Another release of DVD Decrypter fixes another IFO problem and changes the pattern lenght. Furthermore it's compressed by UPX now. The latest VobSub comes with a directshow filter which allows you to overlay the subs during playback. Please check the VobSub homepage for detailed setup instructions.

A word about the OpenDivX quality check: I've posted the link to the OpenDivX forum and I already got a response from the developers. They will soon release a version which fixes the stop -> freeze bug and which allows you to freeze the DS filter overlay control settings (hopefully that will allow me to use avisynth with it, enabling me to take screenshots with filtering enabled in VirtualDub). They are also looking into the blockyness problems I mentioned in the article.

MicroDVD Autorun 1.75 replaces DivX Autorun. DVD2AVI 1.60 reintroduces high precision downsampling, has faster VFAPI decoding of FILM/Hybrid w/o forced film and frees the GOP cache of VFAPI when reading sequentially. Jackei also announced that there won't be any more updates for a while if this version does not contain any major bugs. He's working on a user guide and will be back later (his timeout from the forum is also due to this). Also note the suggested parameters for azid (thanks to DarkAvenger and Vilecoyote): -c normal -g 6 -L -3db. DSEnc development has stopped since azid offers a direct AC3 -> WAV conversion in high quality.

It has been done: The first serious article by myself for a while. OpenDivX quality check. I won't spoil your excitement on the front page so you'll have to read it till the end :) Expect more to come soon.

I think all the outstanding GPL issues have now been properly resolved so Glenn Maynard can now go and find other people to bug and insult. But I must say that in some cases the GPL distribution clause is really too strict.. why having to distribute the source of a work-in-progress product like OpenDivX, where a developer rather get the most recent source off the CVS and compile as to get outdated source is really beyond me.

In any case, let's get down to business: mpeg2mpg adds a property sheet for the audio encoding, vob2audio has been brought to version 0.1.0, but it's only a bugfix release. The 5th release of DVD Decrypter 2.4 fixes an audio info bug and adds 'decrypt with DVD Decrypter' to context menus. AviRevolution 2.205 now gets the aspect ratio directly from the VOB for resizing/cropping and it now does a one-in-all process (first, second pass and mm4 operations). AviDefreezer is an app to defreeze freeze-frames. It comes with the instructions in the package. Last but not least I have added the DivX for Windows version 4a48, which now comes with a direct show filter for acceptable (yeah, you heard me right.. full screen real-time playback on my pc) playback and improved quality. The speed and quality has also been slightly improved. For those who don't know: this DivX is based on OpenDivX by Gej and Co and will eventually become DivX Deux, the heir to DivX. Look forward to a quality analysis. Sources to open source programs can be found on the software page.

And last but not least: We did it! Early this afternoon my hit counter showed a 7 letter number for the first time. Or to be more concrete: This page has been accessed by more than ONE MILLION PEOPLE in less than a year of it's existence. Many thanks for your support :)

Nautilus has released a DVD authentication dl. You can use that for your own projects if you don't have a working authentication algorithm.

Fair Use 0.25 adds an automatic key retry mechanism to fix a problem getting keys from some DVDs using some DVD drives; you need to create a new project if you want to take advantage of this fix. DVD Decrypter 2.4 has undergone a few updates during the last week. Few bugs have been fixed and detailed error diagnostic messages have been added. DVD2AVI 1.59 supports swapping field order (slows down processing) and allows you to check the field order by the EDC value in the statistics window. The D2V structure has changed again so old d2v files won't be usable with this version.

vStrip_css 0.7b fixes the incorrect IFO parsing times, contains tweaked keysearch settings, and a few more small changes. SmartRipper 2.17 includes PTS info, now the AC3 files will contain the delay in milliseconds in the name. There's an option which allows you to rip the AC3 stream and make VOBs out of that stream again for easier use in Graphedit. Time2LBA can be used to evaluate the index file created by SmartRipper. Sasami2k 640b is a WMP replacement which supports subs and many neat overlay features. Your windows language has to be set to English(USA) otherway you'll get the Korean version.

IMPORTANT: Due an excessive amount of trouble with GMX I now use another email provider. Please don't send messages to my GMX account anymore, I'll stop checking it within the next 2 weeks.

I've discovered the poll function in my forum. The first question of the week is: Should this site offer source code of programs if they are available? This site is afaik the single one of it's kind to not only offer programs but also sources for the interested people and developers. I'd like to know if this extra is being appreciated so please participate in this poll.

DVD2AVI 1.55 is another bugfix release.

On another note: I suspect that there's some problem with the GMX mail servers. There have been a couple times where a mail destined to my address or sent by myself didn't make it to the other party. So if you've sent me a mail which deserves an answer and you don't get it within 2 days, please resend.

