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.

I'd also have a new mpeg2avi GUI but unfortunately that one is stuck in my stupid gmx mail account which is completely unreachable right now, along with 20+ other messages. So from my on I'll try to use another email account: doom9@doom9.net. Hope that one works out better.

mpeg2avi PX3 0.008 adds two important features: First the cropping is now much more interactive and can be done in the preview window (you'll see a rectangle representing the output you get). Then there's a bunch of new iDCT versions, optimized for AMD and Intel processors. Please read the readme file for more info. Then I've finally added a more recent sourcecode of DVD2AVI.

DVD2AVI 1.36 has a revised (more stable) parsing code, and SVCD decoding is now possible. However, for SVCD audio demux you still have to use a regular demuxer. The m4cGUI has also been replaced by a correct version.

And we're trying it again: We're looking for people who own Sneakers and Scream (the original release, not the special edition released in 2000) in R1 (USA & Canada) in order to solve the 1.00GB VOB problem. Would these people please contact me as soon as possible?

3 days without news but I didn't take a break. Rather I've been constantly making small adjustments, mostly thanks to your input. Now I'm back with some new software: mpeg2avi PX3 0.007: the probably last m2a version for some time as PX3 has earlier written in my forum. Due to his job he won't have a lot of time in the next half year or so :( In any case, the new version fixes the -r1 bug (by reintroducing the old mmx iDCT code) and has some Intel compiler optimizations. The source is included in this version. DanniDin has been so nice to also update the GUI for mpeg2avi so that it's compatible to the latest mpeg2avi version. I also have a new command line based version of the m4c encoder by Iceman. It adds two options that make the operation faster. Iceman also wrote a GUI for it. Vob2audio allows you to do the VOB -> WAV/MP3 as described in the Graphedit guide without the use of Graphedit and with a nice user interface where you just configure the mp3 parameters and specify the input and output files. DVDDecrypter 2.3 has been completely rewritten: It used code from decssplus2b3 for the codesearch, includes a working authentication without the use of dodsrip.exe, much better stream info and stream ripping (DTS and PCM audio also supported now) and a glimpse preview of the IFO mode which will be included in the 3.0 version. MovieLauncherPlus 1.11 fixes some bugs of the old release. DVTool has been updated to version 0.24: it disables automatic shutdown, adds online help on startup, the file processor is now aware of DVD/VCD/SVCD if you want to split (experimental feature) and it's possible to add MPEG headers to each file when splitting. DVD2AVI 1.34 uses miha's new IEEE reference iDCT code which leads to speedups of about 50%, fixes the bug with auto-append when opening a series of VOBs, fixes a 2048b alignment problem, adds SVCD decoding, fixes a bug in conjunction with VFAPI (TMPG would freeze upon loading a d2v), fixes a bug with abnormal endings, rearranged video and audio options and the d2v format has been changed a little. Then there's the Flask subtitle fix V4, which fixes invisible subtitles, improves the pixel data read engine which caused a lot of missing subs, and adds the ability to select all substreams. MP3Trim 1.7 is a small tool that allows you to edit MP3s without going back to the WAV format. Subtitle adjuster 1.41 adds support to convert to and from ssa, the according guide has also been updated. RazorLame 1.12 fixes the Lame 3.88 related bug I reported earlier this week. And last but not least VobSub 1.46 fixes a bug where blank subs would lead to random crashing.

In the last couple of days PurpleMan, KalEl and myself haven been testing the Force Film feature of DVD2AVI 1.25. It appears that in not such a small number of cases this option can actually fix desynch and spare us the IVTC process for hybrid movies. But that's not always the case as we had to find out: Some movies will still be interlaced, and some will be choppy as hell, which confirms what Jackei has been saying about this option in the first place. So when using Force Film on a hybrid movie you should only encode say X000 frames and watch if it's smooth or interlaced and go the IVTC way if it is.

DVDDecrypter 2.3 has just been upgraded. A bug where DTS streams were recognized as SDDS streams has been fixed. And the official GUI for vStrip is out, but at the moment only as a beta version.

I've just finished fixing HTML code in about 50 pages, and I've updated a lot of the guides and added a few new goodies: VBR MP3 guide and AviRevolution guide, which allows you to create VM2 files, or in other words: VKI & MM4 & VBR MP3. And the best thing: We can do this all in Graphedit, from VOB directly to VBR MP3, using the LAME encoder.

