| Date | News |
| 8/31 | Told you so: Agent Kaplan might try to convince the world otherwise but it's indeed happening: The MPAA is cracking down on DeCSS. I didn't expect otherwise. I only wonder what they wrote to Crosswinds... I removed DeCSS in May already. You might also be interested in how to repair DivX files that you have not made yourself... I've streamlined the guides even more... they now cover the main rip programs and GUIs used and finally the ripping is only explained in one guide. I have also some more information on the movies I called rff movies so far. I hate to admit but what I thought about them was completely wrong.. but it doesn't change the fact that we still have some problems with them. And last but not least: Don't you just love the new screenshots? They look so much better than the old ones and take even less to load... that's what I call progress. |
| 8/30 | I've been a bit late updating my rippacks and zipped guides but I finally made an effort and now everything is up-to-date again. I hope I'll can do the same overhaul/image replace and download update for the SVCD section soon. Software: SmartRipper 2.01 and cladDVD 1.61 are out. So far there was no replacement for the Hollywood Plus DVD Station but now there is: Eugene's DVD Player can almost everything that the DVD Station can but it looks nicer and has skin support. Furthermore it should be able to work regionfree and macrovision free but the regionfree mode didn't work on my system (W2K, release drivers build 129). I've also told someone recently that there was no way to use Graphedit to extract an ac3 track. That is not correct. It can be done by connecting a binary dump filter to the ac3 output of the MPEG-2 splitter. For more info read the readme file in the Graphedit package |
| 8/29 | Doesn't Frontpage suck? I spend the whole day overhauling the whole DivX section of this page and I've converted the bulk of images to gif format.. it looks way better and even takes less space than before. From now on I won't let Frontpage compress my images but I'll do it myself. |
| 8/28 | I don't fringing believe it. How do studios master their DVDs? I spent the whole day looking for some DVD authoring software that you can actually use but I came up short. Scenarist NT wants a dongle, DVD QuickBuilder bitches about a security driver that it can apparently not install in W2K, CDMotion's Streamweaver multiplexer always crashes on my 1 VOB Matrix file (note: bbMPEG muxes the file just fine and it plays alright in both PowerDVD and DVD Station so the source is not at fault), ForDVD bitches about not being licensed to run on this PC, Gear finds no DVD recorder (bit deal.. I have none), Maestro also has some security problems, the CDMotion Demo (which apparently is a newer version than all the commercial releases they have...) has about 95% of its functions disabled - you can have only one menu page and a very short video clip - so.. how am I supposed to evaluate that? Really... I've tested other software that included some pretty sophisticated security measures (CoolJex and Modelsim) both in both cases the trial was fully functional and worked just fine and I even got CoolJex sent over from the US by FedEx including a printed tutorial. That's what I call service.. What these DVD Mastering manufacturers offer is simply shitty. It sux! It's unacceptable. If anybody knows a DVD Mastering software that actually works on my system (W2K.. so no shitty 16bit application like CDMotion please) and that offer a useful demo please let me know. I can't finish my miniDVD tutorials unless I get tools to author and master a miniDVD. Not really important in this section but nonetheless: SubRip 0.81 is out. The changes are that you can now resize the BMPs but that's only important for SVCD creation. And besides that we have yet another new tool: mpeg2avi/ac3dec/vstrip GUI 0.19l which is now packed with UPX (->smaller) and which features the Seek Timecode function of the latest ac3dec. Oh.. and before I forget.. my site is mentioned in the readme so make sure you read it this time <g>. DivXJoiner allows you to join very small AVI files... however at the moment without support for compressed audio. |
| 8/27 | Fortunately the downtime was only short-lived..
In preparation for miniDVD I have a guide on how to transcode ac3
files. This might also be interesting for people who are into AVI/AC3.
I've also updated the Conversion guide.
I've also added 2 new DivX players: BSPlayer 0.71 and DZmovies MMP 1.0 Who would have thought it would happen at all.. Sigma Designs has finally released their Windows2000 Drivers for the Hollywood Plus. |
| 8/25 | Even more bad news... main host is down again and I'm not done uploading at the mirror. So at the moment that means no software again... sorry but that's how life is. SmartRipper 2.0 is out. |
| 8/23 | Bad news: I've just talked to the phone company and they told me that they'd have ADSL services for private customers in September or October but they couldn't tell me when exactly.. and the company being a former monopoly and still the strongest company around here they can easily break their promises. And my internet access in school is still limited to stupid Unix machines that have no more than a floppy disk drive. They will only give PC accounts when a course requires it... So do they want me to split the W2K servicepack on 100 floppy disks and buy a floppy drive - I've kicked that relic out of my machine a long time ago, ZIP 250 and 12/10/32x CD-RW is enough - and spend whole days uploading my page using command-line ftp? If I can't get any better Internet access I may have to rethink my engagement in the scene. They don't even have a flatline modem service :( On the software side we have VirtualDub 1.4a and CladDVD1.6full locally now - a command line Unix upload so enjoy it. |
| 8/22 | I've been re-reading the court's decision in the DeCSS case and found even more stuff that's plain wrong. You can now get Agent Kaplan's decision as a whole and make sure to read my comments after it - that is if you're still capable of. You're probably spitting poison by the time you've read thru it.
I have a new guide again: Conversion guide which covers about any
format conversion you might ever need.