DVD2AVI 1.56 adds multiple WAV processing. SmartRipper 2.16 can create an index file (in case of crashes this can help the author figure out what's wrong). AviRevolution 2.2 comes with the final version of mpeg2aviVBR, which now supports dual output for mm4 encoding.

I've also set-up a new email account. Hope that one works better than the old one. I just learned of another mail that got lost :(

TMPG 12c adds MPEG-2 compression again, however only for 30 days due to licensing issues. Other nice features are audio downsampling, lots of bugfixes and auto registration for the VFP plugin. However, you still absolutely need the VFP plugin if you use TMPG for anything else as the final encoding program. Take a look at the full changelog.

AviRevolution comes with the 2nd release of mpeg2aviVBR which is based on PX3's mpeg2avi 0.090, the ability to insert a keyframe after X frames, minor GUI changes and the source code. mpeg2avi/ac3dec/vStrip GUI 0.20g adds support for mpeg2avi PX3 0.1.0.

Fair Use 0.24 fixes a cropping problem which appeared with some 1:2.35 movies and now comes with the FAQ in the package. bbMPEG 1.24b17 has some muxing fixes and most importantly now supports files above 2GB. As usual the source is also available. ZoomPlayer 1.20 is a media player replacement especially optimized for TV output. It also has as nice features as MPEG-4 fast forward, playlists, chapter lists, etc.

SmartRipper 2.15 contains some optimisations on audio stream handling and an audio demuxer (only ac3 streams).

DVD2AVI 1.54 contains small bugfixes, small modifications to the user interface and some changes in the I-frame forwarding.

I usually only write about stuff concerning DVD but I consider this a primary issue for the future of the pc market in general. Read how Rambus cheated and tricked and secretly got patents of technologies discussed in JEDEC meetings in order to rip off the rest of the memory makers and to get control over the worldwide memory market. I've never liked the company but now my opinion of it is no longer printable. Let's hope that the judges in the ongoing legal cases won't follow the sad lines of errors in cases like the DMCA case.

mpeg2avi PX3 0.1.0 adds auto resizing, a better crop mode, display of the aspect ratio of the mpeg2 stream and includes the original mpeg2avi readme. DVD2AVI 1.53 is out, but I don't have a changelog. The source is also available. DVD Genie 3.85 adds support for CoolDVD, various new features for PowerDVD and WinDVD and comes with an installer.

vStrip0.7a_css includes even better IFO parsing and fixes a few bugs. DVD2AVI 1.52 adds file drag&drop and contains some small modifications. Fair Use 0.23 adds a fall back keysearch and a diagnostic screen if keysearch would fail (to help determine what the problem is.. obviously if 0.22 works for you there's no need to dl the new one.. there's nothing else in the new release).

DVD2AVI 1.51 is faster and fixes an SVCD demuxing bug. Then there's an interesting new development: AviRevolution now comes with a new mpeg2avi version which is better at VBR encoding. It does 2 passes over the video: during the first pass a PSNR is calculated and in the 2nd pass the movie is encoded according to the values found, respecting the maximum and minimum bitrate you can set.

The Fair Use FAQ should answer all your questions about the program. If there's still things left you don't hesitate to ask in the Fair Use forum.

SmartRipper 2.14 includes audio handling: you can now chose which AC3 stream(s) will be ripped (only works for AC3 at the moment). Sub_mist 0.2 is a new MDVD subtitle corrector. DVD Reaper 2.4 adds the following: latest PX3 mpeg2avi, AC3 decoding now based on the PX3 AC3 decoder, mp3 encoding using LAME, better W2K support, adjustable DivX configuration, new installer, the possibility to export profiles, bitrate calculator, etc. More info on the Blacksunsoft homepage.

DVD Decrypter 2.4 adds a new feature to the DeCSSPlus configuration and better I/O error handling. The IFO mode is still not completed, you'll have to wait for v3.0 to get similar features to SmartRipper.

Fair Use 0.22 adds a timeout at the lowest DVD access layer to prevent problems with scratched disks, fixed some sub problems, added support for multiangle DVDs (Disney and stuff), fixed another IFO parsing bug which would result in a crash if a title set had no menu and last but not least added a few more error messages. Please note: the format of the project and the chain files has changed so you can't use this version with old projects.

It may be the tool everybody has been waiting for: Fair Use 0.2 does DivX VKI MM4 directly off the DVD (all the files get ripped first so you don't have to fear for your DVD-ROM). It can encode several versions of the same movie at once (up to 10, and in parallel so you can use your fancy SMP system), supports auto cropping, IVTC, IFO parsing and subtitles. The only drawback right now is that it comes without audio support and that it's rather slow, but that's all on the to-do list. Unfortunately my first testfile somehow disappeared (after 24h of encoding :( and the 2nd test got aborted in midstream (probably because TMPG editing was eating all the system's resources). Then I have Azid 1.0.6, which is a command line based AC3 -> WAV decoder which includes DRC and correct Dolby Surround downmix and may have a great future. toolame 0.2h, a command line based WAV -> mp2 encoder for all you VCD&SVCD people. The encoder can be used as external encoder in TMPG (Options - Environmental settings, external) and is a lot better than TMPG's included encoder. FlaskMpeg Tsunami v6 includes an even better dropframe fix and is based on the speedier PX3 versions (the 0.0.4 one). Use it if you still have dropframes. The sources are of course also available.