It appears that the initial version of the new guides both had a problem with stereo modes: Lame seems to be able to conserve the Dolby Surround sound in joint stereo mode, but I still prefer to use the simple stereo mode just to be on the safe side.

The latest release of mpeg2mpg now also supports mpeg2 output, fixes some aspect ratio problems and adds a SVCD profile. Also check this interesting tidbit: It appears that there will soon be a DivX player for the Playstation2.

Quite a lot of new software today: First of all there was a silent update of vStrip0.6h_css which removed a but in the old release. Then BSPPlayer 0.825 which can now save AC3 options, has a few fixes for full-screen playback and some subtitle issues. Avimux has also been updated. The v0.3 version adds support for MP3 and AC3 files. Global DivX Player 1.8 includes better subtitle support, VCD support, fixes a lot of bugs and a lot more. Then I have a LAME Direct Show filter for direct MP3 encoding in Graphedit, along with an ACM version of the latest LAME which allows LAME to be used directly in ac3dec/FlaskMpeg and VirtualDub. Unfortunately it seems that only CBR modes are currently supported. And to stay with Lame for a moment longer, I've added the latest compiled version, just one day old. Normalize has also been updated to version 0.231 and I've added the 0.31beta as well. Framecalc 1.0 allows you to calculate the number of frames by simply entering the lenght of a movie and last but not least movie.exe has found a worthy successor by the same author: MovieLaunchPlus 1.1: it supports optional front/back cover, up to 8 definable labels with fading effects, optional notes as TXT/RTF file, optional installing/upgrading of any codec and player before launching.

And could somebody please tell the player makers to contact me when there's a new version out? It's kinda frustration to run after new releases.

I've also finally changed the muxing part of every SVCD guide to use bbMPEG which not only is the best muxer around but also supports splitting the output files by a given size. I've also removed the outdated downloadable guide. But don't worry... I'll have a replacement soon.

I've added a very important item to the VCD/SVCD FAQ concerning problems loading frameserver files in TMPG. If you have experienced such problems make sure you check it out.

vStrip 0.6h_css adds support for R1 Disney titles, which, despite IFO parsing would come out with repeating scenes until now. There's now also an option to select the angle, a fix of rht IFO parser and a few internal changes.

SmartRipper 2.12 adds automatic subdirectory creation according to the filename, fixed thread-timing problems (invisible main window after ripping), changed audio info, IFOs will now be copied in movie mode, steps in max filesize is now 10MB instead of 100MB. A built-in authentication is in the works. cladDVD 1.71 fixes a division by zero and the demacro code. FlaskMpeg multipass v3 enabled multipass encoding (more than 2 pass now possible) and contains some bugfixes (among others the framedrop fix).

Candela has updates his DivX Repair Guide with some new info.

I also have to talk about links to commercial software: Most of you might not know but this site has a disclaimer and I strictly adhere to it. Among other things that disclaimer states that this site is no warez site. In accordance with that this site will never link directly to downloadable commercial software if it's not a legal version. I can also not give out direct links to pirated software by mail, so please: Do not send me any more mails about where to get a crack for program XY or where you can download software XY anymore. Especially I-Author seems to be rather popular but frankly I get tired of even looking at request for such software. If you can't find the software you look for by following one of the links under "General Rip Software Sites" in my links section then don't even bother to ask me for it. In the future I will not answer to such requests anymore. Freedom of speech laws allow me to link to sites where they might have software that's not fully legal but that's as far as I can stretch it. Thanks for understanding.

I just deleted about 2000 emails that I got within the last 2 months. That can mean nothing else than that I've reinstalled Windows again, running faster than ever now. Since NVidia removed my favorite 1152x resolution in the Detonator 4 drivers I'm now running at 1280x960, a resolution that I think was added in this version.

I also finally got my ADSL connection, even though a while ago I wouldn't really believe in getting rid of my crappy v90 modem anymore. I even got a letter from the ex-monopoly telco stating that ADSL would not be possible in my area for some time to come. Interestingly at that time I had already found an alternative provider which would install ADSL here (remember: they use the same axe station and it was monopoly telco that upgraded the axe station, cos after all, it's their station) and not only give me 512/128kbit/s but 2.4/0.75mbit/s. Yes, you heard my right... I now download @ 300kb/s :) How was I ever able to live w/o that speed I'll never know.

