labDV newsletter
SPECIAL DVDx 2.4 RELEASE!
Contents:
- DVDx: new 2.4 release is out!
- DVDx: using DVDx for the first time
- DVDx: copy DVD movie to play in your iPOD
- DVDx: the MPEG2Dec initialization error
- DVDx: copying DVD to DivX, upgrade to 6.1.1
- French users: latest Trad-fr updates
- Friends top ten: sites who link to labDV.com
- Software at labDV.com: updates and adds
- New VIP Pass: 1-Year Pass for $33.00 (€28.00)
March 20th, 2006
1. DVDx: new 2.4 release is out!
The brand new DVDx .4 version has been released, enjoy the new features and new performance:
- DVDx 2.4 is optimized for Intel Pentium 4, Intel Pentium M, new Pentium 4 with SSE3 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 3) and for compatible Intel processors (new AMD Athlon 64 Venice and San Diego support SSE3). Latest Celeron and Sempron support SSE3 as well.
- DVDx 2.4 is faster than DVDx 2.3
With SSE2 |
With SSE3 |
||
| VCD | +12% |
+15% |
|
| SVCD | +5% |
+10% |
|
| DivX | +5% |
+5% |
- Help menu has been added to provide access to the Guide and FAQ locally and to the support forum and new version pages at labDV.
- The FAQ and the Skin Guide are now installed locally.
- Contextual help (F1 key) has been activated for all DVDx windows (main window, settings, chaptering).
- The code has been cleaned up in the CVS repository at SourceForge (Windows \n chars, new pragmas, variable casting) so is much easier to compile and ready for Visual Studio 2005. The new reference platform is VC++ 6.0, VC ToolKit 2003, DirectX 9 and Intel C++ 9.0 compiler.
- A second installer is also available to run multiple DVDx versions on your PC: DVDx_2_4_setup_noup.exe will not upgrade your current DVDx installation so you can compare versions.
All release details will be found in the Readme_1st file.
Now you can encode a SVCD in real time (25FPS) with DVDx 2.4 running on a Pentium 4D 830 (Dual Core 3GHz) and encode a DivX at 75FPS. So you can encode a 1h30 movie in 30 minutes, including the DeCSS process, which makes DVDx likely the fastest DVD ripping solution ever!
DVDx related links:
We recommend to get a 1-year VIP Pass (for $33.00 or €28.00) and download DVDx 2.4 from labDV.com but you can also get DVDx from SourceForge.net, we've updated the CVS repository and file release.
2. DVDx: using DVDx for the first time
New DVDx users frequently ask how to use DVDx for the first time and quickly encode a DVD movie on their PC.
If you want to make a VCD or SVCD instead of a DivX file please go to the DVDx Starter Guide page..., to quickly make a DivX file, here's a quick startup guide:
The complete DVDx starter guide will be published soon at
http://www.labdv.com./guide/dvdripandcopy/dvdx-starter-guide-en.html
3. DVDx: copy DVD movie to play in your iPOD
DVDx is more and more popular so you may find several third-party guides off of the web. We've been asked several times to explain how to encode a movie for and Apple® iPOD so here's a solution:
The most popular how-to has been published by Fabienne Serriere and now hosted at SharewareGuide.net:
http://www.sharewareguide.net/article/Tip/dvd-to-ipod-(with-video)-in-windows.html
What you will need:
- a DVD to AVI ripper program (they used the free DVDx 2.3)
- an AVI to MOV (quicktime) program (they used the trial version of Xilisoft Video Converter)
- the new iTunes 6.0 (free download from Apple).
Of course we recommend to use the latest DVDx 2.4 release.
For DVDx experienced user, the IPOD preparation with DVDx is to create a DivX movie 320x240 or any other iPOD compliant resolution with 4:3 letterbox. And then convert the DivX into QuickTime movie (.mov).
4. DVDx: the MPEG2Dec initialization error
Frequently some new DVDx users post on support forum about the error:
And often, this error follows the read error:
This happens when DVDx fails to unlock the DVD protection, and thus can't read it. The solution is to unlock the DVD with another software: any DVD player software installed on the PC will do it.