Talking about sources: I'm still waiting to get the sources for all these Flask and VDub derivates which come without the sources. Please respect the GPL and mail the sources to me.

vStrip0.7_css now comes with a GUI, but it's still a beta version. DivX 3.22 is now also available, but I have no clue what has changed. Please report your experiences with that codec in my forum.

Fair Use 0.21 fixes an IVTC bug, tweaked IVTC settings, fixes a DivX codec problem (the code would insert too many keyframes) and increases timeouts (should fix the problem I had - see above).

The first sources have arrived: mpeg2mpeg sources are now available, together with an updated mpeg2mpeg Actually only the docs have been updated, the executable is still the same. vStrip 0.7_css contains cleaned up IFO code (the old one could lead to crashes in some cases) and adds support for up to 8 output at the same time. The latest feature is not usable from the command line but you can expect an updated version of the official vStrip GUI very soon. normalize 0.232 is a working version, whereas the old 0.231 actually produced very distorted output. DVD2AVI 1.50 adds a luminance filter which works in the Y plane and only decreases speed by 7%, adds save to BMP for quality comparisons, a test version of Dolby Surround downmix. In order to enable that you have to add Dolby_Surround=1 to dvd2avi.ini. The YUV12 color space has been removed and the d2v structure has once again changed. Last but not least I have an English version of the AviUtl jump filter. Now before you mailbomb me what this filter does: Try it out. It allows you to get a nice quick overview over a couple of frames, scenes or even the whole movie.

FlaskMpeg subtitlefix v6 has been released and fixes yet more subtitle problems. The author has titled this a beta since he had a couple of crashes so use it at your own peril. The source has of course also been added, as well as the Avisynth 1.0b31 source.

And to stay with the subject: There is quite a number of tools on my page which is based on software released under the GPL but of which I do not have the source. Therefore I'd like to ask all developers (especially of modified FlaskMpeg and VirtualDub versions) to please mail me their sources and to respect the GPL.

BSPlayer 0.827 and Avimux 0.4 have been released. Both are only bugfix releases.

SmartRipper 2.13 has some fixes in the thread control unit (has no effect unless you run W2K), allows you to create directories in the target selecting box and has better error handling while reading. DSEnc 12b4 adds support for AC3 tracks which have no LFE channel and some cosmetic fixes. Subrip 0.93b adds support for Philips SVCD designer and allows 8 and 4 bit bmp output. Avisynth plugin 0.28b37 should fix the problems with CCE under W2K. AMD users are also advised to disable audio decoding.

mpeg2avi/ac3dec/vStrip GUI 0.20f2 fixes the disabled downsizer switches and a preview bug. DVD2AVI 1.42 corrects the wrong aspect ratio info in the earlier release.

After flying more than 3000km in 4 flights in one day, walking around at temperatures of -22C at a location north of the arctic circle I'm really tired so the update will be short: idm4c adds multiple AVI output and better SMP support to the CLI version of m4c, DVD2AVI 1.41 fixes a silly bug of Initial_Buffer( ) routine since 1.36 and mpeg2avi/ac3dec/vStrip GUI 0.20f adds support for mpeg2avi PX3 0.009.

So, after 12 hours of sleep I feel a lot better. vV has released another version of the MP3 VBR VirtualDub. This one adds the ability to delete frames without losing synch and to skew the audio without loosing synch. On another note please don't mail Avery Lee (the author of VirtualDub) about this modified version.

mpeg2avi PX3 0.009 reintroduces the remaining time, adds 2 miha iDCTs and adds a pure VisualC compiled executable for people who can't execute the main .exe file.

DVD2AVI 1.40 supports YUV4:2:2 MPEG-2 decoding, fixed a bug concerning abnormal endings of AC3 decoding, supports SVCD audio demuxing and reintroduced the multiple audio stream demux. Of course, the source is also available. vStrip0.6i_css fixes a splitting bug, cleaned up the IFO parsing code, adds dll support and adds a nice GUI and as usual, the source comes without css descrambling. . mpeg2avi/ac3dec/vStrip GUI 0.20e adds support for mpeg2avi PX3 0.008.

DVD_GR has updated the DSEnc guide.

We still need people to work on the Spanish and Swedish translation. And would the rest of the translation coordinators please contact me asap?