DVD Ripper Will there EVER be a consistent + reliable build?

[Guest]

Okay, so I'm going to try and not be emotional about this, but my BEYOND frustration with the so-called "builds" of DVD(not so)Fab have got me FAR beyond frustrated.

Since buying the ENTIRE FULL suite back in July 2011, the never ending "builds" have consistently caused more problems than they promote they are solving. It's the worst $300 I've ever wasted for the absolute unreliability of this software. One build you "might" be able to rip to the format you want; the next build, who knows? And what ticks me off is that when I first bought the $300 suite, I prmoted DVDFab to all my friends and colleagues as the be all-end all to ripping your library to your home and portable media players. Well, maybe if you don't mind tweaking the heck out of your software.

Number One is the fact that there is NO DVDFAB Support. The number one response of "please install the latest build", I'm sorry, IS NOT SUPPORT. After 20 years as Management in I.T., I would have long lost my job if that was my XXXXXXX canned response. I don't even bother opening tickets anymore. The Community is FAR better for advice.

And I could be criticized if I was attempting to rip DVDs on grandma's eight year old Presario. But I'm "attempting" this on a HP workstation - i7 quad-core, 16 GB DDR3 & NVIDIA w/ dedicated 2 GB GDDR5. And I use the word "attempting" very loosely. In over half a year, I've barely had "GOOD" success ripping 20 movies without have to re-rip / re-try / re-install / update to the latest build , blah blah blah.

And I know the regulars on here on going to rip me a new one - and trust me, they have been BEYOND HELPFUL to a LOT of users with very good tips and Best Practices - but software SHOULDN'T need best practices and tips from fellow users. I'm IN I.T. and all I can say this software is less than reliable.

If all you want is an H.264 / MPEG-4 that will play on a WD Live to a 60-inch LG at 720p or 1080p or to an Android tablet or phone, it should NOT take a major in frustrating software to rip DVDs.

And YES, I am on the latest build (Feb 4th), I am running as the LOCAL Admin on Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit.

And I'm frustrated now because all I want to do rip is a 7 minute short from our Disney Pixar Cars movie of 'Mater and the Ghost Light' for my 4-year old son who is going on a 6 hour plane ride with his mom to his auntie's wedding in a week, and I'm like, "Hey no problem" to my wife, "I’ll give him his favorites on our tablet” ... but NO, Build 8.1.6.1 can't rip a XXXXXXX MPEG-2 to the Generic H.264. / MPG4 ACC down audio to Stereo and video to 720p.

So by the way, here's the log; if anyone of the good regulars on here has any thoughts, it will be the stellar members of the Community, 'cause lord knows the only response from DVDFab “Support” will be "please upgrade to the latest build". Nice to take my $300, but it would also be nice no to have to take a University course in video formats to actually CONSISTENTLY use the software!

And trust me, at this point, I don't give a rip what the Community moderaters do with this post ... the software is useless as is, so I'm no better off.


DVDFab 8.1.6.1 (2012/02/07 20:58:59)

0m 01.38s: Qt Translator file load success
0m 01.43s: Load config successful.
0m 01.43s: Init profile data driver sucessful.
0m 02.93s: Init GPU settings sucessful.
0m 02.93s: option dvd2dvd 1 dvd2mobile 1 bluray2bluray 1 bd2mobile 1 bd23d 1 bd2dvd 1 file2dvd 1 file2bluray 1 file2mobile 1 filemover 1
0m 02.93s: dvd2dvd:dvd2mobile:blu-ray2blu-ray:blu-ray2mobile:blu-ray23d:blu-ray2dvd:file2mobile:file2dvd:file2bluray:
0m 03.10s: Config ExBar successful.
0m 03.10s: dvd2dvd have 8 elements.
0m 03.19s: dvd2mobile have 28 elements.
0m 03.68s: blu-ray2blu-ray have 4 elements.
0m 03.71s: blu-ray2mobile have 17 elements.
0m 03.99s: blu-ray23d have 7 elements.
0m 04.10s: blu-ray2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 04.11s: file2mobile have 27 elements.
0m 04.60s: file2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 04.61s: file2bluray have 1 elements.
0m 04.85s: Config work ui controls successful.
0m 07.73s: Init burn engine successful.
0m 07.78s: StartNotify successful.
0m 10.60s: detected dvd
0m 10.69s: drive G
0m 10.69s: dvd type 1
0m 10.69s: volume label CBR0CCW1
0m 10.92s: got copyright 1 fe
0m 11.91s: got udf/iso
0m 16.06s: got discinfo
0m 16.09s: pathplayer enabled
0m 41.03s: got dvdinfo
0m 41.14s: opened dvd