Last but not least Movie Collection Tracker 1.0 is back online now, with an installer and without the driver problems. DVD2AVI 1.25 fixes a potential parsing but that affected all releases since 0.99. Mpeg22mpeg1 is an MPEG transcoder, very much like ReMPEG2 but the output will be MPEG1 for VCD.

DSEnc 1.2a fixes some annoying bug of the previous release. VobSub 1.45 fixes a lot of missing subtitle issues. Movie Collection Tracker 1.0 by Canman (programming) and PurpleMan (design) is a great solution to manage your DVD/VCD/SVCD/DivX collection. It comes with built-in IMDB (including image) support and supports tagline, name, year, etc.

Another word about OpenDivX: I've just checked and it seems that it inserts keyframes at scene changes which makes it look even more promising. But the current issues still don't merit that you scrap your DivX collection. But that might change one day the final is released.

Soultrape just told me about his new site, ScenePortal.NET. It's a new portal Devided into "Scenes" making it easy for the end-visitor (so to speak) to find what he needs. He's calling out to All Webmasters (there's a special DVD Scene section too) to go on and sign up. well, What are you waiting for :P ?

DVD2AVI 1.2 changed Preserve Film to Force Film. Here's how to use it: NTSC or PAL & Force Film On = Garbage. FILM & Force Film On = synch 23.976 FILM. HYBRID & Force Film On = synch 23.976 semi-Film, depending on the nature of the movie you may get interlaced frames or unsmooth playback. If you're not happy with the result disable Force Film and IVTC the stream. It also adds auto-save of the configuration and auto-append (select vts_01_1.vob and vts_01_2.vob, etc will be added). Analyzemistakes is a small tool that fixes the most common OCR errors in MicroDVD Player subtitle files. Subadjuster 1.4 makes it possible to auto-fix most screwed up subs. The guide has also been updated accordingly. vStrip 0.6g_css has a lot of internal changes, the @ is now optional for streamlists, it has an improved keysearch (based on decss+ 2b2), etc. The full changelog is included in the package.

It has come to my attention that the latest Lame has some bugs when used in conjunction with Razorlame: It will give a wrong format warning after encoding and will not delete the wave file. The encoded files seem to be OK although there are some reports of it cutting off the last few frames. It will also not give a bitrate histogram for VBR encoding when the log is reviewed. These problems are known to the author of Razorlame and will eventually be fixed. Just FYI.

And it has happened: DivX Deux has been released. That is, OpenDivX to be precise, which will be the core of many DivX related projects, among others DivX Deux. Right now you can download the OpenDivX encoder, decoder, 2 codecs for Windows and a windows based OpenDivX player. All are in beta state and currently they're not performing too great, or in other word the encoding is a lot slower than DivX, playback performance is a lot worse (you pretty much have to get a 1GHz CPU to have real-time playback if you use the post filtered codec version) and there's a couple of unsolved issues. Gej and co are looking for people willing to work on these various projects so if you're interested in contributing to the future of a free MPEG-4 codec you know where you should go. A few quick and dirty tests (2 to be exact) showed the following: noise remains noise and doubling the bitrate also doubles the filesize. Now if we get a final that performs as good (or better as DivX), supports VKI and maybe multiple pass encoding then we could really have something on our hands here.

Other than that WM8EGUI has been brought up to v1.2 and fr0do has written a nice article about synching subtitles.

VobSub 1.44 adds a new positioning method and adds some tooltips for beginners. The vob2mpeg4 bitrate calculator has also been updated and should now finally give exact results (there was a math bug in the old releases).

Thanks to all the people who sent me screenshots of driveinfo. I don't need any more screenshots for the moment. Thanks to these screenshots I can present you yet another guide: How to make your DVD-ROM regionfree. Currently I'm also investigation the effects of different noise filters on DivX and as we're now in the new millenium for good I've updated my DivX codecs to DivX VKI so from now on everything that I'll do will be based on these codecs.

AviUtl 0.96i is out. Unfortunately the online translation of its homepage is so bad that I can't tell you what's new. DSEnc 1.2b has been released as well.

