All the caching problems have been fixed so now everybody should see the latest news.

ATI owners might enjoy the ATI Macrovision remover which removes the copy protection from the analogue TV input of your card.

Furthermore I've updated the SBC guide to correspond to the latest Nandub release. Also keep in mind that there's just 2 days left to make a submission for the logo contest.

On another note: Philips has launched their very own MPEG-4 Encoder and Player. It's ISO compliant (and the files are called .mp4.. so here you have your extension).. but the quality is less than great. I've taken a look at the Blow Trailer in, supposedly, 1300kbit/s but it turns out it's only 821kbit/s and in any case, despite the low resolution (VCD) it looks worse than DivX, especially when a DivX has been properly done.

Finally it has been done: When I updated the Flask SVCD guides next week I didn't think I'd get to work on the again so soon, but Flask 0.6 preview 1.1 has been released so I've updated the FlaskMpeg pack, the SVCD pack and all the corresponding guides. I've also put all old FlaskMpeg releases on another server since they these releases aren't so useful anymore.

Nandub b22 is out. Nuff said. As for new features: MS MPEG-4 V2 support (don't expect any quality increase though.. the main difference between v2 and v3 (DivX) is a different motion detection algorithm (v3 is better) and different DRF contraints (v2 uses lower DRFs)), it's now possible to set the bitrate for the end credits and better cutting of AVIs with VBR audio has been incorporated. The author is also working on getting OGG Vorbis audio into AVIs but that option isn't working at the moment. Since the original rar files were corrupt I've taken the liberty to create valid archives (corrupt files removed). SmartRipper 2.28 has a few bugfixes in the IFO parsing department. Amongst others it should now work with T2-UE.

As some of you might have noticed.. I wrote "it's not possible" instead of "it's now possible" earlier. Sorry for the confusion.

vStrip 0.8 adds an UDF parser (use -u and -t to configure), a few GUI fixes, drag & drop support for the GUI, improved subtitle and language info, generic multiangle parsing, direct ASPI layer access (still without authentication for the moment though). The author hopes to get some feedback to this version so please post to the decryption forum. If there's problems with the UDF parser please include the line that "vstrip cd-drive-letter:\ -u" gave you for the file in question.

And one more thing: You all recall how hard I insist on not encoding directly off the DVD disc. Some people always thought they knew better, and as it appears I didn't even listen to my own words. For quite a while I've been listening to MP3 files on CD-R/Ws, and guess what, after about 1.5 years my DVD-ROM is screwed big time. It started a while back, more and more reading errors, certain discs wouldn't be read anymore, and now I can't even use the UDMA mode anymore, and as soon as a disc has a scratch the drive can't read it anymore. So believe me.. you do not want to ruin your drive. DVD-ROMs are sensitive, and not really made to read CD-R/Ws (slightly different wavelength -> a stretch for the laser).

I've received word from the DVD2CD team. The version that they're offering now apparently is the same as the PX3 version, and the upcoming version containing the deinterlacer will be released with source.

Furthermore: I receive a lot of mails which are not properly addressed lately. Keep in mind that only mails sent to the addresses mentioned on the contact page will be answered. Especially the following is grounds for immediate deletion: Help mail sent to the suggestion box. Program requests. Requests for homepages of programs or email addresses for certain program authors (if they wanted you to contact them they'd have put their email / URL somewhere in their program).

And a note on the 2nd flask preview: Once you've loaded your files, press the configure button, go to the post processing tab, make sure "keep aspect ratio" is checked and set it to 1:1 for DivX or 4:3 for VCD & SVCD. Now that wasn't so hard.. I found that out by checking for new options.

FlaskMpeg 0.6 preview 1.1 is the most up-to-date FlaskMpeg version, directly compiled off the CVS. It contains tons of bugfixes and resizing which is also suited for VCD and SVCD (set to 4:3 DAR for these 2 formats). bbMPEG 1.24b18 fixes some VCD and SVCD synch problems. I'm still looking for the DEMO version of I-author. All I got so far was full versions, but what I really need is a fully working demo. And while we're at it if somebody has the DVD Motion Pro demo I'd be happy to hear about it.

