@37, i use first name and the key work fine

@38 You can try WinX DVD Author. It is easy to use and you can edit your own menu. Plus it is easy simple and easy to use. It worked great for me.

@Adam Murphy. I used to use DvdRemakePro although I haven't done it for quite a while. It was the only program that could combine two DVD's into one while keeping the menus. It has been about two years since I combined my last copy, so there might be a few new ones out there, though. Hope this helps.

To Dr. KaushaL PateL, #37.

To register the stuff, use any name you like. Homer Simpson, Lee Harvey Oswald, Cthulhu... Dr. KaushaL PateL seams also sutable.

"And those of us who use a MAC get nothing?

Those of us with macs can use handbrake which is always free.

When I installed the DVD Ripper I did not use a name to register. It worked fine. When I installed the Converter no registration came up. I was confused until I figured out that the buttons on the bottom was how the program works. Bad documentation and the writing behind the menu is annoying.

Anyone know of a program that has really good DvD Menu editing and creation.
I want to put two DvD's with their Menus on one disc n create a master menu to choose which DvD I want to play. I have seen Hodgi-copies made like this so it must be possible.

When registering the ripper it requires a name besides the number, what name do I use?

@Alan Ascher, there have been some MAC titles, from Paragon among others if I'm not mistaken, and they were excellent titles at that, I would suggest staying tuned as the MAC titles, though decidedly scarce, are real must-get gems when they arrive!

And those of us who use a MAC get nothing?

#13: "I’m looking for something that will convert AVI/DIVx to DVD and will cost me nothing."

If you have DivX files, most video software will use it as input, but since so many DVD players already play DivX you may not want to bother.

If you do want to convert to DVD, the 1st question is with/without menus, & the degree of customization you want for those menus. If you want subs that also makes a difference. That stuff determines which free DVD app you want to use -- your choice might take the DivX as is, or you might have to convert to mpg2, DVD ready video & ac3 audio. As with most things video, start at the end -- IOW with what you want to have when you're done -- & work backwards.

#25: "This is chinese reseller junk sofware that they don’t write. A lot of chinese “Converter Spammers” are popping up lately."

FWIW, there are a lot of rippers & such out of China & their neighbors because you can't get away with releasing that stuff in the US or EU. DVD specs are still a *secret* -- you have to pay a lot & sign a NDA. Ripping etc requires knowledge gained by reverse engineering, which AFAIK is more or less illegal, e.g. Real came out with a similar app & was forced to pull it within a few days. If you in effect own the market, you're going to also own the crooks, like spammers.

"Its all the same software under different names."

Again FWIW, at least with those on GOTD I've carefully looked at, not at all. Yes there are a couple that appear under more than one name, but that's the exception more than the rule. Yes they often use some of the same code, but with so many based on ffmpeg, that's expected -- why reinvent the wheel?

"Most of their so called software does not work. And anything that any of their overpriced software claims to do can be done better with freeware"

IMHO yes & no... If it's on GOTD, it works [no claims made on how well, or on every system, but it does work or it wouldn't be here] -- no idea on stuff I've never seen nor tried. As far as freeware goes, that depends on which freeware you're talking about, & what you mean by done better. There are good & bad freeware apps like anything else. Many [most?] of the freeware apps share the same code base as payware & shareware video converters, though they'll often go further with more options suited for video-centric folk, since that's who in most cases wrote the freeware. If/when everything is equal, output will be equal. If/when a freeware app offers 3 pass h264 encoding & you use it, yeah you might get better looking results -- not because every other app is junk, but because you used 3 passes... not everyone needs/wants to.

At any rate, it is somewhat popular in some circles to dislike software if/when it originates in China. Part of that is because developers in China don't always give the expected Hat's Off to freeware &/or open source projects they use. Other times people just don't like &/or make fun of a nationality -- it may be not be nice but the world's always been that way... if you go back far enough in the US it was Germans or Italians or Irish or Polish etc. If you don't want to try or use software because it originated in China or India or [Fill in the Blank], that's IMHO silly, but suit yourself.

I had mixed results from these 2 separate programs -- Aplus DVD Ripper worked fine, though the results were best viewed on *small* screens, while Aplus Video Converter wouldn't convert... when I ran the converter Windows loaded all sorts of video-related files/processes, & one or more of those is apparently incompatible resulting in a 1KB file. Neither would work in a VM [Virtual Machine]. Aplus DVD Ripper is *Almost* potable, so little to no risk trying it out. Aplus Video Converter has a higher impact on Windows, with a slight chance of breaking the video-related software you have now -- backup, set a Restore Point in Vista/7, or use Wondershare Time Freeze etc. if you want to be safest.

