.........I want it EASY and DUMB

[bearcat22]

Thank you for taking a look.
Please answer as if you were speaking to someone who knows NOTHING about computers or software.

I purchased AnyDVD and CloneDVD, years ago.
The version says April 2011, could have been that was when I got them.
The bank account and email address I had then are LONG gone, no way to get the license email they say I should have.

They were installed on a Win 7 PC, which is now having severe BSOD issues.
They still work on that computer just fine, when it runs.

However, I purchased a new computer, Win 10, and wanted to move them over.

What I did not know is that AnyDVD got shut down by the law and taken over by new guys who changed the name and raised the price.
My license is now nonexistent, and they're trying to tell me I have to fork over $120 USD to get a new license.
Not gonna happen.

CloneDVD still launches just fine.

So, I started looking for a replacement.
I know this is a tall order, but I wanted:

---Not just a trial version
---Free or low cost. At my income level five dollars would be low.
----No adware, spyware, cross-sell add-ons, malware, virus
----Easy to use for a NON technical person.

What I love about AnyDVD is it is ONE BUTTON and DONE.

I don't have to choose among a milion settings and buttons and tabs and drop down menus that I don't understand.

I'm not looking for exotic, or perfection.

So, I tried out MKV. It wasn't intuitive.

I think the hardest part of any of this for me, is, serioulsly, once something is created,
I can't find it again. I don't understand how to locate the files and put them into a converter.

My computer is a huge mess. I open the desktop folder where I thought I told MKV to put stuff....and it is completely empty.

Then, it has to be converted? That's a pain.

Tried AVStoDVD, but the tutorial forum images DO NOT MATCH what I see on my screen.
I guess versions changed, or something.

For example, they guy says, "in this example, I tell it to make an ISO, so that I can preview it."
That sounded good to me, but that option was GREYED OUT and unselectable.

At any rate, stumbling around with zero clue and a lot of frustration,
I ended up with a burned disk.

Took out, put back in and tried to play.
Windows Media Player can't "see" it.
I really despise VLC for it's hugely complex nonintutive and frustrating interface, but at least VLC did play it....but NO SOUND!
WTF?

I don't actually care which tools I use to replace AnyDVD.
but they have got to be so easy that a retarded three year old would intuitively understand them.
AnyDVD was ONE BUTTON, no settings needed, then CloneDVD did a magnificent job.

AVStoDVD now keeps getting Stuck on this horrible "choose subtitles" menu. It says "limit 3", but no matter what you do, what you check,
this box WILL NOT CLOSE OR GO AWAY.

I actually had to use Task Manager to close out of AVStoDVD!

/
/


I have BurnAware Free on this machine, if that matters.

[october262]

DVDFab HD Decrypter - https://www.dvdfab.cn/hd-decrypter.htm

[davexnet]

You mean this screen? Select or deselect the subs as needed, small red "X" upper right corner to save and close

[bearcat22]

You mean this screen? Select or deselect the subs as needed, small red "X" upper right corner to save and close

Yes, that screen.

it DOES NOT MATTER what I select, or if I select NOTHING. the RED X does NOTHING, will NOT CLOSE NO MATTER WHAT.

why am I SHOUTING....?

Becuse this is not the way it HAS to be.......when AnyDVD was working, I put in a disk, pressed ONE button, and automatically DONE with
no need of all this junk.

[bearcat22]

DVDFab HD Decrypter - https://www.dvdfab.cn/hd-decrypter.htm

That is WORTHLESS without an EXPLANATION of exactly what it is, why you cite it, and how it works.

[jagabo]

DVDFab HD Decrypter - https://www.dvdfab.cn/hd-decrypter.htm

That is WORTHLESS without an EXPLANATION of exactly what it is, why you cite it, and how it works.

Too hard to click on the link?

[bearcat22]

DVDFab HD Decrypter - https://www.dvdfab.cn/hd-decrypter.htm

That is WORTHLESS without an EXPLANATION of exactly what it is, why you cite it, and how it works.

Too hard to click on the link?

usually NOT SAFE to click on a link, especially from a stranger, especially when NO EXPLANATION is given after I have clearly said that I know nothing about all this.

If what you link to is good, why NOT explain?

Lots and lots and lots of scams, adware, cross sells, spyware, malware, virus, ransomware, phony "free" that turns out to be a four day "trial".

Nope.

Not easy to click on a link with ZERO information, ZERO reason to trust you.

