I used to use AnyDVD with Shrink. What is good now?

[JoeLansing]

I've still got my paid for AnyDVD key. Is this still a good copy protection stripper? I don't mind paying. My goal is an easy way to output to AVI or maybe MP4. I find AVI more compatible, but could deal with MP4. Would just AnyDVD with one of the other SlySoft products be ok? After like 8 years Slysoft is still emailing me about every update to AnyDVD and I respect that. I wouldn't mind buying another of their products at all. But I want something easy to use that just works. I did a ton of AnyDVD>DVDshrink back in the day. I'm looking for something as easy?- Joe

[redwudz]

You might try the freeware VidCoder. It's a front end for Handbrake and very easy to use. I run AnyDVD HD in the background. It's still the best decrypter, IMO.
I put the DVDs into my optical drive and convert directly from them to MKV. It also does MP4 format. I use a target size of about 2GB and the quality seems good to me. Takes me about 15 minutes per conversion.

[steptoe]

AnyDVD HD has yet to be beaten, and its still updated very quickly if/when new protections are found. DVDFab Decrypter is a close 2nd, and has handled a couple of rips that AnyDVD just kept failing on for some reason


Just suggesting, why not rip your discs to hard drive first to save wear and stress on the DVD player. Plus your hard drive should be much faster than your DVD player drive

15 minutes per conversion including ripping is pretty quick though !!



I also use VidCoder and has pretty much every option you care to fiddle with if you want to, its updated almost as quick as a new release of handbrake is released (to keep the core updated) and has very simple to use default options that almost do it for you

[redwudz]

The reason I convert directly from disc is that it takes me about the same amount of time to rip the disc to a HDD, then convert, as it does to directly convert from the DVD disc, so really no increased wear on my drives. And I don't have a HDD rip file to delete after conversion. And since I have three optical drives, I can do batch conversions unattended.


For my VidCoder MKV settings, I use a Constant Quality of 19.3 and turn the Detelecine and the Decomb filters to Default, the audio set to AC3 Passthrough and leave all other settings at default. This results in about a 1.3GB file.

[Kerry56]

Every now and again you'll run into a movie that is a problem to decrypt properly on the fly. I believe Slysoft recommends ripping those to the hard drive with their built in ripper first, before trying to work with them.

But I work with blu ray almost exclusively these days instead of dvds, and I always rip them first.

[nic2k4]

I did a ton of AnyDVD>DVDshrink back in the day.

I take it you were backing DVD's back in the day, converting to AVI doesn't require DVDshrink. Doing it like redwudz is definitely the fastest.

I still use Shrink to trim the beginning of movies before converting with AutoGK, but that's my preference. You can just as easily trim AVI's with Vdub.

DVDfab HD Decrypter is fine if you want a free ripper, but you may have to wait 3 months to be able to decrypt some new movies, unless you paid for a license. If you're gonna pay for something might as well be AnyDVD, then you can convert on the fly and save time.