Aplus DVD Ripper opens either a Video DVD Disc or the DVD folder if/when you've already copied/ripped to your hard drive. Then you select the title from the drop down box, & select an output profile -- when you click a profile the customization dialog pops up, where you can select from a large selection of frame sizes, choose aspect ratio etc. Bit rate tops out at 1024, which for some may be the most serious limitation, & encoding is limited to what Xvid can provide, so no AVC/H264. There is a decent sized preview window, but no Play button, with 2 sliders you drag to set In/Out points [i.e. duration]. The code [files] used is a bit older, so you don't get the latest, greatest, or fastest, but it's probably OK for smaller screens in the 2" neighborhood. You *might* also have luck editing the included profiles, which are stored in .xml files. Installation adds Start Menu shortcuts & the program's folder, holding 82 files in 4 folders at ~17MB. An uninstall key & a program key are added to the registry, though your registration is stored in in the User section, so you might have to install/register for each profile you've got on your PC/laptop.

Aplus Video Converter works much the same way, with the addition of a Play button to the preview window, & more, better profiles including H264. Alas it too caps bit rate at 1024. Installing the converter adds 6 files to Windows' system folder... one of them *might* already be installed with another video app in it's own folder: "RealMediaSplitter.ax". Otherwise, while every Direct Show or Active Movie file you add can potentially conflict with something else, I've had the other 5 installed in XP Pro SP3 32 for maybe 3 years with no problems. Registering those 6 files can mean ~1850 new registry entries if none have been installed previously. I'm a bit concerned that it deletes HKCR\Media Type\Extensions\.mp4 from the registry. In addition to those 6 files headed for the Windows' system folder, you get Start Menu shortcuts & program folders holding 116 files, 3 folders, taking up ~13MB. The other 5 files = "mpgfiltr.ax", "SkinCrafter.dll", "VideoEdit.ocx", "viscomqtde.dll", "viscomwave.dll".

Alternatives include XMedia Recode [with a user rating of 8.7 based on 57 votes], but there are loads more at videohelp.com -- e.g. a new version of the Linux/Windows app, Mobile Media Converter was released yesterday.

The website for the developer of this software gets a very poor rating on WOT and Norton... so maybe we should take some care.

The ripper and converter appeared to install fine. The ripper appears to work but the converter just launches a 1/2 second splash screen and closes.

seems to me some people need to write their piece then sit & think for a while befoe posting, to prevent showing themselves up
I typed aplus software into google and an address
568 North 300 West Unit 2 Kaysville, UT 84037 USA came up, which might be in china I suppose. Anyway I'll try the software, & thanks for the opportunity

Win XP-64

1. Installation of DVD Ripper was smooth. After launching the program I got a window prompting for registration. I pasted the registration code provided into clipboard (from Notepad), and when the program window disappeared! DVD Ripper was running, but without any window! Some conflict with multitasking environment? I needed to kill the app and restart it, to enter the code. Not tried in work.

2. Installing Video Converter, I have pasted the code in advance... No problems! The program was tried on a downloaded clip that can be played only for ~40% by Windows Media Player (then it refuses to play). Tried to convert this stuff from AVI to WMV with settings a bit better then default ones. Well, the result can be smoothly played with WMP! A quality of picture was not so good, but I think it could be improved by wise choice of conversion settings. Unfortunately, the choice of settings is blind, you could not get any idea about the final quality of the video until you play the converted file.

@13 Try this

http://www.cocoonsoftware.com/index.php?lang=en

Instead of DVD Ripper and Video Converter, I got software Informer. Now, I surely know which programs I have in my computer, but I can't convert Videos.

On the DVD ripper, don’t use your name as registered owner, use Giveawayoftheday.
I tried it 6 times using my name. It doesn’t work.

Same to you, I have tried many times, it dest not work.

I can't stand video converter programs that have a fixed set of output sizes. My input DVD resolution is 720x576, and that of course is not an option. With no way to set this resolution, I think I'll just continue to use the freely available alternatives.

@15 you hit the nail right on the head - their website IS horrible - but what really turns me off (and this applies to any company) is the fact that they post fake ratings - boldly lying about their product. They show a 5-cow rating from tucows so, being a regular tucows visitor, found that this particular software was not even offered on the tucows website, and ALL other aplus products did not have ANY rating.

I refuse to try products from companies that outright lie to the public.

This appears to be the somewhat sharpened recompilation of two former suites each given away on here in June 2009: Video Utilities Suite (All Media to MP3, Video Converter Pro, Video Joiner) and DVD Studio (DVD Copy, DVD Creator, DVD Ripper).

Both suites were higher-priced at around 50$ each. So, why now 1 for 2? Is there any reason beside a flop?