[davexnet]

You mean this screen? Select or deselect the subs as needed, small red "X" upper right corner to save and close

Yes, that screen.

it DOES NOT MATTER what I select, or if I select NOTHING. the RED X does NOTHING, will NOT CLOSE NO MATTER WHAT.

why am I SHOUTING....?

Becuse this is not the way it HAS to be.......when AnyDVD was working, I put in a disk, pressed ONE button, and automatically DONE with
no need of all this junk.

The installer version of this program install will install the VB6 common controls. See this (from the help):
Even if you installed the portable version you can use the BAT file to install as mentioned in the NOTE

[lingyi]

DVDFab HD Decrypter - https://www.dvdfab.cn/hd-decrypter.htm

That is WORTHLESS without an EXPLANATION of exactly what it is, why you cite it, and how it works.

Too hard to click on the link?

usually NOT SAFE to click on a link, especially from a stranger, especially when NO EXPLANATION is given after I have clearly said that I know nothing about all this.

If what you link to is good, why NOT explain?

Lots and lots and lots of scams, adware, cross sells, spyware, malware, virus, ransomware, phony "free" that turns out to be a four day "trial".

Nope.

Not easy to click on a link with ZERO information, ZERO reason to trust you.

In general this is true, but instead of YELLING at an established member on any forum, you might look up their profile and posting history. In the case of october262, you'll see he's been here since 2006 and a trusted and reputable member of this forum.

Forums are like a party. Don't jump on or jump to conclusions until you've checked out the room and see who is who.

Edit: If you did a search on this forum for hd-dvddecrypter or noticed that it was a highlighted link like AnyDVD and CloneDVD are in your OP, you'd see that it's a highly recommended program listed in the software section of this forum.

BTW: Lack of computer knowledge is no excuse of bad netiquette. Especially YELLING!

[cornemuse]

If you have anydvd that is (2011) 8 yrs old, that is 'slysoft'. It does not work on most new dvds. slysoft is gone.
Try 'Redfox' anydvd. Click on anydvd in your post #1, newest version. Or highlighted in this post.

[orsetto]

If you have anydvd that is (2011) 8 yrs old, that is 'slysoft'. It does not work on most new dvds. slysoft is gone.
Try 'Redfox' anydvd. Click on anydvd in your post #1, newest version. Or highlighted in this post.

OP is pretty clear that this is the one option he absolutely does NOT want to avail himself of. Like many former SlySoft clients who paid upwards of $200 for a "Lifetime" bundle license, he is nonplussed in the extreme that the company croaked, then regrouped under a new name and voided all previous AnyDVD license keys. The whole matter has triggered vigorous debates in multiple forums for years now: while the logical thing to do is eat the loss and move on with RedFox AnyDVD, a huge percentage of users just really resents being dinged for another $120 (and/or is really suspicious of RedFox in general as an entity to send money to).

Another subgroup isn't particularly interested in getting AnyDVD updated: they aren't much interested in whatever latest discs the SlySoft version can't decrypt. Mostly they use it for ripping older movie and TV series discs to more portable formats (or killing problematic region codes). But keeping the SlySoft version alive and functional can be difficult if a Win7 PC needs a system reinstall, or the person migrates to a newer PC + newer OS. Depending on configuration, the old version of AnyDVD may insist on contacting the old servers to verify itself: when this fails it punks out and won't work. And of course if you lost your old AnyDVD license key document, it won't work at all after a reinstall. If you can find a copy of your key document, the old AnyDVD can eventually be forced to skip its "contact dead servers" loop, but without that key document AnyDVD is toast.

bearcat22, the only lower-cost current replacement for AnyDVD is the DVDFab product october262 referred you to. It deccrypts great, but isn't as simple to use as AnyDVD, and its "passkey" nonsense drives me out of my skull to the point I keep going back to my still-functional old AnyDVD. If you're unwilling or unable to deal with the somewhat arcane DVDfab decrypter, the only alternative is to cave and give RedFox their ransom payment to reactivate AnyDVD.

[jagabo]

Someone should do to SlySoft what SlySoft did to Hollywood: crack their copy protection. That would be good payback for their crimes! Of course, that's a lot of work and there are relatively few people with the ability to do it. I suppose the intersection of people with the ability, people with the time, and people pissed off enough at SlySoft -- is zero. But I wonder if anyone has tried making a virtual drive out of a working AnyDVD boot drive and running it via VMWare or VirtualPC. Or installing AnyDVD onto a VM drive. Installing the original AnyDVD isn't an option anymore but it might be possible with the new product.