CladDVD 1.6 incorporates the CSS detection in a release version and includes VOB preview. ZDNet releases DVD Ripping guides: Of course they don't stand a chance against my stuff but I'm really surprised that they actually write on such a controversial issue. I wonder what the MPAA thinks about it. |
| 8/19 | My Windows Media Encoder 7 test has been upgraded with some information about the new Windows Media Player and the links to the sample video clips (check the DivX quality check section). For short: If you can use the new features then it might be worth upgrading but if only ripping is concerned stick with the old one. |
| 8/18 | OK Software is back on go.to/doom9. doom9.has.it has no software whatsoever.. but I'll have another server for that soon and then I'll have software, too. The future of the old Republic is in serious peril after the recent court decision on the DeCSS case. Read more..
Here's another link on the case... I think the standard news sources are not harsh enough.. that one definitely makes a point. Also check out what DVDFile.com has to say about the issue. |
| 8/16 | First of all: I'm sorry but the main page is down and so is the software archive. But you can help me bring it up again sooner than my host has their systems back up again: I need 50+MB webspace with ftp access, no banners and on a site that does not object to CSS decryption utils (Crosswinds had lots of different explanations why my site was taken down but quite frankly none ever came close to satisfy me... they wouldn't tell me which files were the cause... they just said that decryption DVDs was illegal - which is basically wrong - that my site was a hacker site - which is even more wrong - etc. Why do I have the impression that they got scared by the MPAA, which btw has absolutely nothing to say in Canada where Crosswinds is located). So once again to all the MPAA people reading this (I know you are): Leave honest people alone! I'm not kidding when I say that I own every DVD I rip, this is actually true. I have a 170+ DVD archive that is steadily growing. I also go to the movies a lot and matter of fact the movie industry makes quite a shitload of money out of me. Is this your way of saying thank you? In my country it's legal to circumvent copy-protection schemes for fair use (backing up your own movies) as it is in most countries of the world and US congress said the DMCA should not restrict fair use. I don't mind when you go after people who pirate movies but you're at the wrong address when you're coming after me. Software: VirtualDub 1.4 is out - I'll have this available locally as soon as I have a working software archive again. |
| 8/14 | Looks like I have to update all my subtitle stuff: SubRip 0.8 has just been released and what a release it is: It fixes the problems that involved missing some subs, allows to extract the timecode even if you rip the subs to bmp or sub format, supports IFO parsing to find out which languages the subs have and added support for italics. Quite neat, eh? Besides that I also have cladDVD 1.45 update for you. |
| 8/13 |
Guides: I have a guide on how to handle MPEG-2 audio
and PCM audio tracks.. although there is not really anything to the
latter yet. I'm still waiting for my music DVDs to arrive. I hope
to have the guide complete soon but unfortunately right now my hands
are tied.. |
| 8/12 | Ahh... feels go to be back. Finally... after almost 2 weeks of waiting I got my pc back. Now the only thing remaining is to get a decent ADSL connection... currently I'm using a v90 modem and they don't have any flatfee offers around here so I definitely have to something better. Otherwise I'd spend all my money for the internet access and couldn't upgrade my pc or buy DVDs anymore. I also have some new software for you: FlaskMPEG PX3 0.0.4e - which is the last unofficial release. The author is now working with Flasky and all his speed increases will be included in the official next release - check the future section for more information about what will be in the next release. A new cladDVD has also been released, actually two versions: v1.52 full and v.1.53 update. I've also put SmartRipper into a more convenient zip package. I've also decided to offer some region free software. Check the Software page.. You can't imagine how good it feels to make these updates with a nice and decent HTML editor instead of EMACS which always kept ruining my html files. After a line of HTML code there were like 5 lines that contained ^M and I had to manually get rid of them... I wonder whether this is telepathy... DanniDin always releases a new version when I'm about to update my page. In this case it came just an hour too late. Anyways: Here's VobDec GUI 2.6c |
| 8/9 | Software: GDivXPlayer 1.7 and Redz DivX Player 0.08 are out. I don't know why Redz' mailing list does not work properly... I never get informed about new releases. |
| 8/8 | Well... at least I should have my pc by the end of the week but some huge problems still remains. First of all cable modem is not possible in my building. That leaves ADSL but that's kinda hard to get and pretty expensive here. The alternative is an V90 modem. I've never had to get online that slow before so you can guess that I'm not exactly thrilled about it but it seems like the only solution for the moment. But in order to get a modem.. guess what... I still need a working phone and that, again, is going to take some time. Software: VobDec GUI 2.6b fixes some bugs in v2.6. A new FlaskMPEG speed release is also out fixing problems with RAW PCM sound and now the download should work. It's version 0.04d for those who are interested. |
| 8/6 | First of all let me say that I HATE Unix. I'm doing this on a really old Alpha station and in Emacs... it feels like being in hell. Those idiots at customs won't return my pc so I'm stuck with this lousy internet access and this lousy possibilities to update my page. It could take a lot more time than I anticipated till I'm fully back online. Software: FlaskMpeg Speed 0.04b is out and should now also be faster with DivX, not only the Panasonic plugin. We also have a new cladDVD 1.5 which has a completely new Interface and lots if smaller changes. VobDec GUI 2.6 has also just been released as well as SmartRipper which is another DVD rip program (of course untested since I don't have my pc yet). Also check the SVCD section for some new software there. I hope we don't have any big news coming for the time until I'm fully connected to the Internet again since this way of updating my page is really annoying. Please also note that until I have my pc and a working internet connection again I will only be able to update this main page, not the software pages with new Software since it already takes me way too long to get the front page done. |