I had a question about a program i saw advertised on the net called "DVD Squeeze". It supposedly transfers any dvd to a cdrom that can then be played in a dvd player. Has anyone used this software and can comment on it? Does it work good? Is there other software like it that works well? Have you run into any problems? Thanks. Even pointing me to a good review would be nice, i couldn't find one.
as kannabis said, It uses SVCD to put it on to a CD, most DVD players can play these *BUT* (yes, there's always a but!) to get a film onto a CD at full quality just isn't possible (yet) so it in fact puts the film on to 2/3 CDR's so its fine as long as you dont mind changing CD's half way through. (also, dont go out buying DVD squeeze, there are many other DVD ripping programs that will do it for free, but thats anouther topic)
xandrr
ASKER
So basically..if i did buy a dvd burner, they have programs now that will do a direct copy of a dvd, or at least a decent enough quality copy of just the movie stripped out with minimal user input (ie. push button and it starts to copy)?
kannabis
DVD2one is what you're looking for. It does most of the work for you and all you have to do is push a button.
There is a utility called DVDx that will make VCD format backups of your personal DVDs (not to be used with rented/borrowed discs!). Many newer DVD players will process VCD (and the above mentioned SVCD which has a higher quality, but more are compatible with VCD). Check it out: http://www.labdv.com/dvdx/
To download, go here: http://www.filemirrors.com/search.src?file=DVDx_22_setup.exe
Agree with previous comments about SVCD (possibly this program goes one step lower with VCD) which is basically a lower resolution format usually without the AC3 surround sound etc. DIVx (MPeg4 based compression) will get most 'normal' length films onto CD (even got Toy Story to fit onto an Ipaq via 256Mb Flash!) but VERY few DVD players will support it.
They have loads of info for creating DVD "backups", DIVx compression systems etc. There are even DVD players coming out (Kiss make one) that will play DIVx format CD's. Most of the methods described on this site use shareware/freeware programs to get the end result, but they all use phenominal CPU power and big chunks of disk space.
The site has links to lists of players and what format disks they will definitely play. Microsoft's XBox will play most things as it's basically a PC anyway - I think now you can flash this so it will play DIVx films.