RE: HOW TO: Convert DVDs and Videos for use with Droid

[debdroid1a]

Thank you for this program.
I bought it last week, had problems on the first converstion and e-mailed the supporrt link from the website, got immediate responses. The second converstion of the tv show worked great on my Droid.
I just converted 6 more episodes (about 23 minutes each0 and it took only about one hour to do this! Wow that was fast.
I haven't tried a movie yet, but I like to watch tv shows at lunch (about all the time I have... with a little left for playing a game).

i find it funny that they are posting instructions/product that is MOSTLY used for pirating DVD's but we get in trouble for posting similar things...hmmm

I don't pirate my DVD or tv shows. I watch them on one product at one time for me only.

 

[shaikhnbake10]

I've been trying to use DVD Catalyst to convert some movies to put onto my droid. I have tried a few different DVD's that have the 99 Tracks/Arccos security on it. Does anyone know the proper way to choose the correct track for conversion??? I checked the FAQ's on the DVD Catalyst website and they say the best way to do this is to play the dvd and read the track number from the LCD on the DVD player or from the on screen display. I have tried this method and it doesn't work. For example: i tried to convert the movie "Up in the Air" which shows up on the DVD player as Track 19. I know for fact that this cannot be the correct track to convert using dvd catalyst because the length of time shown on the track in the DVD Catalyst program shows it to be only 5 minutes long.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue for me?

 

[yamaredman]

Just want to give another big thumbs up for DVD Catalyst.

I've been using it for a few months now and there isn't anything else around that compares.

I'm in the process of ripping my entire DVD collection (300+) onto my computer so I can stream it to my TV with my Apple TV. I can also sync these movies right to my Droid... just not all at one time!

 

[dvdcatalyst]

I've been trying to use DVD Catalyst to convert some movies to put onto my droid. I have tried a few different DVD's that have the 99 Tracks/Arccos security on it. Does anyone know the proper way to choose the correct track for conversion??? I checked the FAQ's on the DVD Catalyst website and they say the best way to do this is to play the dvd and read the track number from the LCD on the DVD player or from the on screen display. I have tried this method and it doesn't work. For example: i tried to convert the movie "Up in the Air" which shows up on the DVD player as Track 19. I know for fact that this cannot be the correct track to convert using dvd catalyst because the length of time shown on the track in the DVD Catalyst program shows it to be only 5 minutes long.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue for me?

For most DVDs, the track displayed on the LCD of a DVD player (or at the top left in Windows Media Player for example) is the correct one. (This even works with Iron Man 2, which happens to be track 40 on the DVD included in the 3disc DVD/BR bundle)

However, Up in the Air is one of the hardest DVDs to convert (even my home DVD player choked on it). I added it a while back (in March) in the "Problem DVD" section on the website.

UP | Tools4Movies, the official home of DVD Catalyst

You can try a "brute-force" conversion, basically when the 99track message appears, click cancel (which results in all tracks being scanned, and fake ones being removed) and then start a conversion with the tracks that are left after scanning, and afterwards, look at the biggest files and skim through them to see if the scenes are in order.

but installing a trial of AnyDVD for this particular DVD is the easiest solution.

 

[shaikhnbake10]

^^^thank you for the information. I was able to do a bunch of old movies with absolutely no problem. I am still having a great deal of difficulty with the "99 track" encrypted movies. ESPECIALLY disney movies. Can you provide some tricks or tips to figure out how to get the correct track to convert? Putting the DVD in my dvd player and looking at the OSD is just not working at all with disney movies.

also can you tell me more about anydvd and if it is worth purchasing?

Thanks for your help.

 

[debdroid1a]

I had anydvdconverter and it was working until recently. And when I e-mailed them, they really didn't have any solution. I would put the dvd of the tv show in and only one episode would show. And it was the most recent version of anydvd.

DVD Catalist worked and showed all 3 episodes on the DVD.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

^^^thank you for the information. I was able to do a bunch of old movies with absolutely no problem. I am still having a great deal of difficulty with the "99 track" encrypted movies. ESPECIALLY disney movies. Can you provide some tricks or tips to figure out how to get the correct track to convert? Putting the DVD in my dvd player and looking at the OSD is just not working at all with disney movies.

also can you tell me more about anydvd and if it is worth purchasing?

Thanks for your help.

You are welcome,

Maybe I should explain DVD tracks first.

DVD tracks (I name them this way, I don't know if there is an official name for it) are actually similar to music playlists. If you take a TV show DVD for example, often you will find a "play all"
track and an "episode selection" area where you find individual tracks for each episode. While it appears that each episode is on the DVD twice, they are in fact only on there once, but they are just located in 2 playlists. The first playlist, the play all track, just has all the episodes, and the other ones are just playlists with 1 episode.

The 99track issue is a protection system used on some DVDs, intended to throw off DVD conversion tools. Most conversion tools automatically pick the longest track found on the DVD, and in this case, it points to a playlists that contains nothing but reports a long playlength.
Other tricks that are used with the 99tracks are that the playlist contains a scrabled scene order. Play the end first, then the middle, and then the beginning for example.

In most cases, the 99-track issue can be resolved by using the track number displayed by the DVD layer or Windows Media Player.