DVDFab 8.1.6.1 (2012/02/07 21:05:19)

0m 01.35s: Qt Translator file load success
0m 01.40s: Load config successful.
0m 01.40s: Init profile data driver sucessful.
0m 02.88s: Init GPU settings sucessful.
0m 02.88s: option dvd2dvd 1 dvd2mobile 1 bluray2bluray 1 bd2mobile 1 bd23d 1 bd2dvd 1 file2dvd 1 file2bluray 1 file2mobile 1 filemover 1
0m 02.88s: dvd2dvd:dvd2mobile:blu-ray2blu-ray:blu-ray2mobile:blu-ray23d:blu-ray2dvd:file2mobile:file2dvd:file2bluray:
0m 03.02s: Config ExBar successful.
0m 03.02s: dvd2dvd have 8 elements.
0m 03.10s: dvd2mobile have 20 elements.
0m 03.44s: blu-ray2blu-ray have 4 elements.
0m 03.47s: blu-ray2mobile have 17 elements.
0m 03.75s: blu-ray23d have 7 elements.
0m 03.85s: blu-ray2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 03.88s: file2mobile have 27 elements.
0m 04.35s: file2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 04.36s: file2bluray have 1 elements.
0m 04.66s: Config work ui controls successful.
0m 29.32s: Init burn engine successful.
0m 29.35s: StartNotify successful.
0m 29.61s: detected dvd
0m 29.71s: drive G
0m 29.71s: dvd type 1
0m 29.71s: volume label CBR0CCW1
0m 29.92s: got copyright 1 fe
0m 30.94s: got udf/iso
0m 31.17s: failed to open disc 1


DVDFab 8.1.6.1 (2012/02/07 21:07:00)

0m 01.38s: Qt Translator file load success
0m 01.42s: Load config successful.
0m 01.42s: Init profile data driver sucessful.
0m 02.87s: Init GPU settings sucessful.
0m 02.87s: option dvd2dvd 1 dvd2mobile 1 bluray2bluray 1 bd2mobile 1 bd23d 1 bd2dvd 1 file2dvd 1 file2bluray 1 file2mobile 1 filemover 1
0m 02.87s: dvd2dvd:dvd2mobile:blu-ray2blu-ray:blu-ray2mobile:blu-ray23d:blu-ray2dvd:file2mobile:file2dvd:file2bluray:
0m 03.01s: Config ExBar successful.
0m 03.01s: dvd2dvd have 8 elements.
0m 03.10s: dvd2mobile have 20 elements.
0m 03.44s: blu-ray2blu-ray have 4 elements.
0m 03.46s: blu-ray2mobile have 17 elements.
0m 03.76s: blu-ray23d have 7 elements.
0m 03.85s: blu-ray2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 03.88s: file2mobile have 19 elements.
0m 04.21s: file2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 04.22s: file2bluray have 1 elements.
0m 04.60s: Config work ui controls successful.
0m 14.66s: Init burn engine successful.
0m 14.69s: StartNotify successful.
0m 17.49s: detected dvd
0m 17.59s: drive G
0m 17.59s: dvd type 1
0m 17.59s: volume label CBR0CCW1
0m 17.82s: got copyright 1 fe
0m 18.80s: got udf/iso
0m 19.40s: failed to open disc 1


DVDFab 8.1.6.1 (2012/02/07 22:31:11)

