Home Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

DVDFab

For ripping, DVDFab is my choice, because it is currently free for basic ripping functions, and regularly updated to handle new protection schemes.
[url]http://www.dvdfab.com[/url]

Other options are AnyDVD (not free, but it handles Blu-ray and HD-DVD).
[url]http://www.slysoft.com/en/[/url]
And MakeMKV which claims to rip DVD and Blu-ray into mkv without re-encoding.
[url]http://www.makemkv.com[/url]

I'd avoid codec packs... I installed one once and getting rid of the unnecessary stuff it installed was a lot of work. If you need to play something alien, try VLC... it plays just about everything with no external codecs to worry about.
[url]http://www.videolan.org[/url]
Media Player Classic is another:
[url]http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/[/url]

I was going to suggest Snapstream Beyond TV, since I was really impressed by its PVR capability and appliance-like ease of use when I tried it a few years ago. And I could've sworn it could play media other than recorded TV, but that seems to have been removed from the current product.

However, I found a link from their forum to Mediaportal, which appears to be the ultimate PVR/HTPC software, and it's free. There's even a plug-in to rip CDs and DVDs.


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  • DVDFab - bassbinotoko 00:03:18 07/01/09 (0)

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