[netmask56]

I never have problems of making backup copies of my discs using MakeMKV, all play on my Popcorn A500 and Beyonwiz V2. On occasions I've used the MKV version to make a shrunk copy to mp4 for my iPad using Vidcoder and a DVD for my player in my workshop. Although I have a lifetime license for DVDFab I haven't yet had to use it

[cornemuse]

What I did not know is that AnyDVD got shut down by the law and taken over by new guys who changed the name and raised the price.

Yep, its slysofts own fault that they went and died. (actually got killed)

Another subgroup isn't particularly interested in getting AnyDVD updated: they aren't much interested in whatever latest discs the SlySoft version can't decrypt. Mostly they use it for ripping older movie and TV series discs to more portable formats (or killing problematic region codes). But keeping the SlySoft version alive and functional can be difficult if a Win7 PC needs a system reinstall, or the person migrates to a newer PC + newer OS. Depending on configuration, the old version of AnyDVD may insist on contacting the old servers to verify itself: when this fails it punks out and won't work. And of course if you lost your old AnyDVD license key document, it won't work at all after a reinstall. If you can find a copy of your key document, the old AnyDVD can eventually be forced to skip its "contact dead servers" loop, but without that key document AnyDVD is toast.

For me, not too often does redfox not rip new vids, they occasionally cannot rip older vids, I have a seperate comp with slysoft installed to rip the older ones that redfox cant rip. For the co$t involved, I kept/keep the license keys for both secure. It has never been an issue of not being connected to the net for either version. these offline computers run (HA! HA!) XP 32 & 64 & work just fine. I have redfox on '7' & on '10' (seperate) comps but rarely use them. Works best with XP pro 32.

[dellsam34]

DVDfab has a trial reset app, don't PM me just do your homework, Slysoft had some sort of work around for the trial, never paid a dime to them and I ripped a lot of discs, I don't know about their new redfox software, I left the hobby anyway. I found it much easier and cheaper to stream from professional HD/4k libraries rather than going into the hassle of building my own very limited library. There are a lot of them out there, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple, YoutubeTV ....etc.

[netmask56]

I really don't understand why persevere with using antiquated software when you can wrap the DVD in a MKV container making a MKV file. It will play on any suitable media player. If you really want to make a physical disc (why!!!) then use the MKV and AVStoDVD or Vidcoder to shrink MKV file..

[Budman1]

Using DVDFab Passkey Free has never been a problem for me. You start it, let it do its thing (Timer runs for 15 seconds then launches and reads/decrypts the DVD. )

Many DVD's and Windows version have a problem even copying the VOB files due to copy guards that lie about file size, Number of frames, Frame Rate, etc. that Windows will not play nice with. DVDFab just runs in the background and makes your DVD look, play and copy as if it were not copy guarded.

The Only downside is you have to do your own copy/convert with another program such as one that converts to MP4 with avc/264 video and audio copy.

[Attachment 50554 - Click to enlarge]

[cornemuse]

I really don't understand why persevere with using antiquated software when you can wrap the DVD in a MKV container making a MKV file. It will play on any suitable media player. If you really want to make a physical disc (why!!!) then use the MKV and AVStoDVD or Vidcoder to shrink MKV file..

I still dont understand why MKV package is better than ISO image. Is it the same image quality and smaller? I have an almost new media player (Micca) that plays ISO, VOB, MKV, etc, among others.

Why is MKV better or prefered, as opposed to all others?

[dellsam34]

I personally never bought into mkv, Always have full BD-ROM images either on HDD or on a BD-R, I believe mkv compresses the original movie therefore a slight quality is lost in the process.

[jan5678]

It depends on what you want as output, iso? dvd structure? file format like mkv?

On what device will you playback?

Personally i use makemkv, rip a disc to mkv and play it with kodi, it always works.
It is simple to use and works on Windows, mac and Linux

Makemkv is the simplest solution imho, no need for a decrypter in the background

Just my2c

[usually_quiet]

I really don't understand why persevere with using antiquated software when you can wrap the DVD in a MKV container making a MKV file. It will play on any suitable media player. If you really want to make a physical disc (why!!!) then use the MKV and AVStoDVD or Vidcoder to shrink MKV file..

