everyone's still in the era 1998 - 2002 and living with XP.

The sheer number of out-of-date DVD copying / ripping / burning tutorials, recommendations, reviews and such on the web isn't something I'd appreciated until now. Yet a cursory browse, via Google, of such material throws up authored dates (when you can find 'em) that are years beyond their shelf life.

Reason I hadn't appreciated this until now is because I haven't done anything DVD related for, well. . . Years. But now a couple of things have happened coincidentally: (a) we're moving house, and I'd like to make back-ups of my own store-bought DVDs that have accumulated since I last did any such work; and (b) a friend who knows nothing about DVD back-ups asked for my advice, and when he took advantage of it, found it. . . Worthless.

It must be four years since I did any backing-up, using the simple combination of RipIt4Me as a front-end to DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink. That's the combo I recommended, unthinkingly, to my friend. It didn't work. But then: he's running Windows 7.

Then I tried it. And, repeatedly, it didn't work. But then: I've moved from XP to Vista (had no choice, Vista was the installed OS on my new desktop.)

I'm now trying to figure out what new combination will work under Vista, and was going to follow Mez's line with DVDFabDecrypter for decryption and FixVTS for clean-up and then Shrink to edit / compress followed by ImageBurn for burning. Only. . . FixVTS --according to its developer -- doesn't work with Vista. And I'm not sure if DVDShrink will, either.

I'd thought it would be a simple task to get updated. But it isn't. Somehow, a time-warp seems to have occurred (even looking at this forum, the last entry re guide reading was two years ago.) That's not to say After Dark is behind the times, because I doubt that it is. Others I used to regard as a handy reference resource certainly are though: I sampled a major video help website, featuring dozens of tutorils and guides, again only to find one article after another dated between 2000 and 2003. Yikes.

Meantime, as I'm struggling to even get my stuff together as far as Vista is concerned, I've no hope at all of helping my friend: Windows 7? I haven't a clue. And sadly, it kinda looks like he'll have to continue on in ignorance as well until someone, or some website, somehwere comes up with something simple and straightforward like:

Best DVD backup software for Windows XP
Best DVD backup software for Windows Vista
Best DVD backup software for Windows 7

Unless, that is, we're permanently stuck back at the beginning of this decade, instead of nearing its end.

 

Those of us who were savvy and smart stayed away from Vista. There was no need to "upgrade" to it when XP was still doing the job. Win7 has truly changed the game and I'm looking forward to what I can accomplish with audio/video in all it's forms going forward.

Having said that, I'm in agreement, that whether it's freeware or payware, find those that work best for you and run with it. Personally, I pay for what I need, but if you choose to use freeware, donate some money for the hard work you're fortunate enough to enjoy.

 

Many thanks, gang, for the advice -- especially to Binkie for the heads-up on a combo I've never encountered before (shows how time flies.)

Re Vista. Oh my yes, it's a clunker, which is why I stayed away from it for so long. But it came pre-installed on my replacement pooter so I had no choice (but then immediately stripped out all its crap nanny-state UAC and administrator rights stuff and generally fettled it to the point it works as well as XP and in some instances, even better. . . and in others, infinitely, horrendously worse: the file search function is ludicrous, you can't hit a delete icon in Windows Explorer, the file attributes have grown to include essential info such as Post Office Box of My Cousin's Personal Assistant Fitness Trainer's Holiday Home, etc etc.)

But I digress. As to developer support, I was bunging small amounts to Irfan when he was still a lad, Steve Gould in the days when Cleanup really was better than CC (it ain't now) and to the couple behind what is now jvpowertools before it went commercial (and justifiably so.) And without these developers, like as not we'd be stuck with the likes of Roxio, software development on a par with the output of the Vista OS development teams.

So yup. I don't labour away for nowt and don't see any reason why anyone else should if I'm using the fruits of their labour to my advantage. What goes around, comes around etc.

Whoops: also meant to say, thanks to creaky for the link.

 

Just to add a little point, I stopped using fixvts on my laptop which runs vista, and instead use vobblanker, which seems for me to work better than fixvts.

I own the paid version of DvdFab Platinum, but still just use it to only rip full disk. Depending on the amount I am compressing, I either use dvd shrink or dvd rebuilder AFTER using vobblanker.

I don't use dvd flick much anymore, as I tend to use ConvertX2Dvd instead which for me tends to look better and gets the job done much quicker.