Is there any difference between DVDFab and DVD Decrypter?

[Joshray]

Like the title says, is there any difference between these two programs? Why do people prefer DVDFab?

[yoda313]

Dvd decrypter is old beyond belief and not updated anymore. It morphed into imgburn for burning dvds and blurays.
(edit correction - I'm nearly certain imgburn is what dvd decrypter turned into - I could be mis-remembering that tidbit).

Dvdfab is the one that is updated frequently. The free version lags behind the paid version that updates much more frequently when new protection methods are encountered.

[Joshray]

Dvd decrypter is old beyond belief and not updated anymore. It morphed into imgburn for burning dvds and blurays.
(edit correction - I'm nearly certain imgburn is what dvd decrypter turned into - I could be mis-remembering that tidbit).

Dvdfab is the one that is updated frequently. The free version lags behind the paid version that updates much more frequently when new protection methods are encountered.

I understand but is there really much difference? These programs just have one purpose which is to copy the DVD files into hard drive byte by byte. Is DVDFab supposed to be faster?

[yoda313]

Its not a matter of speed. Its a matter of what it can decrypt. The encryption process changes all the time. You might be lucky to use an old outdated ripper to rip a "modern" dvd but that is more of a fluke than anything else.

If its not updated it becomes pretty much useless on commercial dvds. For homemade stuff that doesn't have protection any ripper from the birth of the dvd to now will work (correction again - its possible if you had some fancy and funky menu layout it might not like it but if its a standard vob layout any ripper should handle it for homemade stuff unless its a dvd-vr from some settop dvd recorders, those can trick rippers a bit) but if its commercial with protection it probably won't work on a new disc (if its not up-to-date that is).

[Kerry56]

A lot of modern dvd movies come with nothing more than simple CSS encryption. For those, DVDDecrypter is just as effective as it ever was. But a great number of new releases have some sort of structural protection that DVDDecrypter cannot deal with, and it will fail to decrypt them.

That is why people use DVDFab, as it is updated to deal with these newer protections. Plus it has some capabilities that Decrypter never did have, like compression to smaller sizes.

Personally, I much prefer AnyDVD HD. But there is no free version of AnyDVD.

[manono]

I understand...

Apparently you don't, but maybe the two posts directly below where you made that comment will help you to understand.

Me, I use DVDDecrypter on about 99% of the retail DVDs with which I work. But I work with old movies. If you work with Hollywood's latest and greatest, DVD Decrypter is pretty useless these days.

[Hoser Rob]

You should be comparing dvddecrypter with dvdfab hd decrypter, which is the free (and best) part of dvdfab and only takes out the copy protection. There are much better free encoders than theirs.

Actually dvddecrypter has some features other rippers like dvdfab lack, like manipulating chapters. I guess that's why there are still so many people using it. But what good is that if it won't rip many dvds made in the last 6 or 7 years? And the interface is harder for noobs.

[yoda313]

But what good is that if it won't rip many dvds made in the last 6 or 7 years?

Actually you could have anydvd running in the background and then use any ripper you want to. - and isn't there a version of dvdfab that will do the same thing - run in the background to let you use something like dvdshrink that isn't updated anymore?

I haven't tried it but can you rip with dvdfab and then "rerip" it once its on the harddrive? I know its more work but in theory you could still rip the ripped disc like you wanted to in the first place.

Edit - I suppose you could mount the ripped disc as an iso on the harddrive and then be able to rip it again as a "virtual" disc just as if it was a real disc.