If somebody out there has an RPC-2 DVD-ROM, preferably a Toshiba SD-C2402 (notebook version) could you please run driveinfo and make a bmp screenshot of it, zip it and mail it to me? Thanks a lot.

Blacksun has released a new build of DVDReaper and PowerDivX NetxGen. The latter and BSPPlayer 0.82 are the only players that can properly play AVI/AC3.

Besides dozens of small changes all over my site I've added some subtitle information to the AviUtl guide, added a very fast and convenient manual IVTC method to the IVTC in TMPG guide which can literally save you hours of processing time and last but not least I've finally written a WM8 guide.

I also look forward to bring you an updated version of the DVD ripper comparison by the end of next week.

And last but not least thanks a lot to the guy who sent me a new CPU and a DVD-ROM for my notebook. Without you there wouldn't be any news in terms of guides.

DVD2AVI 1.0 fixes the bug on K6-2 CPUs, incorporates miha's much faster iDCT, reduced the overhead of the statistics window while adding a bitrate monitor and some speedups for the I-frame search. FlaskMpeg Vulture is the currently fastest Flask version for AMD Athlon class processors. Just choose hybrid Athlon optimized hybrid and enjoy the superior speed. A vulture release.

It has been discussed for a couple of weeks and now we can finally use VBR MP3s in our DivX movies. VCDVaULT has released a special version of VirtualDub which allows you to multiplex AVIs and VBR MP3s. However, it's important that you use the most recent builds of LAME to encode your MP3s since a lot of the VBR related stuff has changed since the last stable release. Avisynth 1.0b31 & plugin 0.28b351 adds a totally new audio engine, a few bug fixes and a benchmark option. DVD2AVI 0.99 fixes a bug regarding AC3 synchronization, expanded the framerange to 10e6 and removed integral normalization. Miha has kept on working on his x78 optimized FlaskMpeg version and the latest version is now based on the latest PX3 sources. This version doesn't contain the AMD optimizations but since Miha's own iDCT is much faster and has the same precision as the AMD code I don't think it's a great loss.

Also check out this guide on synching subs.

Apparently I forgot to upload the latest VobSub on some of my servers. That should be fixed now and the version I carry is truly the latest now, that is v1.39.

Then I have a new guide by Tiketiketik on how to fix asynch VCDs.

To come back to an old subject: It appears that the translation efforts have pretty much ended. I'd still like to have the guides in other languages so I'd like to ask everybody who's serious about translating the guides within a reasonable time (one guide a week or faster) to report back to me. I'm also looking for translation coordinators, that is a person who would be charged in coordinating the translation in a given language, to give out tasks to the other translators and make sure that no page will be translated twice. In a second phase we could even launch other language subdomains to doom9.net and doom9.org, with news and everything, but first the guides have to be fully translated.

Maybe you've seen it: Newgenfilms have released their software. After searching the winnt/system* directories I can safely conclude that no new files were added and I found the following SelfRegisteringFiles in the installation log: divx.inf, DIVX_c32.ax, DivXa32.acm, DivXc32.dll and DivXc32f.dll. The first is the DivX installation file, the 2nd the DivX DS playback filter, the 3rd DivX audio codec, the 4th DivX Low motion codec and the last DivX high motion. Do you remember the movie Bowfinger? Gotcha suckers!

Subtitle Adjuster 1.31 is a command line utility that lets you shift/adjust Micro DVD Player subtitles and to fix some spelling errors. DXMan 1.1 allows you to find out all kinds of stuff about your Direct Show filters you have installed and AutoTune 2.3 allows you to normalize WAV files, convert the samplingrate, DC correction and sampling depth change. I've also replaced the DivX bitrate calculator with one that's more accurate. Wconv 0.4 is another command line downsampler and also includes a de-emphasis filter. The source is included :) And last but not least yet another WM8 GUI.. but a really good one... supports all settings and it's pretty intuitive to handle. I've also updated VobSub to the latest version, but all that's new is a couple of bugfixes. As promised I've also added the latest DSEnc. Last but not least what do you think of AVI/AC3 without having to use Graphedit to get 4.0 / 5.1 sound? A new player finally makes it possible. The only thing required is a copy of WinDVD / PowerDVD that supports the desired output mode and DirectX8. The site is French but it shouldn't take you too long to get around :) The player is called PowerDivX NextGen btw, the other soft, DVDReaper, is a combined ripper/encoder to create AVI/AC3 files based on mpeg2avi video encoding.

