There are several "awards" and "5 star ratings" listed down the right side of the home page for this software. However, none of the links are clickable to verify these ratings. I went to several of the sites mentioned and was unable to find even one reference to this company or its software. I think that I will pass on this one.

PTyson  –  13 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+136)

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Installation and registration was easy as copy-paste for both ripper & converter on Win7 Pro 64bit.

Ripped DVD quality was fair, not great...plus I'm not too thrilled with the inability to rip to vob/ifo - only the usual suspects: iEverything (pod, phone, appleTV), psp, zune, avi and mpeg.

Converted video (so far just tried mpeg to avi) was not horrible, but not very good either.

...and what is with the ludicrous AT&T Wifi bars, battery-life indicator and Bluetooth emblem in the corner? This is going to annoy those who know better and confuse those who do not (ie, "I don't know why I can't get connected - my dvd ripper says I have four bars...and a new ISP apparently").

Also there's the typical preview window/player centered in the GUI of the Ripper with ffwd, skip, but no play? Really? Okaaaay.

Finally, both of these programs feature images of "popular" artists displayed as mock (faux, pseudo, whatever) libraries that never, ever, ever change - I simply cannot image what purpose this is supposed to serve, unless your taste in music/movies is so atrocious that this will fool casual observers into thinking that you are awesome because you really like Stevie Nicks, Blondie and Black Eyed Peas.

I say skip it - unless you are really into half-a**ed software with a bad Mac-like veneer.

Free and better imho:

http://www.dvdshrink.org/
http://format-factory.en.softonic.com/

Drakman  –  13 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+76)

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On the DVD ripper, don't use your name as registered owner, use Giveawayoftheday.
I tried it 6 times using my name. It doesn't work.

Michael  –  13 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+55)

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@15 you hit the nail right on the head - their website IS horrible - but what really turns me off (and this applies to any company) is the fact that they post fake ratings - boldly lying about their product. They show a 5-cow rating from tucows so, being a regular tucows visitor, found that this particular software was not even offered on the tucows website, and ALL other aplus products did not have ANY rating.

I refuse to try products from companies that outright lie to the public.

donebythefish  –  13 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+31)

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#25: "This is chinese reseller junk sofware that they don’t write. A lot of chinese “Converter Spammers” are popping up lately."

FWIW, there are a lot of rippers & such out of China & their neighbors because you can't get away with releasing that stuff in the US or EU. DVD specs are still a *secret* -- you have to pay a lot & sign a NDA. Ripping etc requires knowledge gained by reverse engineering, which AFAIK is more or less illegal, e.g. Real came out with a similar app & was forced to pull it within a few days. If you in effect own the market, you're going to also own the crooks, like spammers.

"Its all the same software under different names."

Again FWIW, at least with those on GOTD I've carefully looked at, not at all. Yes there are a couple that appear under more than one name, but that's the exception more than the rule. Yes they often use some of the same code, but with so many based on ffmpeg, that's expected -- why reinvent the wheel?

"Most of their so called software does not work. And anything that any of their overpriced software claims to do can be done better with freeware"

IMHO yes & no... If it's on GOTD, it works [no claims made on how well, or on every system, but it does work or it wouldn't be here] -- no idea on stuff I've never seen nor tried. As far as freeware goes, that depends on which freeware you're talking about, & what you mean by done better. There are good & bad freeware apps like anything else. Many [most?] of the freeware apps share the same code base as payware & shareware video converters, though they'll often go further with more options suited for video-centric folk, since that's who in most cases wrote the freeware. If/when everything is equal, output will be equal. If/when a freeware app offers 3 pass h264 encoding & you use it, yeah you might get better looking results -- not because every other app is junk, but because you used 3 passes... not everyone needs/wants to.

At any rate, it is somewhat popular in some circles to dislike software if/when it originates in China. Part of that is because developers in China don't always give the expected Hat's Off to freeware &/or open source projects they use. Other times people just don't like &/or make fun of a nationality -- it may be not be nice but the world's always been that way... if you go back far enough in the US it was Germans or Italians or Irish or Polish etc. If you don't want to try or use software because it originated in China or India or [Fill in the Blank], that's IMHO silly, but suit yourself.

mike  –  13 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+21)

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