ratDVD 0.7 released

[Illuminati]

[news=http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5672/logo1tq.gif]ratDVD came onto the Internet scene just two months ago and has gained an impressive following. Its ability to compress large DVD9s or DVD5s to 1.5 gigabytes or less has proven to be a popular DVD archival solution. Unlike other compression methods that force an individual to lose extras such as DVD menus, trailers and special features, compressing a DVD using ratDVD does not suffer these consequences.

In the last month ratDVD has grown considerably, as evidence by the 1.4 million indexed references by Google. Additionally, movies in the ratDVD format are proliferating throughout file-sharing communities and the Newsgroups. However, one of the major drawbacks to the ratDVD format is the lack of portability.

Once a DVD is converted to ratDVD format, it can only be viewed on a personal computer. If one wishes to view a ratDVD on a TV or bring it to another location, it is necessary to convert the file back to DVD format – a time consuming affair. However Spliter, the developer of ratDVD tells Slyck.com that a DVD-Player manufacturer is already working on direct hardware support for this format. Such a development would make the transition from ratDVD to DVD unnecessary.

Unfortunately the exact details of this development could not be released to Slyck.com at this time, as Spliter has a confidentiality agreement with the manufacturer.

“What I can say is that the devices will very probably not hit the market this year,” Spliter told Slyck.com. “There is just to much work to do since they can't use the standard chipsets.”

”Unlike DivX6 the ratDVD menu, streams and basic architecture are very easy to integrate into the firmware since they are almost identical to DVD (inside the ratDVD zip like container). The audio format and the muxing format (H.262) is also already supported. However, the video format is completely new and not supported by any available chipsets. So there is some work to do for the decoding of the video...”

While the announcement that a DVD-Player manufacturer is developing a stand alone device is indeed welcome news, those looking for more immediate solutions will find plenty in ratDVD 0.7. The new release has a laundry list of additional features and bug fixes, along with support for 20 languages.

Some of the more notable new features include direct burning capability, ISO creation engine and codec quality/speed optimizations (should speed things up a bit.) You can read a full list of new features and bug fixes using the link below.

Source: Slyck
Homepage: ratDVD Homepage
Changelog: ratDVD 0.7 Changelog[/news]

[{I}{K}{E}]

when you downloaded a .ratDVD (original was DVD5) and extract the files using this program the quality isnt as good as the source!!

The idea of this program is good. but they need to fix the quality loss.

[RealitY]

Interesting to see how quicly this is moving along...

[erRor67]

when you downloaded a .ratDVD (original was DVD5) and extract the files using this program the quality isnt as good as the source!!

The idea of this program is good. but they need to fix the quality loss.

Hmm, the quality may not be as good as the origonal but its pretty good. I suppose it matters on how you compressed it and everything.. But if you did everything right the quality should still be near-DVD quality. But remember, this isnt loss-less compression. Its not like a zip/rar file where u can uncompressed it to its origonal. Its more like a mp3 where u do lose quality (just hopefully not a lot).


But firmware for ratDVD? Thats pretty sweet. So like in a couple of years, u can fit two or three movies on one disk.. and when bluRay disks come out, u can fit a lot more.

[{I}{K}{E}]

So like in a couple of years, u can fit two or three movies on one disk.. and when bluRay disks come out, u can fit a lot more.

in a couple of years we have HDDVD or blue ray 50GB disks

[cldnails]

Like IKE said...we'll have the 50GB to 1TB discs...so that much compression won't really matter. And I think a fundamental element of compression and quality that people are forgetting is....are you really gonna have a TV or sound system that it will matter on. I do a slight compression on my DVD9's to DVD5's after taking out menu;s extras and what nots. I have a hard time telling a difference between the original and the DVD that I made.

TV: 48" DLP
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround

Now...once you start getting into the 50GB discs...the idea behind those is to allow for greater resolutions...that most TV's won't even be able to take advantage of.

[muchspl3]

I support ratdvd
I'm pulling for it