Followed suggestion of JohnL. in comment #6. Downloaded trial from Digiarty website and used activation code in GOTD readme file. Seems to have worked appropriately.

Primary difference between full and GOTD version is lack of updates, which means the GOTD version would, of course, be unable to handle any new encryption methods or new media devices or formats. Beyond that it's just no technical support and a slower ripping speed.

"To convert a 1hr 40min DVD it shows it will take 2hrs 55mins! "

The estimated time could be wrong -- maybe try it and see how fast it's progressing? If you're enlarging the frame size, that can take Lots more time. Sometimes GPU assist actually slows things down -- try turning it off if it's on.

To Rabbit who wrote "... To convert a 1hr 40min DVD it shows it will take 2hrs 55mins! What happened to the 5mins conversion? ...",

Conversion depends on at least the DVD itself, plus our computer hardware:

- if we make a DVD ourselves ( vacation movies? ) and copy it for everyone in our family, a copy will probably be done in 5 minutes per copy on a current top-of-the-line computer with a current top-of-the-line video-and-audio subsystem,

- a Disney 99-title ( bogus ) scrambled DVD may have to actually be "played" in realtime inside the video/audio subsystem in order to "rip" it, and even then the copying speed depends on our computer's video/audio subsystem.

I have old PCs with terrific super-specification video cards, and they actually copy DVDs faster than supposedly modern new-but -"come-on-cheapie" computers which only have cheap integrated shared video on the system board, and these new cheap computers can only copy the same DVD at a -w-a-y- slower rate.

Of course, it's also important to clean and polish a DVD surface so the DVD drive itself does not need to endlessly retry reading in order to to overcome read errors trying to read through fingerprints, scratches, foggy grimey scatter-reflective surface grunge.

There are an incredible number of variables over which WinX DVD has no controls.

Tell us more - was that -l-o-n-g- copy unusual, and some go faster, what are the fine-print labels on the DVDs describing their content's encoding, especially anti-copy technology trademarks?

Yeah, taking twice longer than the main title is NOT unusual in my experience ... and, I also copy more than the main title, so a 2 hour movie may be on a disk with 3 hours of other stuff I also want, such as the "making of ..." and trailers, which for me are somewhat interesting to have on file.

Thanks for exploring this and sharing - these dialog threads are a significant contributor to what makes GOTD a great resource foe everyone - for vendors and end users alike.
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Dave,

My guess would be 'The giveaway version does not support free upgrade' for the limitation. The 'Enjoy 50%' is probably the sale price on the website - $29.95 which is half the retail $59.95. 30 bucks gets you a lifetime license with upgrades.

JohnL,
Will this version expire after a year ?

koens Bart,

Look at the top right of this page.... it says "Licence details: Lifetime" :-)

(Although it gets offered so often one here you'd be doing well to still have it in a year., rather than a later version..)

koens Bart,
My earlier GOTD version, 8.9.1 built April 2019 (1 year ago) showed up as a Trial version when I went to check what version I had prior to grabbing this one. Conclusion: it is a one year license. Does anyone have a different experience?

To Ed who wrote "... Registration window wants an email address as well as the Key and will not except my email address. Any ideas ...",

The [ readme. txt ] file says "... enter any email and the provided key in the pop-up window ..." ... and I just entered the bogus "support@winxdvd.com" as the "licensed to" email address, and it worked, so ... I dunno, maybe exit and re-start, or re-install, or re-download, even download the trail program from the Digiarty WinX DVD web site ( link above at the GOTD web page ) and use that? Re-boot? I dunno, because ANY email works for me.
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"On the website is states "Rip a full DVD to MP4 (H.264/HEVC) in 5 mins. GPU Accelerated.""

Depending on the CPU's horsepower, transcoding DVD mpg2 to H.264/H.265 often only takes 5 - 10 minutes without GPU assist. In fact, GPU assist can sometimes slow things down, again depending on the CPU, e.g. with an i7 I found it Much slower. There are some specialized encoders that only use the GPU, but quality suffers. Encoders that use the CPU with GPU assist OTOH have to integrate 2 workflows, one CPU-based, & one GPU-based, and it's hard not to have problems with the CPU for example waiting on results from the GPU, or vice versa, before it can continue.

"My GPU supports Intel Quick sync X265 bit none of the profiles available show an X265 option despite Intel Hardware acceleration being automatically ticked..."

Googling, it seems possible to use Quick Sync with ffmpeg to encode H.265, though I didn't see how well it works -- it may not be worth it -- and the only Intel CPU I have access to uses AMD graphics, so I can't test. I did come across this white paper from Intel, which you *might* find interesting -- it says that the Intel Media Server Studio is required for the *_qsv codecs.

intel[.]com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-papers/quicksync-video-ffmpeg-install-valid.pdf

PhilS,

Well, it's a good thing that WinX DVD Ripper Platinum 8.20.2 is actually free then, eh?

- - - - -

( a ) I get the New Disney warning, I think it's an all-purpose brag regardless of what disk is in the drive.

( b ) What burner did you use to make the disk, and does other software copy it., such as the burner software itself offering a copy function?

( c ) Video ( non ) standards are a crapshoot, thanks for letting us know that at least one implementation of ( convicted felon for monopoly practices ) Intel chips seem to miss their public promise ... no surprise there - I like the 264/265-whatever reference, reminds me of the Mr Mom movie when asked if he was re-wiring for 220, and he responded "220, 221, whatever it takes " ... standards, meh, why even bother?

So ... it made the copy, or not?
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