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

[lingyi]

Here's a chart of what can be contained in an .mkv container (second table): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_container_formats

[orsetto]

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

Predictably.

Still, the discussion might be of value to others with similar questions.

Re all the "just use MakeMKV, WTH on earth would anyone want a dvd ripper, you people are crazy" posts: your advice is sound, but you're missing the point why some users of AnyDVD (including myself) prefer to keep it functional as long as it doesn't require ridiculous drastic measures.

Integrated apps like MakeMKV are fine if all you want to do is rip a DVD directly into an MKV container to use on a home media server, or for further manipulation in other software.

The advantage of AnyDVD (or DVDfab Decrypter, for that matter) is their independence from any particular app. Their sole purpose is to run in the background, silently eliminating any CP or region issues, in support of whatever related apps we might want to use that do not include their own embedded decrypter. The most common instance of this for me is using simple "rip-n-recode" apps like CloneDVDMobile for a one step, one click conversion of TV series DVDs into individual episodes re-encoded to a file type, size and resolution best suited to tablets and phones. AnyDVD running in the background makes this easy, if it were to die on me like it did for bearcat22 it would make this task less convenient. Doing the same thing with MakeMKV would require ripping to a huge MKV, then using other software to break up the episodes, reduce the file sizes and possibly repackage as MP4. Not that big a deal, not that difficult, but more steps and more time consuming than I want to be bothered with.

At the moment I haven't had any significant difficulty keeping my old AnyDVD alive. The decryption library hasn't been updated since the RedFox takeover, but I don't need those updates since all the discs I work with pre-date the last original AnyDVD release. Should I ever need a more current decrypter, off I go to DVDfab or MakeMKV.