For example, if WinDVD is installed on your PC, launch it, start reading a few seconds the DVD movie and then close WinDVD, open the DVD in DVDx and it should work.
This behavior will be addressed in a further release.
If you install DVD Region Free on your PC, you'll never face this error and you'll be able to read DVDs with any Region Code.
5. DVDx: copying DVD to DivX, upgrade to 6.1.1
DVDx is likely the fastest solution ever to copy a DVD into a DivX file because the DVD reading (and decrypting) is done while encoding to DivX.
Alternative solutions require to copy the DVD to the hard drive with DVD Decrypter (or SmartRipper or any other DVD ripping software) which takes about 30 minutes, and then the encoding time is added. So with a 75FPS encoding speed for a 1:30 PAL (25FPS) movie, the total ripping time of alternative software is 1 hour. While DVDx will take less than 32 minutes (at 72FPS).
We encourage you to upgrade your DivX codec to latest 6.1.1 version which is very fast on Pentium 4D computers. On a $1,000 consumer HP Pavilion with a Intel Pentium 830D, the encoding DVDx frame rate is 72FPS with DivX Pro 6.1.1.
6. French users: latest Trad-fr updates
From French-spoking users, here are the latest software translations from Trad-Fr.com:
WinAVI iPod/PSP/3GP/MP4 Video Converter 2.2.1
DVD95Copy Split/Lite/Xpress/Pro 3.4 Fr
WinAVI Video Converter 7.1.1
ImgBurn 1.0.0.0 Fr
VirtualDub-MPEG2 1.6.11 b23787 Fr
DGMPEGDec 1.4.5 Fr
This website also offers French localized versions of many video freeware.
7. Friends top ten: sites who link to labDV.com
This rubric is to thanks labDV friends who link their web sites to labDV.com:
- ASCROCCO.IT
- PLANETE RAJIL
- Lonely Cat Games
- Doom9
- bbMPEG's Home Page
- ãå¾ï¼·ï¼¥ï¼¢
- TUTTOGRATIS.IT
- dvd.pagina.nl
- dvd-dezone.net
- PCtipp
Major search engine aren't part of this list (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Excite and Web Crawler).
8. Software at labDV.com: updates and adds
Now there are 210 software available from labDV.com, most of them are freeware.
New software added in February and March
In audio, AC3-ACM Codec is a AC-3 ACM Codec by fccHandler for Video-For-Windows (VFW) applications like VirtualDub.
In video editing, VirtualDub MPEG2 is a MPEG-2 (and ASF, WMV) upgrade for VirtualDub 1.6.11 by fccHandler, this version cannot decompress AC-3 audio. If you need AC-3 support, try AC-3 ACM Codec from this author.
In DVD copying, DVDx 2.4 is the new release of DVDx after 2 years sleeping and DVD2AVI 1.77.3 recompiled and DGMPEGDec is the re-birth of brilliant DVD2AVIfreeware.
Apologies: two files (avi2vcd_ver1_4_3.zip and BeSweet 1.5b31) were requested a lot but missing on the download server, we apologize for this and the files are now available.
Latest software updates
- Audio (compression and editing)
- AC3ACM.zip
- AVI-Mux GUI 1.17.4
- BeSweet (beta) 1.5b31 (file was missing)
- Authoring DVD and (S)VCD
- CDRWIN 4.0B
- DVD copying
- DVDx_2_3_setup.zip
- DVD2AVI 1.77.3
- DGMPGDec 1.4.6
- Encoding (MPEG)
- avi2vcd_ver1_4_3.zip (file was missing)
- Video editing
- VirtualDub MPEG2 1.6.11
9. New VIP Pass: 1-Year Pass for $33.00 (€28.00)
Now you can register as a labDV VIP for 1-Year to access the whole labDV library, a lot of Digital Video articles and how-to's as well as a huge Digital Video software database, most of them are free.
The 1-Year VIP Pass is only US$ 33.00 (€28.00) and joining us is a strong support for all our efforts such as our ambitious 2006 roadmap for DVDx!
And you can still join us for US$15.00 (€12.00) for a 3-months VIP Pass.