Some sad news: PX3 has left us for good, he won't continue working on mpeg2avi. Besides not having enough time to continue his work he didn't like DVD2CD continuing his work without respecting the GPL under which mpeg2avi is being distributed. To make this clear for everybody: it is illegal to distribute a GPL program without providing equivalent access to the source code, and a programmer must release sources of work based on GPL code upon releasing the binary. So when you're dealing with GPL code you better check out the GPL before releasing some of your work. I understand that probably most of you do not consider this a big issue but it definitely is. Without open source programs we wouldn't be at the point we are now in terms of ripping tools. And on a related subject.. slashdot has taken up the story of Vidomi. It looks like this could be the first real test of the GPL as it concerns the rather bendable 2nd paragraph.

Alphatv AVI Editor allows you to add copyright info to your AVIs without having to save the movie again.

I've updated the Nandub guide with some new information. I've also added the list of required program to every guide, including links to demo versions of commercial programs where available and links to the homepages of commercial programs.

Chip-Online Germany has published a DVD ripping article which explains SVCD encoding using FlaskMpeg and TMPG. Nothing ground breaking but it appears to become more common for computer mags to publish ripping articles, just leaving out the ripping step.

If anybody has the I-author demo please let me know.. it's no longer available at the official site. And by that I mean DEMO, the free trial version, not a full version. I have the full version but for obvious reasons I cannot offer this for download, and since the demo download is down there's no way for people to actually try out the software before making a buying decision which I consider a major problem. There has been a demo at the official site, but since they made the decision to only distribute the program in China that piece of software isn't available anywhere on their sites anymore (even the chinese one).

Woah.. that was a busy afternoon. After writing yet another exam in lot less than the allowed time and the crushing blow of having failed an important stupid, boring, school-wants-to-take-me-but-I-don't-like-the-subject course I went straight to work and reorganized the remaining VCD & SVCD guide in the fashion all the other guides have been in for a while now. While I couldn't use Flask 0.6 as planned since it's still not out I've re-used the old stuff for the time being. I've also fixed a lot of older guides, removed many completely outdated and orphaned pages as well as images, and I've created a new SVCD Pack. I've also reorganized both guide and software pages, I hope you like the changes I made. I think it's a bit easier to keep the overview (even though internally for me it's a lot more chaos to take care of.. that's the tradeoff between user friendly and admin friendly).

Nothing new in software so I'd just like to remind you that the contest is still running till the end of the month.

After giving it a lot of thought and reading thru countless suggestions on how to handle the email problem I've updated the contact rules. Please take your time to read the before you write the next mail to me or you run into serious risk of not getting an answer anymore. For the moment I have an auto-responder which will tell you to check out the new rules but eventually email which has been sent to the wrong address will no longer be answered.

Great news: No longer do you have to install (after hearing about the major bugs in the latest version I don't think anybody would want to ) EZCD any longer to burn I-Author images: CDmage can convert CIF files into CUE and BIN used by CDRWin. ZoneSelector 4.2 supports all the latest H+ drivers and Micro DVD Autorun 1.78 supports the new Micro DVD Player 1.2. Major features of the latest MDVDP are on-the-fly pan&scan, better subtitle support, better overlay support and an easier way to open files.

Thanks for all the encouraging words I received by mail since my last posts. I'm done with my frustrating programming project (remember the 19'800 errors?), just right on time to start studying for the finals. About the email issue I decided it was about time to implement a search engine. If anybody is good at such things and could point out an easily implementable solution please let me know. Another interesting issue has been raised in the forums recently: As you can see there's no advertising whatsoever on this page and I'm reluctant to add some since it's hard to control what ads get placed, and the stuff that actually pays (popups, and exit popups) are majorly annoying and I wouldn't want to inconvenience you with such things. But I'd still like to get back something for my expenses and my time, and register some programs which I'm still "trying out". Therefore I'm looking into possible ways to make online contributions. I already checked out paypal but the problem is that I can't use it with my bank account so I'm looking for a service which can be used with bank accounts in any western european country (it's a bit hard to get a bank account in another country without actually going there, isn't it? and somehow I have to get to the money).