Tried to add the following in the "add your idea" window - does not appear after adding.
Both programs windows are wider than the 600x800 display which is an unneeded annoyance. They cannot be adjusted.
DVD Converter locks up and freezes when window is moved, or just by itself. Please tell me what to do about that.
WinXP-PRP-SP3. Thanks, Eldad

Anyone get this to work? Just tried to convert a video... it takes just 1 second and saves the file which incidently is 0 bytes. And of course does not play.

Successfully installed the programme, video can be ripped and converted in any mentioned format, but problem related to the audio..can anyone be of help to do the same..

I couldn't get it to work. It just locked up my computer to the point I had to turn it off and restart it.

Their website defenitely turned me down, looks way outdated, totally wrong typo and in general very uneasy for the eyes. Top 10 worst websites ever seen.

@13 Check out DVD Flick - works great and it's complete FREEE
http://www.dvdflick.net/

I'm looking for something that will convert AVI/DIVx to DVD and will cost me nothing. Anything out there like that? Will this do that? From what I can tell from the description it cannot.

Make the Video Converter actually work. I converted to files, one an flv n one a vp7_avi to xvid_avi. In 1 second it sed finished on each file and both files were zero kb.

Need to eliminate false positives. Both failed files said they completed successfully but they didn't.

When I attempted a swf conversion it at least said it couldn't open the file.

@02 n @04 I simply put X2 as the name n it let me activate without an issue, although that is my user name on my comp, but I don't think it checked.

Also was wondering what today's giveaway does, that all the other ripper / converters we've been lucky enough to try, don't do? I've kind of come to the conclusion it's really a matter of preference. Now I guess I will give this a fair chance to win me over, but honestly I don't use these programs often so I can't really offer much in the way of opinion. I prefer something simple and efficient but of high quality. I don't need to convert to a million gadgets, just simple DVD's that I can archive for my collection. I realize everyone has different needs, and lots of people have the latest toys to play with, but I still like to watch my movies at home on the big screen. Popcorn is optional.

Installation and registration was easy as copy-paste for both ripper & converter on Win7 Pro 64bit.

Ripped DVD quality was fair, not great...plus I'm not too thrilled with the inability to rip to vob/ifo - only the usual suspects: iEverything (pod, phone, appleTV), psp, zune, avi and mpeg.

Converted video (so far just tried mpeg to avi) was not horrible, but not very good either.

...and what is with the ludicrous AT&T Wifi bars, battery-life indicator and Bluetooth emblem in the corner? This is going to annoy those who know better and confuse those who do not (ie, "I don't know why I can't get connected - my dvd ripper says I have four bars...and a new ISP apparently").

Also there's the typical preview window/player centered in the GUI of the Ripper with ffwd, skip, but no play? Really? Okaaaay.

Finally, both of these programs feature images of "popular" artists displayed as mock (faux, pseudo, whatever) libraries that never, ever, ever change - I simply cannot image what purpose this is supposed to serve, unless your taste in music/movies is so atrocious that this will fool casual observers into thinking that you are awesome because you really like Stevie Nicks, Blondie and Black Eyed Peas.

I say skip it - unless you are really into half-a**ed software with a bad Mac-like veneer.

Free and better imho:

http://www.dvdshrink.org/
http://format-factory.en.softonic.com/

@01 I prefer DvDfab.
@02 This way is better cause u get to keep the install programs.

@2 (Rich): You can use any name you like to register it.

I had Aplus Total DVD Ripper installed from a previous Giveaway and the new installation did not recognize this. I uninstalled it prior to the new installation to avoid conflicts.

The video Converter does not display the video during preview. I only get a brief flash of the first frame when playing although the audio plays fine and the conversion goes well.

Lacks Support for all modern 64bit operating systems

System Requirements ( DVD Ripper and Video Converter ) :
Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/2003/Vista/7 operating system. ( Intel Pentium II 350MHz , 64 MB RAM , DVD-ROM )

#2 @Rich, when those .rar files come up like Paragon uses, I have a c:\temp directory to open those up in. Saves you searching your C: drive.

There are several "awards" and "5 star ratings" listed down the right side of the home page for this software. However, none of the links are clickable to verify these ratings. I went to several of the sites mentioned and was unable to find even one reference to this company or its software. I think that I will pass on this one.

On the DVD ripper, don't use your name as registered owner, use Giveawayoftheday.
I tried it 6 times using my name. It doesn't work.

BOTH download to the C: drive(not to Program files). BOTH .exe files must be clicked/installed/registered.

When registering the ripper it requires a name besides the number, what name do I use. Also installation was a problem after unzipping had to look for the files in C; dive rather than just popping up for installation completion.

hi people please tell me what the best ripper cd,ripper,bluray + converter + editor, i have many converter installed from giveaway, but cant decide which one is the best ripper + converter