And btw: The mail account is back into service and so are all my servers.. now it's just a matter of time until all links revert back to their default site.

It appears that despite having sound in the rear boxes the current methods of doing AC3 -> WAV will not result in a proper Dolby Surround Downmix. Apparently there's something wrong with the phase of the rear channel. If you're interested to hear more about the issue then you should follow the DSEnc thread in the general discussion on my forum. DVD_GR has been so nice as to write an article on how get a true Dolby Surround downmix. Note that you can't download all software required for that method on this site since it involves the use of a $2500 Dolby Digital encoder program. I will add DSEnc shortly, tough.

It appears that many people are having trouble getting TMPG/AviUtl/DVD2AVI/VFAPI Converter to work properly. It usually turns out that these people didn't properly install these applications. All these applications communicate with each other using VFP plugins... if you export a file from one application to another and the exporting application (usually: dvd2avi) doesn't have the VFP plugin the whole process won't work. AviUtl comes with the VFP plugin so you don't have to worry about getting a plugin. The latest DVD2AVI (which has been recompiled and is a bit faster now) also includes the VFP plugin but all previous releases do not. TMPG has a separate VFP plugin, so if you plan to export a project from it you have to download the VFP plugin, unzip into your TMPG folder and run TMPGEncVFP_Install.bat. To get the VFAPI Converter to work properly you'll have to run the vifpset.bat file.

Another frequently asked question is the keyframe settings for VKI tools. The point of VKI is that the codec/encoding application decides where to put keyframes (where they are most needed) instead of placing them just at regular intervals. Hence the codec should not write any keyframes at regular intervals anymore and you should set the keyframe interval to the max: 9999. Of course that only applies for VKI encoders (mpeg2aviAR, m4c, m4c plugin for AviUtl, AviUtl with scene change detection plugin, and every DivX encoder when using the DivX VKI patch).

How do you like the latest PX3 FlaskMpeg combined with CSS descrambling?

It appears that some of my hosts are still undergoing maintenance / upgrades so please keep in mind that if using the urls: serverX.doom9.org where X is a number between 1 and 4 you should always come to a fully working and up-to-date host no matter what. I try hard to get everything properly working again but I can't speed up things that are completely out of my hands.

Earlier I reported that the new Flask which I now call Flask PX3 CSS included all the changes of the 0.594h1 Flask release which is clearly false. The only thing added was CSS descrambling support without keysearch. bbTools 1.7 fix a few bugs, adds support for new audio types and should be faster. As usual the source is also available.

By now all my URLs should be working again but there's still 2 servers undergoing maintenance. Also, apparently GMX has some problems with my mail account, yesterday I received a couple of mails sent on new year's eve along with 73 mails I sent in between Nov and Dec 00. Today I'm unable to even login at GMX, even the webinterface won't let me connect. So if you sent an email and didn't get any answer it may well be that I haven't even gotten it yet.

It also appears that the latest PX3 release has a serious bug if you don't start encoding at the very first frame. PX3 is aware of the problem and hopes to have a fix soon. You can read more about the issue in the forum.

Happy new year. Time for a couple of new year's resolutions for the movie studios:

DVDs should be released day&date with their VHS counterparts where possible.
Never even think about introducing rental pricing for DVD. This will just lead to more piracy.
Keep the prices reasonable, that is in the Warner price range. A one DVD release never merits a $30+ price.
Enhance the movie for 16:9 TVs (hello Mr. Cameron...)
Release classics to the format (hello Mr. Lucas...)
Pack a lot of extras on the discs, and use a second disc if there's not enough space on one disc to permit good quality.
Treat the rest of the world in the same way as the home market: Stop region coding, release movies at the same timeframe worldwide.

And for the judges: Abolish the unconstitutional DMCA.

And for all the "our codec is better than DivX" startups: Focus on delivering instead of hyping. Don't announce anything prematurely and make sure than when you release your work can live up to the expectations.

My new year's resolution: Make this page even better in order to bring DVD backup methods to even more people. Include more information about DVD and digital video basics.

And finally I have a small task for my readers as well: Point people in the right direction when they ask basic questions about DVD ripping ;)