And now for what you really came here for, the news: DVD Genie 4.00 has been brought up-to-date with all new versions of the players, fixes a few bugs, adds a 16:9 switch for the ATI player and a region code reset for WinDVD plus detection of RPC-2 drives. BTW: Don't think that just because I'm busy I would keep important developments back.. if there's a program that deserves an immediate release then it will be released immediately.. as you know, while studying you can always use a reason NOT to study ;)

People keep bugging me about updates so here we go:

Zoom Player 1.41 fixes a few issues with international versions of windows and playlist not working properly. It also add auto-repeat. CCParser has been updated to version 0.05b. S3 Subtitle Converter 0.05b can convert I-author subtitles (created in Subrip) to Scenarist subtitles. DivX Antifreeze 0.3 is a direct show filter allowing you to play DivX which contain freeze-frames. It won't look pretty but at least you won't have to use the slider to get a picture again.. great for movies done by Clueless rippers ;) Last but not least I added the latest CCE SP, of course not the full version, only the demo. But who knows.. maybe somebody comes out with an activation tool soon ;)

And now for the reason why I haven't been so active lately. First of all we have the obvious PC problem which basically puts all ripping projects to a halt. I had like 30 crashes reviewing the MPEG-4 test-clips and making the screenshots alone.. and I ended up writing the aspect ratio article twice.. which definitely wasn't fun at all. So at the moment I try to stay as far away from anything even related to DivX as possible. What makes it worse is that webpages containing Flash are also a sure crash reason.. and you never know if a page contains these.. of course I could deactivate it.. but sometimes there are stupid pages which are just not usable w/o that plugin installed. The 2nd reason is that at the moment we're getting close to the last final session (we have a lot of final sessions.. but this is the last one before summer break) plus I have a huge programming project which despite my best efforts just doesn't work and none of the people in charge of the project seem to not care whatsoever that we're just not getting there.. it's almost finished w/o any help (try going there due the scheduled hours.. nobody is there to help you out and all computers are already taken anyways). And 3rd and most important: I'm getting increasingly frustrated with what I do for this page.. the sheer number of emails I day I get where people ask things that are already explained in my guides, or they ask for warez, both of which is really hard to answer. First off.. you don't really want to simply delete such messages.. I hate when people don't bother to answer my email.. and I'm most likely not the only one to feel that way.. on the other hand such mails just take up my time for nothing. What can I say when somebody asks something which has been explained in my guide? I just copy&paste the passage out of my guide and send it back.. but already that took up some of my time. And it leaves me wondering.. is it just me doing a bad job with the guide or is the person asking simply too lazy to look it up on their own? The fact that whenever I copy&paste something I usually either get a "thank you" message back or nothing at all - in which case I assume everything worked out - lets me think that the guides aren't so bad.. and if they were... you're always welcome to make suggestions to make stuff better. So in case I'm not doing a bad job.. how am I supposed to react when somebody is too lazy to spend a couple of minutes on my site trying to find the solution to his problem? I have probably the largest ripping related FAQs on the web.. plus definitely the largest collection of guides. It's really hard to come up with a problem that can't be solved using methods on my page and tools available for download there. So.. what is asking something that I already answered? For me.. at best it's a show of disrespect.. and a blatant insult at the worst. I don't think most people mean either of that (or something in between) but this is just what I feel about the issue. And how do I react? Bite my tongue and keep copy&pasting? Takes too much time and frankly.. sometimes I feel like taking an axe and smashing my PC to pieces so frustrated I get (generally somebody asking a really basic question showing that he or she never read a single guide before). Or not answer at all? As I said I consider that option as being rude.. but unless somebody comes up with a better solution I'm afraid that's just what I have to do.. but I'd rather not. This way you can never be sure that I actually got a message.

So after rambling on for I don't know how many sentences.. now you know. I spend more than half an hour each day digging thru emails which wouldn't have been sent if the sender bothered to read up first. I'd like to recall the contact page which asks you for very specific info about your problem.. which helps me discover the real problems.. and whenever I get a mail containing such a detailed description I know that the person writing it really wants his problem solved. Just writing a single line without even saying hi first isn't the way to make me want to help you. Keep in mind what happened over at Divx Digest.. the guide author does not answer any ripping related emails anymore. You don't want this to happen over here as well.

