"ratDVD" compression - Better than Shrink?

[anonymez]

Hello everybody, i came accross a new bit of software today, called 'ratDVD'. it claims to compress dvd9's down to about 1gig with almost no loss in quality. its freeware ofcourse, and i will get to testing when i have time. till then, give feedback

the format supposedly keeps menus, extras, multiple audio streems, etc. so its a 1:1 copy.

http://www.ratdvd.dk/index.htm

[Movie_viewer1]

Interesting, please post your results on this new software.

[setarip]

From the website:

"ratDVD takes a full featured DVD movie and puts it into a highly compressed .ratDVD container format file"

This would be a format playable only on your PC...


The website indicates that you can RE-convert to fully compliant DVD format...

It looks VERY interesting for harddrive playback...

[anonymez]

my mistake, post edited

[setarip]

"post edited"

Mine also ;>}

Do let us know your opinion of this new competitor...

Actually, the more I think of it, this program actually competes with the likes of DivX-compression, XviD-compression and the like - but it in no way competes with DVD Shrink.

On the surface, it sounds like an excellent program - regardless of its stated purpose of use with (illicit) Internet downloading of DVD files...

[tidefire47]

So, does it work. Do you think it's better than DVD Shrink?

[setarip]

To tidefire47

It has nothing to do with, and is in now way comparable to DVD Shrink...


Be wary of highly opinionated and often unsubstantiated statements made in response to your questions at these forums...

[Scarpad]

Ok I did some tests tonight and some more are ongoing. This is an interesting program. Here's what I did. I pulled an episode of Space 1999 off one of the disks. The Ep was about 2.5 Gigs. I chose this show becasue one it's film and two it's quite Large for TV on DVD. I also took Disk 1 of the Show "The Job" and did that. And Right Now I'm doing movie only of Criterion's Disk of "The Rock"

Impressions.

Disk one of "The Job" took about 4 Hours. This was on my Centrino Laptop.
I kept the default 95%. The Result 1.2 Gb. All menu's intact. Now I can only view this on my Laptop, but my Dell 700m has a pretty nice screen. And I compared it to the original. One person said his result was soft. I don't see that. Occasionally you do see some Macroblocking but overall this is a very nice result.

The single Episode of 1999 reduced down from 2.5 Gb to 450mb at 95%.
Once again very close to the original except to the macroblocking. I would say it looks like a very well encoded High Bitrate Xvid, and probably comparable to Nero Digital's Cinema Template.

The Macroblocking may keep this from being usuable on my 96" Projector, but I'm hazarding a guess here that on my 30" Widescreen Samsung I'd be Hard Press to tell the difference. And Keep in mind this is the First release and you can do better than 95% if you'll accept hight file size.

The Negative aspect would definately be that for know you have to use WMP10. I'm hoping eventually more players will be compatible, I personally use Theatertek, but Hell I'd settle for Nero Showtime 2.

I can see this as very usable for someone that wants to encode either Single TV Eps or their entire Disks for a TV Server.

I'll report Back after I see what happens with "The Rock" and see how it looks via the Projector.....

[DiscoInferno]

Can it handle protected movies or do they have to be decrypted first? I tried it using a region 2 "The Princess Bride" reading from dvd drive and it froze at 1% What method are you using? Reading ripped files from harddrive?

[setarip]

"Can it handle protected movies or do they have to be decrypted first?"

Information at the publisher's/author's site indicates that it cannot independently process encrypted DVDs...

[DiscoInferno]

ah yes, so it does. wonder if dvd43 will work alongside....

[DiscoInferno]

Nope, it doesnt.

[blutach]

See http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=95287

Very mixed reactions and you gotta do the project overnight.

Regards

[cynthia]

Originally posted by DiscoInferno
Nope, it doesnt.

Thanks for the test.

[DiscoInferno]

I dont see why it doesnt work though. I tried 3 region 2 movies and only "Blade 2" got as far as the menu. But because of the length of time Ratdvd takes i couldnt be bothered to try anymore. Works fine reading and converting ripped files though. Like Scarpad said, looks like a good quality xvid movie. Havent done a restore yet.