AnyDVD HD 6.7.7.0

Rated 10/50 by DudeBoyz at Jul 31, 2008

EDIT for wat0114: Even though I disposed of the license that I had from when I purchased the product, I feel that if I am to comment on or review a product, it is only fair to that product that I use / test the very latest versions. So, I download the latest shareware releases, the same releases available to normal end-users interested in evaluating the product, and conduct tests, sometimes pretty exhaustive tests (like going back and testing it with at least the last 3 major versions of Nero and Roxio software). I do this because I want to make absolutely sure that I'm being accurate and fair. I want to gather concrete facts and data to ensure that the results are not tainted by my personal disappointment with Slysoft, their licensing changes, and the ever-increasing cost of their products. I think it would be irresponsible of me to do it any other way. I don't cut corners, I don't assume and I don't make things up. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but because I want to make sure that if someone does challenge my ratings, I am able to defend those ratings in a professional manner. Also, I still do submit findings and opinions directly to Slysoft in the hopes that things will change and at least the compatibility issues can be resolved. The rising cost of the main application and the extra expense for HD DVD and Blu-Ray support are not factored in when I submit things to Slysoft. I only include them when I'm seeking to rate the product and factor in things like the Value (bang for the buck). I hope that explains where I stand. Original Review: Incompatibilities are still present. High cost of the base package plus the HD add-on makes the app a bad value, particularly given there is a 100% free option available for decryption of DVD, DVD Dual Layer, HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Here is the changelog: 6.4.5.8 2008 07 31 - New (DVD): Added support for a new copy protection as found on some recent releases, e.g. "Jumper", R2, Germany - Ne

Rated 50/50 by rotjong at Aug 1, 2008

AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD are truly great pieces of software. They do what they claim and do it well. This update handles fixes a few things and adds support for newer protections. I have absolutely no complaints or issues with the software. I notice the mention of removing AnyDVD as a driver. For one of the main uses of AnyDVD in terms of using it on an HTPC it makes no sense to turn AnyDVD into a standalone product that isn't running at the driver level. I don't want to have to rip HD-DVD or BluRay discs to my HDD just to play them back. I should be able to watch them right from my disc drive and AnyDVD HD allows me to do that. No other software can. It's been stated that there are alternatives out there for HD-DVD and BluRay. No one has shown that they can consistently handle AACS MKBv4 and above discs other than Slysoft and certainly no one can do it the way Slysoft does. No one has demonstrated that they can get around BD+ other than Slysoft. Making the sweeping statement that there are alternatives to AnyDVD HD is simply too broad a statement and inaccurate without specifically noting the limitations of those alternatives.

Rated 10/50 by catchpole at Aug 1, 2008

Overrated 1/5

Rated 50/50 by Metshrine at Aug 1, 2008

The best keeps getting better with even more enhancements and fixes for problematic DVDs and blu ray discs. I am glad to see they didn't ditch their customers and leave DVD's without fixes. I am also glad they continue to add support for the new blu ray system. Yes they charge extra for it, but its for a niche crowd at the time anyways. 5/5

Rated 40/50 by 4122 at Aug 2, 2008

Pros: Only program of its kind to work on a system-wide driver level. Only program of its kind that can handle BD+. Cons: Price is too high for what you get. Won't work with obsolete Windows 95 era software technologies, i.e.packet-writing.

Rated 50/50 by reynaldok at Aug 2, 2008

This Software works Flawlessly! Once you purchase it (ie no key gens/cracks) it will work perfectly provided you have a decent dvd drive. there has been 0 titles it couldn't handle . I recommend lite-on drives btw.

Rated 10/50 by Angelina Jolie at Aug 2, 2008

1/5 For the same reasons as before. Installed, tested and verified. Both issues still present and prevalent.

Rated 10/50 by DudeBoyz at Aug 2, 2008

Incompatibilities still abound, as mentioned before, and the level of value is not very good, given there are free alternatives. If there were no free alternatives and this was the only app of its kind anywhere, I could understand scoring it higher. But until that happens, I still feel factoring value into the score is acceptable.

Rated 50/50 by Undesired Username at Aug 3, 2008

Calling software "quite good" and then rating it a 1 makes no sense. Comparing AnyDVD to DVDFab makes even less sense, since the two do different things. AnyDVD--[SIGH], do I really need to point this out?--makes discs appear unprotected to ALL software running on the system. DVDFab simply rips the discs and is done with it. This means that, for example, you could run AnyDVD and play a DVD--in your player of choice, without ripping--without the hassles of all the aggravating advertisements and other annoyances. Or, you can run AnyDVD and rip the disc, again using your software of choice.

Rated 30/50 by BruddaMan at Aug 3, 2008

i had not known how expensive it is now. it does work but so does dvdfab probably they both work on everything out there. theyre updated all the time both of them. its fine to talk about and compare with other programs no matter what chadamus or anybody says. they both decrypt equally well, just differently. let people rate it what they want and stop fighting just because their opinion is different. they both work fine but i wish both were free. is it so much cost because of low american dollar?