0m 01.40s: Qt Translator file load success
0m 01.43s: Load config successful.
0m 01.43s: Init profile data driver sucessful.
0m 02.87s: Init GPU settings sucessful.
0m 02.87s: option dvd2dvd 1 dvd2mobile 1 bluray2bluray 1 bd2mobile 1 bd23d 1 bd2dvd 1 file2dvd 1 file2bluray 1 file2mobile 1 filemover 1
0m 02.87s: dvd2dvd:dvd2mobile:blu-ray2blu-ray:blu-ray2mobile:blu-ray23d:blu-ray2dvd:file2mobile:file2dvd:file2bluray:
0m 03.01s: Config ExBar successful.
0m 03.01s: dvd2dvd have 8 elements.
0m 03.10s: dvd2mobile have 20 elements.
0m 03.44s: blu-ray2blu-ray have 4 elements.
0m 03.46s: blu-ray2mobile have 17 elements.
0m 03.74s: blu-ray23d have 7 elements.
0m 03.83s: blu-ray2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 03.86s: file2mobile have 19 elements.
0m 04.19s: file2dvd have 1 elements.
0m 04.19s: file2bluray have 1 elements.
0m 04.55s: Config work ui controls successful.
0m 15.13s: Init burn engine successful.
0m 15.16s: StartNotify successful.
0m 17.88s: detected dvd
0m 17.98s: drive G
0m 17.98s: dvd type 1
0m 17.98s: volume label CBR0CCW1
0m 18.19s: got copyright 1 fe
0m 19.21s: got udf/iso
0m 23.48s: got discinfo
0m 23.50s: pathplayer enabled
0m 48.85s: got dvdinfo
0m 48.96s: opened dvd
0m 17.90s:


------ begin mobile work(1/1) ------


0m 17.90s: info: create config(0)
0m 17.90s: info: convert profile(generic.mp4.h264.aac)
0m 17.90s: info: dvd playlist(37),angle(0),chapter(1->4),3D(0)
0m 17.90s: info: streams((480.2)(128.2))
0m 20.80s: info: set output video frame_rate(24000/1001)
0m 22.30s: GPU acceleration for video encoding enabled
0m 22.66s: info: h264_encode: encode param profile(1) level(30) bitrate(1041)
0m 12.30s: ------ cancel all mobile work -------

[CBR929]

Hi ChuckLee
I understand your frustration, I too would like the core of Fab fixed, but I am not a developer just a member like you with moderator privileges.

First off try copying the movie to your HDD first and using that folder to do your converting instead of converting from your drive.

Second you may also try setting everything to software.

Open Fab click the Click the Green √ at top right corner of the DVD Fab screen, and open Common Settings > General >A/V Codec, put a check in Disable all GPU codes and make sure they are set to Software, restart Fab and try again.

Hope this helps
CBR929

[davecuk]

Okay, so I'm going to try and not be emotional about this, but my BEYOND frustration with the so-called "builds" of DVD(not so)Fab have got me FAR beyond frustrated.

Since buying the ENTIRE FULL suite back in July 2011, the never ending "builds" have consistently caused more problems than they promote they are solving.

Chuck, my own belief as a long time user of the software is that it has become monolithic in nature and very difficult to maintain. One part so interconnected with other parts that changes to one part, cause unwanted consequences to ripple through other parts of the software. See my feature request thread:



It is what I believe can be done to solve the problem for most people, but it does need more support from the user community. Allowing everyone to retain their own "customised" group of utilities that work for them changes nothing for the developers who still only support the latest versions of each building block, but with no/little shared code, unwanted effects from changing one part of the software should not affect others.

[steamhead]

I too have become frustrated with most of the recent releases. For me the rot set in when they went to QT. I have found though that 8.0.8.5 does seem a fairly stable release.

It's the one I use most of the time, I do try each new release, but soon return back to 8.0.8.5 when I find either long reported simple UI problems still aren't fixed, or new ones have come out of the woodwork.

[Guest]

CBR929, you are indeed a god of ripping! (note the lowercase "g" in case I offend anyone .

I tried your tips to Disable the GPU codecs and set all to Software ... success!

So far I've ripped the 7-minute Short I was grumbling about above and as we "speak" I'm re-ripping Toy Story 3 DVD (to MPEG-4 720p stereo as it's only for an Acer tablet) ... humming along at 26% so I think you've got me EXCELLENT progress.

I keep picking MPEG-4 H.264 as it typically seems to play well on most of my playback devices from an assortment of Win 7 PCs; Android devices and my Western Digital TV Live Hub.

I can't believe I forgot that setting on the codecs as I'm positive I've done that in earlier builds.

CBR929 ... thank you; Thank You, THANK YOU! I knew someone here in the Community would get me back on track.

[CBR929]

Glad to help.