I still dont understand why MKV package is better than ISO image. Is it the same image quality and smaller? I have an almost new media player (Micca) that plays ISO, VOB, MKV, etc, among others.

Why is MKV better or prefered, as opposed to all others?

More media players can play MKVs than DVD ISO images.

An MKV produced by MakeMKV does not contain menus, so it isn't accurate to say claim it wraps the DVD in a MKV container. However, MakeMKV does copy the original audio and video on the disc into the MKV file rather than re-encoding it. It can include the subtitles too although not all media players can use DVD subs muxed into the MKV. Some require SRT subs as separate files in the same folder as the MKV.

[usually_quiet]

Double post

[lingyi]

It depends on what you want as output, iso? dvd structure? file format like mkv?

On what device will you playback?

Personally i use makemkv, rip a disc to mkv and play it with kodi, it always works.
It is simple to use and works on Windows, mac and Linux

Makemkv is the simplest solution imho, no need for a decrypter in the background

Just my2c

+1

In general, I don't like menus, especially if the only thing is want is the main movie. I only keep the full .iso structure for DVDs that has extras. Otherwise, I strip them down to the main movie only,

For Blu-Ray, the menu and trailers can be multiple unnecessary GBs. In addition, since PotPlayer is my main media player, I don't want to have to install another player, just to play a Blu-Ray .iso.

I especially hate elaborate menus that make you wait for it to fully load before you can navigate to what you want.

Even for discs with multiple videos (e.g. series), I used to think it was more convenient to have a menu to navigate the episodes, but realized that it was just as easy to either manually choose the next episode in File Explorer or just hit the next button on PotPlayer to play the next episode.

I don't stream my videos, but as discussed in numerous threads, being able to access menus through streaming programs is very difficult, if possible at all.

[netmask56]

As I mentioned earlier, I have transferred all my disc collection to my NAS and play from that. Haven't used my DVD or Blu ray player for years. Discs are stored away from prying eyes and sticky fingers! They are my backup... I generally just want to watch the movie and not interested in all the carry on playing a disc going through copyright screens eventually getting to the menu. MakeMKV can also save the extras as a separate mkv file if needed... very flexible. If for instance the particular media player can't handle DVD style subtitles it's a simple matter to find a SRT version or for that matter use subtitle edit to convert to srt. The days of mucking about with ISO's is past for me... very last century!

[p_l]

The days of mucking about with ISO's is past for me... very last century!

Well, last decade for me. But yeah, MakeMKV is very useful. For nostaligia's sake or for hard backup, though, I'll occasionally burn a DVD or AVCHD or Blu-ray.

I should burn a VCD this decade just for the bragging rights.

[netmask56]

I do find that on occasions the "solutions" rather than following the KISS principle are "over engineered" or have complex unfriendly almost ritualistic procedures.

[Budman1]

Looks like Bearcat quit this thread a while back ...

[lingyi]

I personally never bought into mkv, Always have full BD-ROM images either on HDD or on a BD-R, I believe mkv compresses the original movie therefore a slight quality is lost in the process.

MakeMKV remuxes into an .mkv container and there's no compression or quality loss. There is a slight reduction in file size because the extra info in the .vob and .ts containers are removed. As I've posted in several other threads, it's like buying a cake, taking it out of the box and putting it in a round home cake container. The content is the same, but it takes slightly less room. Same thing with remuxing to .mp4.

[dellsam34]

MakeMKV remuxes into an .mkv container and there's no compression or quality loss. There is a slight reduction in file size because the extra info in the .vob and .ts containers are removed. As I've posted in several other threads, it's like buying a cake, taking it out of the box and putting it in a round home cake container. The content is the same, but it takes slightly less room. Same thing with remuxing to .mp4.

I've seen illegal .mkv downloads for 44GB movies that are 7GB in size files which implicated mkv into compression but I don't know how the Russians did it, Possibly wrap a lossy format into mkv?

[jagabo]

I've seen illegal .mkv downloads for 44GB movies that are 7GB in size files which implicated mkv into compression but I don't know how the Russians did it, Possibly wrap a lossy format into mkv?

Those movies were reencoded to lower bitrates to make them smaller. MakeMKV has no ability to reencode the video. It only remuxes from DVD VOB or BD M2TS into MKV, with no loss of quality.

MKV is just a container, a logical "box" for holding video and audio (and other stuff). You can put whatever you want in it.