Rated 10/50 by catchpole at Aug 6, 2008

no so good. 1/5

Rated 50/50 by dwby at Aug 6, 2008

@Dudeboyz "Although Slysoft had promised "Free Lifetime Upgrades", they reneged on that promise and decided to charge users extra if they wanted to be able to rip Blu-Ray and HD DVD disks, so it's not like they don't have enough cash to hire staff to correct the problem." They promise lifetime updates, not upgrades. HD and Bluray are upgrades. No "reneging" at all. "DVDFab HD Decrypter (which is still 100% free software, even though they do have nag screens) added support for Blu-Ray and HD DVD ripping without charging users a dime and since DVDFab HD Decrypter is a stand-alone EXE, it doesn't get in the way of packet writing drivers at all." DVDFab HD Decrypted has not updated the HD/Bluray part for ages. And as such, cannot decrypt many movies out there. Also, AnyDVD HD does all its magic on-the-fly, DVDFab needs to rip it first (if it can). Regarding the InCD etc thing, I contacted the devs (something I have never seen you do) and they told me the only problems you would have would be with VERY old versions of InCD etc. Until somebody reports a problem, there is nothing to be fixed by the devs. Think about it...

Rated 20/50 by DudeBoyz at Aug 14, 2008

ADDITION: With hard drive capacities growing and the incredible Gigabyte per dollar values out there, I see no reason why you would not want to rip the title to your local hard drive and watch it / work with it from there. It is certainly faster in terms of data rate than an optical drive, correct? Why deal with the overhead, resource consumption, increased CPU load and potential incompatibilities if you don't have to? I truly do believe that a stand alone application would be a much better solution. This "On The Fly" stuff is just not something I consider useful. Start a program, rip the title, end the program and that is all you ever have to do. That's it. Every app you have can work with the decrypted files on the hard disk no sweat. No need to have something running in the background if you don't have to, especially when it doesn't offer any advantage whatsoever. Even if they kept the existing model and simply added an alternative stand-alone application for those with compatibility issues, or folks who just want to rip them to their huge hard drives and store them there, I think that would be fine for most, including me. In regards to the competition, I do think that the existence of a free ripper that works with standard DVD's and is seeking to improve their HD-DVD and Blu-Ray capabilities, does put pressure on Slysoft to lower the cost. In addition to a free ripper, they also offer two other products that are commercial but less than half the cost of AnyDVD HD, so I feel that adds even more incentive for them to lower the price. Why not make the product more affordable to build brand loyalty and tout their ability to handle HD-DVD's and Blu-Ray titles better than anyone else on the market for the same cost? ORIGINAL: AnyDVD appears as a system level driver. It's a memory resident application that constantly monitors the optical drives on a system. A layer of software that exists between the user and the hardware. One of the downsides

Rated 50/50 by Metshrine at Aug 14, 2008

Still the best product in its class when it comes to removing protections from optical media. Nothing else even comes close to touching it and nothing else can break BD+. Good job slysoft!

Rated 50/50 by rotjong at Aug 14, 2008

The update only really addresses an issue with one SD DVD and adds internal support for a load of newer BluRay discs. Working beautifully so far.

Rated 40/50 by skapig at Aug 15, 2008

Yes it's system level, but you don't need to have it running all the time. Just run it on demand. The advantage of the on-fly decrypting is simple and important: you can watch on the fly! No need to dump the whole video. The price is quite high, but it does the job well and is updated often. There's not much competition to drive the price down.

Rated 50/50 by rotjong at Aug 20, 2008

6.4.6.1 2008 08 20 - New: Added ISO/UDF image file creation to AnyDVD ripper - New (Blu-ray & HD DVD): ISO/UDF images can be created with or without copy protection. Images can be mounted with Virtual CloneDrive(tm), available at http://www.slysoft.com WARNING: AnyDVD can remove the protection from protected images. Protected images are useless, if AnyDVD is not installed and running! - Fix (DVD): AI scanner made a mistake with "The Eye", Region 2, DK - Some minor fixes and improvements - Updated languages -- Nice that they finally added ripping to an ISO image. This is more useful in terms of HD-DVDs and BluRay discs.

Rated 50/50 by Metshrine at Aug 21, 2008

Best program of its kind. I only run it when its needed, unless I plan to have a movie marathon with some friends of the family or my daughter. Why would I rip to hard disk first when I can just put in a DVD/BRD and, get ready for it, just play it? 5/5 since no one else in this market can touch what AnyDVD does.

Rated 20/50 by DudeBoyz at Aug 21, 2008

COMMENT: Why would anybody need AnyDVD loaded just to watch a movie on their PC? Also, wouldn't it be much faster to rip a disk to the hard drive and process it and even view it from there? If you rip it to disk, you can use any program that is available to view it, can't you? I agree that AnyDVD is the only up-to-date app that does what it does and it handles HD-DVD and BLU-RAY better than anybody else out there that I know of, but I don't understand why leaving an optical disk in the drive would be in any way better than ripping it to your hard drive. I guess I simply don't see any benefit to the driver method over simply ripping it to your hard drive. Gigabytes are cheap and fast, after all. But if it works well for you and you are happy with it, that's the most important thing. ORIGINAL POST: My concerns and issues are well documented, so there is no need to repeat them in depth here. Unless you are a hardcore user of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and need to take advantage of the superior capabilities in that area, I do not think that AnyDVD is a good value at all. Currently, nobody seems to do a better job with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, so that is why I bumped it up to a 2 rating. The ISO support merits some further exploration, and I will be trying to do that soon. I have historically ripped in full to disk and then let DVD Shrink output to ISO and then burn with ImgBurn, but if this feature works like it sounds it might, it could sreamline the process, so I want to give it some serious testing before making a final decision on that topic. If any competition catches up and can handle HD-DVD and Blu-Ray as well as AnyDVD can, I'd drop it back to a rating of 1 in part due to the value issue. An exclusive superiority like it has now would be undermined if the competition caught up, especially if the price was lower So, in summary: Much too expensive, System wide Driver model = bad because of resource usage and compatibility issues (stand alone EXE would be best,

Rated 10/50 by catchpole at Aug 21, 2008

Not working so great and too expensive