And while we're at the subject of updates: Microsoft released Windows Media 7.1, both player, which now supports CD-ripping in windows media audio v8 and the Windows Media Encoder 7.1 which supports WMV8 now.

Just got rid of 19800+ bugs in a distributed filesystem... quite a lot of work for one day.

SmartRipper 2.27 includes bugfixes in the stream processing.

If you get a DVD where Explorer and regular Rippers can't see any VOB files it's most likely a DVD Silver, that is a pirate copy made in the far east. They're all region free and all single layer. A good example is "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" a title which has been released as an R3 dual layer disc but hasn't been out in R1 and R2 as of now. It appears that some of these discs have made it into some rental stores and people have trouble ripping them. Anyways.. sector extractor is the right software for the job.. make sure you read the included readme.

On another note.. I've been able to determine the source of my crashes a week ago but I still haven't solved the "how do I get new hardware" issue. Also, the last week has been the first one where the hitrate actually dropped below the 100'000 mark in about 5 weeks. Have I reached the zenith of success and is it time to step down gracefully?

Not much news in the ripping land, which is good since I'm more than swamped with work for school. These labs just keep coming at me faster than I can get rid of them :(

TMPG12f was released and it sports support for WAV files larger than 2GB, and cutting SVCD files works again. As usual, get the VFP plugin as well.

Just letting you know that after reading Avery's rant I decided to remove Vidomi.

Despite the end of the semester stress and the constant crashes I managed to finish the addendum to the MPEG-4 quality check. The new article features optimized SBC clips and OpenDivX clips encoded using the latest codec release.

Another vobsub is out, containing vobsub v1.54 and dvobsub 1.21. Nothing new, just bugfixes. And I returned the new MB :(((( Back to crashland.

And just a reminder: the contest is still running and we're also offering a brand new DVD of Truman Show to the winner along with a free t-shirt and a $20 amazon gift certificate. Price and hardware donations will still be accepted.

Ahhh... I found my bug. I haven't been able to determine with certainity whether it was just the MB or if the CPU also had some effect on that but I eventually will later in summer when I meet some guys who have the same CPU as I do so we can switch it. But my Geforce card is just OK (thank god.. Nvidia cards have become severely overpriced these days) and so was my HD, even though I now have a 60GB one. Now the only problem remaining: I have to get a new MB&CPU and I have no money. Anybody care to help me out in that department? I can't just not pay the rent can I?

Zoomplayer 1.40 has a huge changelog so I won't even bother listing. PowerDivX NG 2.56 adds the DivX antifreeze filter (no more freezeframes but the video still will look funny during these frames), filter property page access, sound devide selection, support for multiple languages and shell integration. It also comes with dvobsub. DirectVobSub 1.20 fixes the black screen bug and supports compressed sub files. The latest vStrip0.7_css fixes a few problems with the language display.

And last but not least: Rambus lost the patent fight. Let's hope they also lose the appeal and then we're in for cheaper RAM. Good thing sombody finally stopped their patent madness.

Now it's going to get interesting: replacement MB, CPU, GFX card and HD are almost here. Let's smoke that damned bug out (and I hope it's not my hyper expensive Geforce DDR card.. that would really piss me off big time).

Global DivX Player 1.85's changelog is so long I won't even start quoting. Subrip 0.96b is 5-10% faster and of course fixes a couple of bugs.

I've gone thru all the links in the link section and removed everything which didn't work anymore. If some URL's have changed and you don't find your favorite program anymore let me know the new URL and I'll add it.

An another note: Every month I get a lot of "broken links" emails. There ain't no such thing.. the news pages gets moved to another page and since Dreamweaver won't update the links automatically they will all become invalid. I don't have the time to update dozens of links manually, especially not when the soft is still available on the software page. And "Please note that some, if not many of the links on this page may be broken. " on every old news page should say all there is to say on the matter. And last but not least: Nero5.5 is finally out.

Mpeg2avi GUI 0.20i re-enables the F keys, supports the intel version of the latest mpeg2avi, supports the latest ac3dec and saves all settings in the registry.