Make sure you are actually in the movie when you look at the number. The DVD menu, as well as pre-movie messages and trailers all have different numbers so even if you select Play from the menu, it might not display the correct track number.

With recent movies I used this for myself include Iron Man 2 (track 40), Star Trek 2009 (track 21) and Disney's The Princess and the Frog (track 29)

The other method I mentioned in my previous response takes a bit longer.

If you click Cancel when the track selection appears on these DVDs, DVD Catalyst will scan each of the 99 tracks (which takes a second or 2 per track usually, so for 99 tracks it takes a few minutes) and eliminates fake tracks (tracks/playlists that point to non existing video) leaving you with maybe 10-12 tracks left from the 99. From there, basically selecting the ones that are close to the playlength listed on the back of the DVD case will result in the proper movie file. Before starting the conversion, you can preview the track in the build-in preview to verify if the one you have selected has the correct order, and then start a conversion.

AnyDVD (or the free DVD43 which is similar but not as often updated) acts as a layer between the DVD drive and Windows. It sits between the DVD and the program that accesses the DVD. When AnyDVD or DVD43 finds a DVD, it scans it, and based on its findings it will redirect the conversion tool automatically whenever it is accessing the DVD. As a result, the DVD appears region free and issue-free. Bad tracks are hidden from the conversion tool.

Personally I don't use AnyDVD or DVD43. While they can help with DVD conversion, I don't want my customers to have to rely on other software to do the dirty work, so I am always working to make sure it works without it, but I have to admit, AnyDVD is the perfect companion to DVD Catalyst. Besides making it a lot easier to work with tricky DVDs, it also speeds up the conversions a bit as well.

I had anydvdconverter and it was working until recently. And when I e-mailed them, they really didn't have any solution. I would put the dvd of the tv show in and only one episode would show. And it was the most recent version of anydvd.

DVD Catalist worked and showed all 3 episodes on the DVD.

Thanks Deb

Confusing as it is, Any DVD Converter is not the same as AnyDVD. Any DVD Converter appears to be using a marketing technique made famous by Eddy Murphy in "The Distinguished Gentleman", Name Recognition. There are quite a few apps out there that use a similar technique. I have used it in 2005, and it kinda backfired. In 2005, DVD Catalyst was called PocketDVD. My competitors were all named along the lines of Pocket DVD Something (studio, wizard, encoder etc) so I figured I'd use "PocketDVD" and ride along on their names.

Unfortunately, even though the look of PocketDVD was completely different than that of my competitors, I got flooded with support emails from their customers, so I made a drastic name change to DVD Catalyst, and added the eyes of my cat as a logo.

 

[debdroid1a]

I didn't realize there was another one called any DVD.
Anydvdconverter is also the website name and probably why they picked that URL. I had the anydvdconverter program.
Deb

 

[shaikhnbake10]

dvdcatalyst,
once again, thank you very much for you detailed explanation. I was in fact "in the movie" when I got the track number. The dvd I am specifically having a problem with is the new beauty & the beast dvd/blue ray combo pack.

i am going to try to click cancel to see if i can narrow down the number of tracks to choose from and see if i can find it. i will let you know how it goes.

thanks

 

[dvdcatalyst]

You are welcome.

I have not had anyone ask me about the DVD you are having issues with, so I haven't had a chance to test it myself.

 

[shaikhnbake10]

^^^i just did the "cancel" method. it didn't really help much. it still showed about 50 tracks in the queue that could possibly be the one i need. they are all listed as being the same size and length. do you have any other solutions? i can't download the trial version of anydvd cause i seem to have to done that in the past and it keeps telling me that my trial period has expired. any other ideas?

 

[dvdcatalyst]

^^^i just did the "cancel" method. it didn't really help much. it still showed about 50 tracks in the queue that could possibly be the one i need. they are all listed as being the same size and length. do you have any other solutions? i can't download the trial version of anydvd cause i seem to have to done that in the past and it keeps telling me that my trial period has expired. any other ideas?

you can try DVD43 (just google for the name) and see if that helps, otherwise, I have no idea at the moment. When I have a chance, I'll pick the combo up in the store, and see if I can find out what is happening, but until then, I would suggest to put this particular DVD aside for now.

 

[shaikhnbake10]

^^also, i own the princess and the frog. i popped it into my dvd player and it shows as track 22. you mentioned that for you it was track 29. is it different for each individual copy sold??? sorry for so many questions. i'm trying to convert these disney movies to have on my phone for my daughter. the disney movies seem to be a real pain.

 

[abe7333]

I use handbrake

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"I know not with what weapons War World III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with stick and stones."-Albert Einstein.

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[dvdcatalyst]

^^also, i own the princess and the frog. i popped it into my dvd player and it shows as track 22. you mentioned that for you it was track 29. is it different for each individual copy sold??? sorry for so many questions. i'm trying to convert these disney movies to have on my phone for my daughter. the disney movies seem to be a real pain.

It unfortunately differs per region/release.

I use handbrake

What other program do you use with Handbrake?

Handbrake by itself does not handle commercial DVD's, so you have to use something like AnyDVD or DVD43 (or VLC if you use a MAC) to be able to convert dvd's directly.